Mabel's BBQ - Cleveland, OH

Mabel's BBQ
2050 E 4th Street
Cleveland, OH 44115
http://www.mabelsbbq.com/

Chef Michael Symon has created a Cleveland-style barbecue restaurant located at the heart of downtown Cleveland.  He has incorporated Bertman's Ballpark Mustard into the barbecue sauce and smokes the meats over local fruitwoods for a true Cleveland dining experience.  He even uses the space's arched ceilings, industrial lighting and exposed brick as a nod to Cleveland's landmark West Side Market to evoke a local rustic smokehouse.

 

Mabel's has a mouth watering list of pig part options for appetizers.  Here you have the Cracklin' (with Salt and Vinegar & Lawson's Chip Dip), Crispy Tails and Crispy Ears.  The Cracklin' was light and airy while the Tails and Ears were well smoked and tender.  Great with the dippin' sauce.

While waiting on the dinner to arrive, we sampled their sauces.  The traditional sauce was good and thick while the Secret Aardvark was mustard based and spicier with the addition of the habanero peppers.

Thankfully there were lots of hungry eaters at the table because the tray of meat was quite impressive. We ordered Brisket, Pork Belly, Turkey Breast, J&J Kielbasa (both Hot with Cheese and Classic), Pork Spare Ribs and yes...Lamb Ribs.

There wasn't anything on this tray that wasn't above average.  The pork ribs were well smoked and done to the southern standard without sauce.  A truly welcome surprise in these parts! The Pork Belly was more tender than any pork belly I have ever had.  Truly wonderful.  The turkey breast had a wonderful cracked pepper shell that only added to the tender meat below.  The Brisket was also well smoked and done in true traditional barbecue fashion.  The Lamb Ribs were absolutely wonderful and a treat that I did not expect. The sausage was perfectly fine but did not shine the way the rest of the meat did.  I was truly impressed with the quality of the meats overall.  Very well done Chef Symon.

The sides were also top notch.  We had Spaetzle (Spicy Cabbage), Hot Greens, J.W. Potatoes (Mabel's Style), Coleslaw (Poppy Seed & Cilantro), Baked Beans, and Glazed Carrots (Maple, Mustard and BBQ Spices).

There were really only two marks off for Mabel's.  They brought out Rye bread to accompany the meat rather than white bread and the dessert. Banana Pudding with Nilla Wafers.

Unfortunately this was not true Banana Pudding as the filling was too processed, the Nilla Wafers were only topping this rather than the base and there is no egg white on top. 

The quality of the meal overall was absolutely top notch. At least the important parts were.  The meats were succulent and well smoked.  The vegetables were of a higher quality than what would be customary at a barbecue joint...this is a Cleveland barbecue restaurant and Chef Michael Symon has done an extremely good job of it.  Mabel's should definitely be on your list should you ever find yourself in downtown Cleveland and in need of some good 'cue.

Walt's Hitching Post - Fort Wright, KY

Walt's Hitching Post
3300 Madison Pike, Fort Wright, KY 41017
http://waltshitchingpost.com/

Walt's Hitching Post has been a staple in the greater Cincinnati area since 1942.  Started by Walt Ballanger then sold to, a neighbor bartender, Bill Melton in 1958, it advertises signature items like their smokehouse ribs.  Bill ran it until his passing in 2008 where long time customers, Bronson Trebbi and Donny Arnsberger purchased Walt's from the Melton Trust in 2012.  It's expanded several times but the restaurant has remained tied to it's roots.

One of their signature items are "Caesar's Ribs - Walt's Smokehouse Slabs".  While there are many options of "Ribs with..." chicken, shrimp, chicken livers, crab cakes and filet, the ribs almost get lost on the menu with so many steakhouse items like BT's Signature Strip, Au-Poivre, Steak Diane, Beef Wellington, Braised Pork Shank, Walt's Legendary Fried Chicken and the 8 oz Country Fried Steak.

The smokehouse out front had a nice fire going but seemed more for decoration as there was nothing taking advantage of the fire.  I was expecting to see racks of ribs hanging there soaking up the smoke and heat.

I also noticed this smokehouse out back. Certainly a more commercial variety which makes me more inquisitive about the original smokehouse and it's use...but back to the menu.

I was really torn...but in the end, I did get the Smokehouse Ribs and Shrimp.  The ribs were smoked and then a sauce was added to the last bit of cooking to seal a saucy glaze upon the ribs.  What I found were ribs that were pedestrian at best.  They were not dry but not moist either.  Honestly they tasted more cooked than smoked and all the glaze did was hide any smokey taste that may have existed.  

