**Disclaimer: I wrote this as a paper for my English class last semester. Its a bit lengthy. Sorry. But hay, I got an A on it. Figured I'd share. A bit like putting my paper up on the big digital fridge that is the internet.***
I love to eat. Let’s face it, we all do. Food and getting together to eat is an American tradition and to a greater extent, a unifying event for the common families. Many cultures center gathering around large festivals involving food, just look at our 4th of July parties, Thanksgiving, and Easter. It’s seems to be an inherent American thing to do. Get together with family or friends around a large amount of food and relax, share news, or set things on fire. Yet in today’s society people are finding more and more dietary restrictions. “You have to contend with perfervid vegans, virtuous vegetarians, persistent pescatarians, lamb-phobics, tongue-phobics, veal- rights advocates, the gluten-intolerant, the lactose-intolerant, the shellfish-intolerant, the peanut-intolerant, the spicy-intolerant, and on and on in an ever fragmenting array” (Weinberger 2009).
Before going to much further, let me give you a little in site to the world of BBQ ribs. In the south it's their holy war. The wet vs the dry. The sauce vs the meat. For those in Tennese, its all about sauce used to flavor the ribs. When the ribs are dripping with said tasty sauce, they are known as wet ribs. Next door in Kentucky, its all about how the meat is cooked, be it over hickory chips, brickets, or open flames. The flavor and smoking or preparing of the meat is more important to them, then what you cover it with. They might go as far as rubbing them with a few spices, but that's it. Nothing to much to adulterate the meat (Big Bob Gibson 2008)
One of the highest achievements for a restaurant is to earn a Michelin Star. Yes, from the Michelin Tire company. They started including maps, inns, and restaurants in their manuals in 1900 in France. Now it is a mark a quality to be listed by them. The stars in their guide represent the quality of food, ranging from one to three. Whereas for the setting and atmosphere is marked with a crossed spoon and fork, ranging from one to five (Michelin Restaurant Guide 2009). Their rigid qualifications for a prized star include things like freshness of food, how long the wait for your food is, comfort, presentation, and quantity. For those of us who aren't in the upper class to dine in three star Michelin restanuts, let’s look at what we normally look for in deciding if a restaurant is what we consider “good”:
• How is the atmosphere? Loud? Quiet? Relaxed? Drunk? Often times what is going on around us influences how we perceive our food.
• Who else is dining there? A few people would be comfortable with dining at a restaurant where they spoke little of the language and are the minority in the room. Others would feel awkward at eating in a black tie restaurant where there is an enforced dress code, or on the other hand, might feel out of place at a mom and pop truck stop diner.
• What’s the décor like? Many people feel at ease chowing in a room decorated with stuffed animal heads on the walls where as others might be repulsed. What surrounds you will effect your mood which in turn will effect what you think of the food.
• What’s on the menu? Do the serve a wide variety of foods or do the specialize in a hand select few? For some people, this can make or break a place.
• Lastly on this portion of the list, how is the service? Nothing is worse the having to wait five to ten minutes for your waiter to show, let alone having to wait a half an hour for them to retrieve a bottle of Tabasco. Prompt service is part of what make a good restaurant, good.
And now for the food part:
• How does it look? Does it look like it was slapped onto a plate then handed off to you, or was each piece carefully placed to “complete the picture”.
• How does it smell? For the majority of the population, your sense of smell is closely associated with your sense of taste. If food smells good, chances are that it will taste good and visa versa. Hence why most children will plug their noses when taking cough syrup. Not to get that strong wafts of medicated sugar stuck in their nostrils cause it will make the taste twice as bad.
• And of course lastly, how does it taste? Something can look good and smell good and yet still manage to takes like flavored cardboard. Like ramen in an elaborate bowl with some fresh chopped green onions on top, it looks pretty, but still tastes like cheap chicken flavored string (and strangely, we keep eating it). There are also the delightful surprises in life where something you felt would be subpar turned out to be exquisite.
All of these factors put together is how we evaluate a good restaurant, diner, or dive.
Now I’ll apply these criteria to a restaurant. Under the recommendation of a wise old master of meat, I was told that I simply must try Sugarhouse BBQ. And so I did. We’ll start with the atmosphere. It was very comfortable. The building itself looks like a large modified house, while inside the ceilings are open to the rafters and the two halves are only divided by a short wall. The kitchen was even open so that you could watch a plate being prepared, however, most of the cooking takes place outside in the large BBQ drums. Speaking of outside, let me mention the smell. A sign of a good BBQ is the smell. With this place, the smell grabs you by the nostrils the moment you step out of the car and drags you in by the stomach.
Not being very large, there were about eight or so empty tables. A few families were seated here and there with a smattering of a handful of couples. Everyone was in relaxed street wear but there were also a few who had put a little more effort in their attire to make it a “nice evening out”. The staff even wore comfy looking Sugarhouse BBQ T-Shirts and levis. The age range was diverse with my partner and I sitting in the middle of it.
The decoration here was simple and to the point. Walls are painted a color that can’t decide if it wants to be orange or tan, so it settles for in between. Whatever that color was, it helped add to the bright, relaxed meat eater’s environment. There are two TV’s that are hung in the corners, but they are unobtrusive and have the volume muted and modern music plays on low in the background. A motorcycle guards over the kitchen and several beer pull levers poke out from behind the bar.
