This guy can certainly deliver an excellent smoked brisket, but some of his other offerings were a bit lacking. The biggest surprise is that the only BBQ sauce he has available is a supermarket brand; the pitmaster said that he was only about the meat and not sauces, but I've smoked BBQ for years and have eaten it all across the South and KC, and that's the first time I've heard a statement like that: I make my own sauces and at every BBQ joint I've eaten, the pitmaster has bragged about his/her sauces. What is worse is that the supermarket brand he had on hand was just cloyingly sweet, AND he had used that on his burnt ends. The burnt ends were a bit overdone (too burnt) for my wife, and the sickening sweet sauce made them too sweet for me.
Another big disappointment was the half-rack of ribs. They were nicely smoked and tender, BUT he had not removed the membrane before cooking. As a result, the ribs were impossible to separate even with the help of my ever-present pocket knife (only plastic forks are provided and he did not cut the ribs apart). Although my wife liked the pulled pork, because it was moist, I found it bland and tasteless; the moisture coming apparently from the cooking juices being added back after pulling instead of using a (homemade/craft) BBQ sauce to the meat. The other thing we tried was the smoked turkey, which had a good smoky flavor.
So: brisket - excellent; turkey - good; ribs - mixed experience, good taste but please take the time to remove the membrane before smoking next time!!!; pulled pork - so/so, not a lot of flavor; burnt ends -- the biggest disappointment of all. read more