From the moment I walked in, it felt like a steakhouse, it looked like a steakhouse, the menu presented a steakhouse and the ribs tasted like they came from a steakhouse.

BBQ is a culture that needs no front man.  BBQ is not the bass player in a band.  It's the lead singer and that's not what is happening at Walt's.  Should I find myself at Walt's again, I'll go with what they do best and the braised pork shank that I tasted, might well be at the top of that list.

OMC Smokehouse - Duluth, MN

OMC Smokehouse
1909 W Superior St
Duluth, MN 55806
https://omcsmokehouse.com/

Oink...Moo...Cluck.  It's a simple as that for the fine folks at OMC Smokehouse.  A very pleasant friendly smokehouse on the edge of Lake Superior in the frozen north of Minnesota.  

I can't say enough about the menu options here at OMC.  The smokehouse starters are Duck Fat Fries, OMC Wings, Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps, Jalapeno Brisket Bombs, Buttermilk Chicken Tenders, Smoked Chicken Quesadillas, Super Nachos, Chicken Fried Ribs and Smoked Salmon Pimento Dip.

For salads and wraps they have Wood-Fired Salmon Salad, BBQ Ranch Salad, Bama Brisket Wrap, Smoked turkey Club Wrap and Smoked Salmon Wrap. 

For OMC Sandwiches the offerings are Classic Pulled Pork, Classic Brisket, Classic Pulled Chicken, Northern Pride (pulled pork, crispy haystack onions and coleslaw), Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (pulled pork, pepper jack cheese, Napa slaw and pickled jalapenos), Korean BBQ Pork Belly Sandwich, Haystack Brisket, Brisket & Cheddar, Nashville Hot Chicken, Henny Penny (pulled chicken, cheddar cheese and bacon), Catfish Sandwich and Georgia Gold Chicken.

For Burgers they have the OMC Burger, the Deluxe Burger, Vegetarian Sloppy Joe and The Beyond Burger (vegetarian).

From the smoker are Pulled Pork, St. Louis Ribs, Sliced Beef Brisket, Smoked Chicken, Smoked OMC Plate (some of all 3) and their famous Chicken Fried Rib Dinner.

Their Smokehouse Dishes are OMC Tacos, Pork N' Grits, Loaded Mac & Cheese, Louisiana Catfish N' Chips, Catfish Tacos, Kentucky Hot Brown and Korean BBQ Soba Noodle Bowl.  

For Sides they have Candied Sweet Potato Bake, Mac & Cheese, Roasted Bacon and Blue Cheese Potato Salad, Cheesy Jalapeno Grits, Creamy Classic Coleslaw, Peas and Pancetta, OMC Butter Beans and Corn, a House Salad and a Yogurt Parfait.

They started off by dropping off a plate of pork rinds sprinkled with their rub.  These were mighty tasty and allowed me to get a good sample of their BBQ sauces.

They have 4 sauces.  A Chipotle-Cilantro BBQ, Classic Honey BBQ, Bent Paddle 14° ESP BBQ and Alabama White BBQ. I must say that I was impressed by everything they had.  The Chipotle-Cilantro was a good balance of sweet and heat, the Classic Honey was zesty and sweet, the Bent Paddle was a Carolina-style mustard based and the tangy Alabama White was great.  All very authentic.

I had the Chicken Fried Rib Sandwich.  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this.  The ribs were smoked to perfection.  Then they were lightly battered and quick fried.  The skin is mostly a layer of flavor than trying to actually cook the rib. It added a southern layer to the whole experience and I loved it.

While I tried all of the sauces, the Alabama White worked the best, maybe because it presented a better chicken fried steak look.

The Cheesy Jalapeno Grits were very good.  A little stiffer that I would have expected but that didn't take away from the taste.

 So if you ever find yourself within shouting distance of Duluth, I highly recommend pulling into downtown and sampling the BBQ fare at OMC Smokehouse.

They will leave you oinking, mooing and clucking to your heart's delight.

Saltlick Barbecue - Austin-Bergstrom Airport

Saltlick Barbecue

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

3600 Presidential Blvd, Austin, TX 78719

Saltlick Barbecue is known far and wide as one of the best barbecue spots anywhere and is located on the southern outskirts of Austin, TX.  I personally consider it Mecca for the religious center of barbecue.  But that's just one man's opinion.  But this is not Driftwood. It's an airport where there are more challenges for providing quality smoked meats.  

Airports have very specific restrictions on the kind of cooking that restaurants inside the terminal can do.  Mostly, it does not allow wood smoking...or gas...or other methods of heating that would provide a security risk.  So what do you do and what can you provide.   

The Saltlick provides a pleasant atmosphere and a limited menu but still there are options...

