I really, really, really wanted to like this place better than I did, probably because the people there are wonderfully friendly and helpful - and I love the slogan at the bottom of the ordering instructions: "If you want a waitress - bring one!"
That should be printed on their t-shirts.
The bartender is a hoot, and while we waited - for longer than we expected to, frankly - for our pulled pork in a cup, sausage/peppers/onions sub, baked beans, and cornbread - we met the owner, too, who was a sweetheart.
Oh - before I forget this - their location has changed. They are no longer AT the house/building that they were at - that STILL says "Spring Creek Bar B Q" on it. There's a sign on the steps of that place redirecting patrons to a red house two doors down.
Which, by the way, does NOT have a sign.
They apparently spent the money they might have spent on a sign on the interior, which is just gorgeous wood - big slabs of whole trees for the few tables they have - and pretty much everything else made of gleaming wood.
It's a little Cracker Barrelish, too, with tchotchkes and shirts and spices and pot holders, but - as we were doing take out - there were also nice rocking chairs in which to wait for our order. And they do have a place to eat outside, if that's your preference. I don't much go for eating al fresco. Too much heat/too many bugs, etc.
So, we ate this hours later at home. Perhaps that was part of the problem, but . . . no.
I have to say that the pulled pork itself was excellent - two good sized, generous orders (although the pickles on the top kinda threw me - I'm not a pickle-loving person), and not ONE bit of fat or gristle in either portion.
Bravo for that!
However, what sauce there was was liquidy, and there wasn't much flavor overall, unfortunately, however lean and tender the meat was.
To me, a barbecue place shouldn't inspire you to want to reach for the bottle of Sweet Baby Rays in the back of your fridge.
The cornbread was also generously portioned - especially if one person was going to eat it - and it was sweet, which is my preference. I do NOT like dry, tasteless cornbread, or that which is heinously adulterated with jalepenos. Frankly, although I imagine it's blasphemy to say so, I like Boston Chicken's cornbread - almost a cornCAKE instead.
However, although I want it sweet and cake-ISH, it IS cornbread, and this version contained more than a hint of vanilla, which belongs in a yellow cake for someone's birthday, but NOT in cornbread. My sister doesn't like vanilla at all, and the taste was strong enough to put her off eating the rest of the slab of it that we'd split.
The beans were quit dark, and I had flashbacks to my Mother's excellent molassessy version of baked beans, but these were not those. They were too sweet. There should be some vinegar in the mix to cut that down some. And they lacked any other flavor, too, despite their color.
As this place is WAY out of our way, I don't think we'll be back, unfortunately, because, as I said at the beginning, I really, really, really wanted to like this place, and if I like somewhere, I have been known to go well out of my way to eat there.
Unfortunately, this won't be one of those places. read more