BBQ Exchange, Gordonsville, Virginia

A year or so back I had to meet some people in Charlottesville and they suggested meeting at BBQ Exchange, about half an hour north.

http://www.bbqex.com/

I was extremely impressed and looked forward to a return. The owners are CIA trained and I tend to find that brings a level of uniqueness to the food that I really enjoy. They had an impressive number of pits out back and the pitmasters were very friendly and happy to show me around.



They have a nice array of items on the menu. I ended up with a three-meat, including brisket, sausage and ribs. I normally avoid the brisket in this part of the country, but I had high expectations.



The brisket was thick-cut and very tender. The sauce is reminiscent of spaghetti sauce and I would've gladly eaten it every meal for the next week. The broccoli salad also was delicious, one of the best sides I've had. The ample supply of nuts and flavor was divine. I'm not a huge bean fan. These were a bit more sour than my sensitive tastebuds can really handle, but they are extremely good.



The sausage was a step down from the brisket, but it is still very good sausage, and only a step down because the brisket was so darn good. The ribs were tender, and bite-through, but I found them a bit oversmoked. There is a six-pack of different sauces on the table that I wanted to sample, but everything was so tasty as it was that I ate it all before I even got to them. :icon_blush: Next time I will go with the pork, so I should be able to give them a try also.

That town is MINE! :thumb:

Actually, it's quite a nice little village and any town that has a BBQ restaurant as good as that one, I'm glad to lend my name to. I'm also told they have a nice French restaurant also.

They brought me to another place last year, and it wasn't nearly as good ... Ok, it was pretty bad. This definitely remains on my list of places to return to. I do still need to sample the pork, and there were some other interesting items I wanted to try.

cameraman said:

Really like the pit master photoc

Click to expand...

He was the nicest, friendliest guy, and so happy I was interested. I asked him if I could take his picture and he said yes. Then he just struck that pose. It was so different from his cheerful personality. I had to look up at him and see if he was going to smile or something. It reminded me of pictures of my grandparents taken early last century. I found it very striking. I just snapped.