There is Brisket (Chopped or Sliced), Sausage, Pulled Pork, Turkey, Chicken and Ribs. Unfortunately the Ribs are not featured as an option on the 2 or 3 meat platters.  Sides are limited as well to Potato Salad, Cole Slaw and Beans. However all of those sides appear on a platter along with a drink.

Notice the additional take home items of a Whole Brisket in a hot/cold travel pack.

I got the 2 meat platter with Brisket (sliced) and Sausage.  It came with Beans, their German Potato Salad, Cole Slaw and their signature loaf bread (one slice).  The Brisket and Sausage was pre-sauced.

First the sausage.  This was spot on. Just as I remembered it from Driftwood.  It's firm and fresh with flavor without too much spice.  The brisket was a bit tough and lacking in the smokiness that I would expect. (More about that later as I talk about the Take Home Whole Brisket).

The beans were exactly as expected. Good Texas Pinto Beans.  Not baked/BBQ/canned-like beans.  The potato salad was not as "German-intense" as I was expecting.  The flavors seemed to be a bit watered down from what they serve in Driftwood.  I have to admit that I didn't even try the cole slaw. Was just not interested.

However the experience of using that bread to sop up the sauce with a bit or two of meat went down just as it should...the Saltlick way.

Whole Brisket

So I grabbed a take home whole brisket and flew home with it.  The hot/cold pack was very convenient and easy to transport on the plane.  The brisket itself was vacuum packed with sauce and spices.  The instructions were to cook at 225 degrees for 90 minutes. So that's mostly just heating it up.  Now I found it to be very consistent with the brisket experience at the airport restaurant.  However that was still too tough and not really flavorful enough.  I keep thinking that something just wasn't right.  Now without doing a plate to plate comparison of the airport version with the Driftwood version I can't be sure but the result I came to is this.

Saltlick airport brisket isn't barbecue.  It's a good roast brisket but it just isn't barbecue.  Now before you start lighting the touches and waving the pitchforks around and screaming blasphemy, I feel the same way.  How can I say this about a restaurant with the name and history of Saltlick? Let's take the evidence.  They can't smoke at the airport, so they probably bring it in that morning.  But there is no crust, there is no rub, there is no point (the brisket is only the flat) so it's all be pre-cut and pre-processed.  Now that being said, it's probably the best "airport barbecue" that there is, but it's just not the same as eating freshly smoke brisket at an actual barbecue restaurant.  So would I eat there again? Absolutely, I would try the ribs next as I recommend that you do on your way thru the hippest airport in Texas.

I just recommend tempering your expectations based upon the Saltlick name.

Rollin' Smoke Barbecue - Las Vegas, NV

Rollin' Smoke Barbecue
3185 Highland Dr
Las Vegas, NV 89109
https://rollinsmokebarbeque.com/

Vegas can often overwhelm you with glitz and glamour. Rollin' Smoke is just the opposite as a simple barbecue spot in Las Vegas.  It's interesting how few BBQ locations in Las Vegas actually still use wood smoke but this is one of them and the effort pays off.

They offer Catfish, Hot Links, Shrimp, Rib Tips, Brisket (Sliced, Chopped and Burnt Ends), Sausage, Pulled Pork, Baby Back Ribs, St. Louis Ribs AND Beef Ribs.  This place has got it all.

Their list of sides is equally impressive.  Corn Bread, BBQ Beans, Hush Puppies, Green Beans, Fried Okra, Dirty Rice, Corn Nuggets, Collard Greens, Chipotle Cole Slaw, Mac & Cheese, Bacon Potato Salad, Waffle Fries, Yams, Side Salad, Loaded Mashed Potatoes and more!

 

I had Burnt Ends and Ribs with Baked Beans and Collard Greens.  The burnt ends were carmelized nuggets of beefy goodness. Although I prefer a dry rubbed rib, these are quite tasty and the crust of sauce is not overpowering.

The beans are a good albeit typical BBQ bean and the collard greens are well prepared.

They have multiple sauces which are well balanced for their purpose.  Sweet Country is more mustard based, Carolina Vinegar is spicy and tart, the Spicy is...well spicy and their Arkansauce is considered their main sauce.

When in Vegas, get off the strip as fast as you can and tackle a plate full of Rollin' Smoke Barbecue.

You'll be glad you did.

Midwood Smokehouse - Charlotte, NC

Midwood Smokehouse
16710 Birkdale Common Parkway
Huntersville, NC
http://midwoodsmokehouse.com/

Just being in the south and having a president and his secretary of state dine at your establishment does not make for good barbecue.  Maybe good marketing but the proof is in the pudding (more about their banana pudding later).

