Category Archives: Barbeque

Wandering Wednesday: Knoth’s Restaurant

by Cary

Most of our readers probably have heard of Tennessee’s myriad of options when planning a relaxing weekend to get away from everything.  With the Smoky Mountains being so popular (and a little pricey and tough to reserve!), there are a lot of nearby places to travel to that might not be the first to come to mind.  In search of a nearby location to take in some of the natural beauty, and get in some rest before the school year got back in full swing, we took a long-weekend northwest of Nashville to visit the Land Between the Lakes. With a beautiful bed and breakfast on Lake Barkley we were able to take advantage of everything from the natural beauty of the wildlife to trying a few off the beaten path places.

On the advice of the helpful docent at the LBL visitor’s center, we stopped by Knoth’s BBQ, which is just a stone’s throw away from the Barkley Dam.  Apparently Mr. Knoth is quite the BBQ-er based on the accolades that had been framed on the wall from his BBQ competition days.  Service was super-friendly and super-quick, to the point where we were debating on whether or not to order another sandwich and/or dessert.  The BBQ sandwich is the highlight here, with a good smoky flavor and pulled pork pieces that had retained their juicy character.  Knoth’s is unique in that its sauce is not your typical tomato/vinegar/spice style, but rather tastes almost as if there’s a bit of honey in the sauce.  The result in a slightly sweet, but still tangy sauce that is like nothing I’ve ever had in my Memphis BBQ outings.   Knoth’s does have a spicier, thinner sauce, but the honey BBQ sauce wins out in my book.

Knoth’s Bar-B-Que
728 Us Highway 62
Grand Rivers, KY 42045

Knoth's Bar-B-Que on Urbanspoon

Judge Bean’s BBQ

by Cary

While Nashville is definitely a pork BBQ type of town, sometimes you have a hankering for something smoky, but different.  For us, that means Brisket, Mesquite smoke, and maybe some tex-mex influence.  Judge Bean’s fits that description perfectly, and offers lots of different options than your typical BBQ place.

As an appetizer, we ordered chips, salsa and guacamole.  The salsa was very different.  It was served warm and was very spicy.  We preferred the guacamole, which was a nice blend of creamy guacamole and chunks of avocado.

So, I guess different for me just means brisket and sausage, but on this particular day, they turned out quite well.  The Brisket had a well defined smoke ring and slightly tangy-spicy flavor to it.  Sauce is at every table, but honestly, it’s so tender and still juicy, that you don’t really need it.  The smoked sausage takes on a small bit of smokiness, but really folks, it’s sausage!  I also have to urge everybody to try the cowboy beans at the Judge’s.  While the menu declares them “not a sleeping partner’s favorite” (uh, Sarah could not be reached for comment before publishing), they are so thick, soupy, and spicy it’s really more like chili than anything else.

The tamale plate comes with a choice of chicken or beef brisket.  I decided to try both. The chicken was good, but the brisket tamale was amazing. The tamales were moist and full of flavor.  Personally, I preferred the brisket taco.
I was really glad I got the sauce on the side.  I feel like the sauce can overwhelm the taste of the tamale.   The corn was excellent and the green beans were spicy, but very good.

Judge Bean’s BBQ
7022 Church Street East
Brentwood, TN 37027

Judge Bean's BBQ on Urbanspoon

Wandering Wednesday: Cowgirl BBQ in Santa Fe, NM

by Sarah

On our last day in New Mexico, we went to Santa Fe for an afternoon trip.  We walked around the Santa Fe Plaza and saw the Miraculous Staircase of Loretto Chapel.  After shopping and site-seeing we decided to try out the Cowgirl BBQ restaurant.  When we walked in, we were surrounded by pictures of cowgirls.  There was a nice funky vibe to the restaurant, complete with glitter paint on the walls.

For an appetizer we ordered Texas Caviar, similar to Tennessee Caviar sans the rotel, green peppers, onions and shoepeg corn.

The Texas Caviar was marinated in a light vinegar with a spice that might have been cilantro, resulting in a pleasantly tangy dip.

I debated for a long time about what to order.  There was an interesting squash casserole on the menu, but I decided to go with the beef brisket with a side salad, cole slaw and potato salad.  The salad was a nice bed of leaf lettuce with garbanzo bean, red pepper, red onions and carrots.  The brisket was the shining star of dinner.  It was so tender I cut it with a fork.  It was served on Texas toast with a spicy barbecue sauce. I could almost detect a hint of cayenne pepper.  Yum.