When looking at the menu I was quiet surprised to see several different salads along with half a page of sandwiches. The other half of the menu listed all the house favorites which is quite an assortment of ribs, pulled pork, turkey, chicken, and brisket. Posted by the door on a kitschy blackboard were the specials of the day. Not to mention the other list, BBQ’s best friend, beer. Here the beer menu fills a whole page and offers this heady beverage in both glass and pitcher form. Another thing to note here was that we had four strange unlabeled bottles that sat on out table. Later it was explained that the large, intimidating squeezey bottle contained the famous house BBQ sauce, next was a BBQ, spiced, vinegar based sauce (recommended for the pork), next was a sweet mustard, and lastly a cayenne based hot BBQ sauce for the bold.
Service here is excellent. When we first arrived a gentleman behind the counter instructed us to pick a table and a waiter would be right with us. As we sat I started to wonder how they could tell who had been helped and who hadn’t. Immediately a cheery waiter was at our table with menus. It only took him a minute or so to bring us our beers. My partner decided to be bold and try a new beer. Turned out to be a bad choice and later requested a nice safe and familiar Corona. Seeing as how he didn’t like it, our waiter let us know that he took it off the tab and just left the charge for the preferred beverage. After we got our food we were checked on ever ten minutes. When patrons left, I watches as young table busers would fly to the table and have it clean and sparkling within minutes.
Seeing as the “Big Bob Combo” was recommended for two, we decided to go with that. It’s Pulled pork, turkey, 1/3 rack of ribs, stuffing, coleslaw, and cornbread, sounded like it would give us a good taste of what they have to offer. The kitchen was nice enough to split it for us without us asking. Mounds of tasty meat piled next to a cheery piece of cornbread. Everything looked to be split even and placed carefully where all could be accessed.
The smell. I already mentioned the smell but its worth mentioning again. It is part of the great BBQ aura. The aroma that came off our plates was a mix and mingle of three different roast meats that just made the mouth water and stomachs growl. Needless to say, it is divine.
Finally, after being driven mad by the savory smell all around, we got to dig in. The ribs were cooked to perfection so much so, that the bones could easily be pulled out, leaving moist meat behind. The pulled pork had a great spice to it and had been pulled into perfect fork sized shreds. The turkey was fantastic. The biggest problem with turkey it’s that it is very easy to overcook, making it dry and bland. This turkey on the other hand, was moist and tender, everything you would expect from a Thanksgiving bird. Having a quartet of new condiments, we naturally had to mix and match with everything. The House Sauce was the perfect mate for the ribs. Allowing the eater to take them from being that happy medium between wet and dry ribs, all the way to “drip to the elbows” wet. The mustard is unlike any other “sweet mustard” out there. It is sweet, but then the mustard flavor sneaks up bites you in the rear. Not feeling to be the brave type that night, neither my partner or I tried the home hot sauce.
The coleslaw was, well coleslaw. It’s hard to rave about coleslaw. The stuffing was more of a garlic flavored bread pudding. Normally I like my stuffing to have more of a cube body to it, but the garlic flavor made me forgive it, this time. Finally, the cornbread. I wasn’t wowed about the cornbread at first, until my counterpart informed me that the butter was homemade honey butter. This was enough to cause a fork fight for the last piece. To try and top it all off we got the bread pudding dessert. This had a good square body and bread firmness (unlike the stuffing). I was unsuccessful in finishing it.
In viewing all the elements together and comparing them with other BBQ joints that I have tried in the past, I concluded that this was, hands the best BBQ joint that I have been too. Now keep in mind, I have had Memphis BBQ in Memphis and attended the World BBQ Tournament in Minnesota. But, due to a BBQ mishap when I was young, I avoided it for years and only recently have been gaining a liking for it once again. When coming back from BBQ gone wrong, nothing is more welcoming and reassuring then Sugarhouse BBQ.
References:
- Michelin Guide to Restaurants, New York 2009
- Jerry Weinberger, “America’s Food Revolution”, City Journal Summer 2009
- Chris Lilly "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary BBQ Joint" 2008
Of course we started what we normally do with our group, started passing around bites, letting everyone try at taste. I tried Jake's Strawberry Chicken (as seen in image). It was a bit odd but still good. With sweet and sour sauces its normally a generic sweet flavor and a generic red sour flavor. This was similar only make with strawberries and poured over some battered chicken. Interesting, but in a good way. I was thrilled with my Beef with Garlic (as seen in second picture). Big flat chunks of beef surrounded by bamboo shots and diagonally cut celery. Not to mention the green bell peppers. Want to know how we could tell this was made fresh? The fact that the bell peppers still had that fresh snap to them. Not that sogginess that you get around the edges after its been thawed. And the garlic! You can see the minced garlic in the sauce that covers each delectable bit like crack. Here's an interesting fact: I hate celery. Hate the texture and hate the taste. But covered in this amazing beef sauce and garlic, I couldn't stop eating it. 
Chris and I marveled at the similar fact with his Twice Cooked Pork. You could actually taste the fresh ginger in the sauce. We were amused by the fact that the ladle for John's Wonton soup was a 4oz measuring cup. He carefully kept track of his meal and at the end, concluded that it was roughly 8oz to much soup for him to finish. There was actually enough food for him that he had to loosen his belt. Now John is the kind of kid who seems like food goes right through him. He could eat a whole pizza and not blink. But apparently this stuck, and actually filled his void that he calls a stomach. I was impressed. And still, all through out our shenanigans, such as John and Richard drawing in the Sweet and Sour Sauce, our hostess was there with a smile making sure we were all taken care of. She had perfect timing too. Not to often to get annoying, but not so rarely that we were left wondering when our drinks would refill themselves. At the end when we had slowed down and several belts had been loosened, she came over and one by one, boxed our food for us in that professional manner where your food doesn't get all mashed together, but is just as carefully arranged as it had arrived to us. Of course at the end of the meal came the traditional fortune cookie and the laughs that accompany them. I think mine won (even though it lied).