This location has only been here a few weeks (interestingly enough, the took over from a different BBQ restaurant - but they brought in their own smoker). But they do have an app or you can order for pickup online. That's a nice options.  Let's get to the review...

Midwood BBQ is a chain of individual restaurants (meaning they are not cookie cutter locations) in and around Charlotte, NC.  The menu includes some mouth watering items.  For appetizers, there are Pimento Cheese Fries, Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos and BBQ Queso.

For sandwiches there is the Hot Mess (brisket burger patty with creamy bacon jalapeno spread, Monterey Jack & carmelized onions on a bun), Texas Style Brisket (chopped brisket, tossed with Midwood sauce on Texas toast with smoked red onions and choice of cheese (with Pimento as one of the options!), Chicken BBQ (smoked pulled chicken in their SC mustard sauce, slaw and leaf lettuce), BBQ Pork (chopped pork tossed in their NC vinegar sauce with slaw on the side).

For tacos there is Stockyard Tacos (chopped brisket with shredded cabbage, sliced avocado, spicy red salsa, cilantro and queso fresco), Red Neck Tacos (chopped pork, slaw, spicy red salsa and cilantro) and El Fuego Tacos (shredded chicken, pico ge gallo, guacamole, stuffed with a bacon wrapped jalapeno and drizzed with ranch).

For plates there is Salmon, Chicken (pulled and lightly dressed in their SC mustard sauce), Carolina Pork (chopped and lighting dressed in their Eastern NC vinegar sauce), Burnt Ends (caramelized cubes of brisket tossed in their house made Fat Tire BBQ sauce), Brisket (sliced) and St. Louis style pork ribs.

For sides there is Texas Toast, Sweet Potato Fries, Smoked Veggies, Collard Greens, Creamed Corn, Crinkle Cut Fries, Hush Puppies, Cole Slaw, Classic Mac & Cheese, BBQ Slaw, and BBQ Baked Beans.

For desserts there is Pecan Cobbler and Banana Pudding.

I just couldn't stand it.  I had to try the Pimento Cheese Fries.  If your standard for an item like this is cheese fries, then they are fine.  However, if your standing is empowering southern pimento cheese towering over crispy crinkle cut fries, then you may find that there is very little "pimento-cheesiness" that embodies this plate full of southern bar food.

I had the Burnt Ends and Ribs with sides of collard greens and hush puppies.

While the burnt ends had a good flavor, technically burnt ends should only come from the point side of the brisket. This ensures they are young and tender tasting as this is the fatty side of the brisket.  While the flavor was good, the texture was tough and came from the flat side of the brisket. Not authentic.

The greens were good and spicy and they had pepper vinegar with which to add flavor.  That was a nice touch.  The hush puppies were very tasty and soaked up lots of BBQ sauce!

The ribs had a nice smoke but were a little tough.  A B- overall on the ribs.

The banana pudding was very good although not good enough to be called 'nanner puddin'.  That's down home Mom kinda good.

They had several different sauces. Some, Midwood sauce, the Fat Tire (too tart) and Vinegar (too thin) were right on the table, there were others they brought in dishes. The SC mustard (very good) and the Jalapeno BBQ (not too spicey but really flavorful) were better.  Much better.

Overall I have to give this a very passable rating.  Some things were better than others (my friend said the wings were very good) but definitely a place to visit if in the Charlotte, NC area.

Backwoods Brothers Authentic Texas Cuisine - Hamburg, PA

Backwoods Brothers Authentic Texas Cuisine
272 S Fourth St, Hamburg, PA 19526
http://www.backwoodsbbqsauces.com/home.html

Backwoods Brothers is a little BBQ spot in Hamburg, PA that I sought out while driving through Pennsylvania this year.

 They are very active in the community doing road shows to promote their barbecue sauce.  They also have several recipes online that encourages branching out barbecue's culture and flavor into different cuisines not known for barbecue.  A 30 minute BBQ Pasta Dinner for example.

You may notice that, in my first paragraph, I left off the Authentic Texas Cuisine from the name.  That is an omission of choice as I found their barbecue far from authentic...by anyone's scale.

The ribs were old and dry (likely from earlier in the day as I dropped in for supper around 7pm), the brisket was pulled, not sliced which makes it harder to identify quality and I found the quality to be lacking.  However, the sausage reached a new low.  This sausage was green. Just look at it.  I found it almost inedible.  The greens were mediocre and the beans seemed out of a can.

I can't say much about their sauces as I found the meat so inhospitable that nothing could rescue that from the culinary abyss that I found in Hamburg that day.

Now maybe lunch is better but I certainly found this meal unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.