The potato salad and cole slaw were almost bland.  There were really no defining features.  They had a variety of sides and if I were to go again, I would try the scalloped potatoes or the spicy collard greens.

For dessert, we had their baked potato ice cream.  Basically, it was vanilla ice cream rolled in cocoa powder.  It was topped with nuts that had been died green and fondant butter.  A very interesting and original dessert.

Cowgirl BBQ
319 S Guadalupe St.
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Cowgirl BBQ on Urbanspoon

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint

by Cary

We have a confession to make.  We really love Martin’s Barbecue Joint.  We were one of the first people to visit when he opened at the original location.  We mourned when he closed the little restaurant over the auto shop.  We waited patiently until the new restaurant was opened.   We went to the new restaurant the weekend it opened.  We go frequently.  If this is wrong…  I don’t think I want to be right.

One of his specialties is the redneck taco, which is his take on BBQ on cornbread.  You can choose from brisket, pork, smoked chicken, or smoked turkey, and it is then topped with coleslaw and your choice of sauce.  This is definitely not your regular taco (in fact, there’s no way the cornbread could hold all the fillings in a taco-like bite, meaning this is really like an open faced sandwich).    The french fries are hand cut, dusted with kosher salt, and possibly the best we’ve found in town.  When you walk into the restaurant you walk by bags of potatoes that will eventually become your french fries.

A special side item of note is Martin’s pinto beans.  The menu doesn’t state it, but there’s really two types of beans.  The first, served around lunchtime, features a slightly watery potlikker (is it pot liquor or potlikker?  Here is an interesting letter about it!) and whole beans, while the 2nd, served if you come closer to dinner, features beans that have been broken down and given up their starch to thicken the sauce after hours in the slow heat of the smoker and/or oven.  So, I guess it’s really just a matter of when you make it to Martin’s to try the goods, but either way is great with that awesome cornbread he serves. Speaking of the skillet cornbread, it is crispy on the outside and well seasoned with pepper and leftover juice from smoking the pork.

In my humble opinion, the most overlooked entry that Martin’s offers is the chicken.  It is cooked in such a way that the meat melts in your mouth.   The Alabama white sauce is divine.  It’s a thin sauce that has a hint of cayenne that compliments the chicken perfectly.

The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint
7238 Nolensville Rd
Nolensville, TN 37135

Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint on Urbanspoon

Carl’s Perfect Pig

by Cary

We recently had an opportunity to visit a Middle TN institution, Carl’s Perfect Pig, known around the area as a hidden gem for pulled pork, smoked ribs, and the Middle TN specialty, meat & 3.

Slogan:  A waist is a terrible thing to mind.

Sarah chose the pulled pork sandwich with fries, which featured a heaping mound of pulled pork, as well as some tasty, crunchy fries to go with it.  Of special note is the BBQ sauce at Carl’s, which falls somewhere in between the traditional West TN, somewhat sweet tomato based sauce, and the slightly less familiar, Carolina style sauce that trends towards the vinegary, mustardy, “lighter” style of BBQ sauce.  The traditional sauce has a tangy, vinegary kick, while the darker, hotter sauce was much closer to traditional West TN sauces.  We both preferred the regular sauce, while the pork featured a very smokey taste, with good crunch bits, and really no need of sauce anyway.

I decided to give the ribs a try, which had been given great reviews by the research I had done online.  Carl’s is special in that the restaurant is both a BBQ Joint and a meat & 3 all in one.  I gave the “ribs & 3″ a try and got to try both at once.  The ribs themselves are fall off the bone, with a thick, sauce that still allowed the smokiness of the meat to come through.  Sides I tried included the fried okra, macaroni and cheese, and white beans.  The fried okra were tasty and well fried while the mac & cheese had a thick, smokey sauce that reminded me of my grandmothers.  The white beans were a little bland, but then again they were white beans, and the corn cake I got did a good job of soaking up the sauce from the ribs and the beans.

Desserts are a pleasant surprise at Carl’s as well.  I tried the mini-fudge pie, which also reminded me of my grandmother’s desserts, while Sarah gave the peach cobble a try.

Nothing like Chocolate.

It may not show up on the picture here, but the peach cobbler was steaming hot and wonderful.  The  vanilla bean ice cream provided a perfect topping to the cobbler (and the fudge pie, no less), while the atmosphere at Carl’s is one that is purely focused on the pig.  The pink and white booths as well as the pig-centric decor on the walls lets any patron know they are in a house ‘o pig, that can’t be found in many places these days.

Carl's Perfect Pig on Urbanspoon