Top 50 Barbecue In The South

16Adams

16Adams

somebody shut me the fark up.

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When I was growing up we didn’t stop at BBQ Joints when we traveled. It was either a picnic basket prepped before leaving (yes an actual picnic basket) or a drive in hamburger eaten in the car or eaten wile on the road. Dr Pepper bottles held between our legs(no cup holders back then). So while drinking my coffee with a teaspoon of black Cumin seeds I began a road trip in my mind while pondering today’s menu. I found this article

https://www.southernliving.com/travel/bbq-restaurants

Pretty cool. Imho not Daniel Vaughn Texas Monthly cool, but cool.

Cold front coming. I’m thinking green chile rellano cheeseburger, or green Chile nachos. Perhaps a compromise of a chile rellano casserole.

I’m not fond of plans (or recipes) They always get changed.

MSU.
 
My Favorite Redhead and I plan to see a game in every MLB ballpark when we retire. Great excuse to drive around the country. while we are at it we will check out local Q joints. Lists like this will really help. Ahhhhh.....
 
Jackie Hite's in Leesville, SC unfortunately closed back in September. We would always eat at Jackie Hites when we stayed up on Lake Murray. I've eaten at most of the SC joints listed in this list. Pretty good selection to choose from. When we vacation in Isle of Palms, we also make it a point to get pulled pork from Rodney Scott's and some brisket and hot guts sausage from Lewis BBQ.
 
Rendezvous at #20? Please... Some of the worst BBQ I've ever had. Tried them twice, will not be going back again.
 
I love these lists. This is a nice one as there are a lot of places I haven't been to or heard mentioned, and many of the obvious ones are not on it. It gives me a few to hit when I'm down south. I've sampled at only 8 of these. There are a few memorable ones in my bottom 10 and Rendezvous is one of them. Go there for a beer maybe before going someplace else to eat.
 
Gore said:
I love these lists. This is a nice one as there are a lot of places I haven't been to or heard mentioned, and many of the obvious ones are not on it. It gives me a few to hit when I'm down south. I've sampled at only 8 of these. There are a few memorable ones in my bottom 10 and Rendezvous is one of them. Go there for a beer maybe before going someplace else to eat.
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Just an observation but most people mention they don’t like brisket-ribs-pulled/chopped pork. My last couple trips have been a Evie Mae’s near Lubbock. I’m glad it’s 240 mi away or I’d eat there often, at least monthly.

I enjoy sausage and sides. I’m seldom disappointed. Sausage -sides -pickles -cherry peppers-?jalapeño

But the sausage. That’s “usually” a treat. If not it can be made so.
 
I'm going to have to give Martin's a try. I drive past it several times a week but still haven't tried it yet. It's a nice setup, used to be an old golf course. The land was developed and Martin's bought the club house for their restaurant.
 
I like these kinds of lists. Especially when they have pictures of the pits and smokers. I like to think to myself "I'm gonna go there someday". I never do, though. I never really expect to see my own personal favorite BBQ places on these big regional/national lists (Hard Eight BBQ is currently at the top of my personal list).
 
Lists like this are fun to read -and argue over the respective rankings.

I don't travel- me knowing where the "best" are located does me no good- still fun to read about them though. Every place has a story just waiting to be told.
 
We ate at a BBQ place in Dawsonville, GA last weekend. Glad to see it's not on the list. Place gets great reviews on Google, but the food really wasn't great. My wife got a BBQ chicken sandwich, which she said was okay. Mother in law got a pulled pork sandwich, which she said was dry. I got a chopped brisket sandwich, and it tasted like crockpot cooked pot roast, not BBQ. Zero smoke flavor, no bark. The place didn't smell like a real BBQ joint. I know they're not smoking anything there (they have a few locations in the area), and that brisket I'm 99% sure wasn't smoked at all.

It was just another reminder that homemade BBQ > store bought BBQ.

EDIT to add, just realized a local joint is #6 on the list. I'm not wild about it, but I haven't been to the original spot in Jackson yet. My complaint about the one in Macon is they chop the pork too fine, and I'm not wild about the sauce (they put too much on, and it's vinegar-y, which I don't really like). That's all very much personal preference of course, and lotsa locals LOVE the place. I mean, they've been around longer than I have, so they must be doing something right.
 
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Personal tastes will always be a factor, too. One person's great BBQ is another person's bad BBQ. Easy example: when I was looking for some good BBQ sauces recently, one of the rankings I checked was Cooks Illustrated list of supermarket sauces. Their lowest ranked sauce was Stubb's. Why? Because it had the lowest sugar out of all the sauces, so it was obvious their pool of tasters preferred the sweet style of BBQ sauce.
 
I used to go to Fresh Air when I was a kid, in fact, a meat company I worked for sold them hams and I would deliver to the one in Jackson. This is where I developed my taste for a vinegar-based sauce. Gotta plan a road trip soon!!
 
LYU370 said:
Rendezvous at #20? Please... Some of the worst BBQ I've ever had. Tried them twice, will not be going back again.
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I've never been to Rendevous and probably never will. I do like their dry rub though. I have 2 bottles from Amazon. I like that fennel flavor a lot.
 
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