1008 Oxmoor Rd.
Homewood, AL 35209
http://www.sawsbbq.com/
I held true to my format. Fly...drive...eat. I flew to Birmingham (thru Chicago), grabbed the rental car and headed straight to Saw's.
Now I'm in Birmingham. I expected to find a more blue collar side of town...okay...I mean red neck but I found myself following the European convertibles headed home after work to this particular side of town. Lots of turn of the century houses that have been taken over by the professionals in town and a nice little neighborhood with a little neighborhood collection of shops. Antiques, art studios and restaurants. Saw's is in this little enclave.
Upon walking in I was pleasantly surprised to find a small compact hole in the wall with a chalk board menu of daily specials that included a sampler platter. Ribs, pulled pork and chicken with 2 sides. I chose collard greens and deviled eggs.
Of course they had multiple tubs of both sweet and unsweet tea that I could sip on while I waited.
The smoker was visible and did nothing to abate my appetite while I waited for my number to be called. With outdoor seating available and a cool spring evening, I headed outside to watch all the locals going about the business of hanging out in this little "M" street neighborhood.
I started with the deviled eggs. While the yolk mix was piled high, it was nothing more than mediocre. Next was the collard greens. Now this was a welcome and pleasant taste. Exactly what it should be. Not to sweet, not to sour. Just right. Now comes the meat.
The pulled pork was pulled into large meaty strips that were tender and smoked to perfection. Some of the best pulled shoulder that I've had in a long time. You can tell this is where they shine. The ribs were smoked dry and their sauce was added upon serving. This is the perfect way to serve these ribs. The smoke and tenderness was exactly as it should have been. Nothing out of place here. However, they do come in second to the pulled pork but not out of any shortcomings on the part of the ribs. The pulled pork is just that good. Now on to the chicken. I'll admit that I rarely try the chicken at a barbecue restaurant but I was inclined to here due to the white sauce. The chicken was tender and roasted/smoked as good as the ribs. The white sauce was a welcome change. Nice and tangy and worked very well with the chicken. The corn bread was a bit dry and not worth it. Now I did show up after 6pm and you could tell that it was cooked earlier in the day.
So the order is...
Pulled pork
Ribs
Chicken
They also had 3 sauces. Their bottled marinade, a mixed bbq sauce and the white sauce on the chicken. The house sauce was a good balance of tomato base and mustard base. It actually reminded me of the Salt Lick's sauce a bit and had a very good balance. The white sauce was very good. Had a good twang with the right about of spice. The bottled marinade was more vinegar based and the least of my favorites. In order of taste on the sauces...
House sauce
White sauce
Bottled marinade
I can also recommend the home made banana pudding. I'm savoring that as I sit here and write this.
All and all, it was an excellent sampling of Birmingham barbecue and it has me hankering to try more during my short trip here.
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