Joanne Kates tucked into sides from these ballyhooed BBQ joints, choosing the top options to go with the southern classics.
1st place: Primo potato (A)
Piri piri potato salad is hot spicy, wonderful with crunchy fried onions and lightly pickled chayote.
Barque, $6
Runner up: Best batons (B)
I hardly expected to like deep-fried pickles. Am shocked to confess that the crunch of these ungreasy slices along with their house-made creamy piquant buttermilk Ranch is my new guilty pleasure.
Buster Rhino’s, $4
Capital slaw (C)
Marvellous coleslaw, trad with more bite than usual.
The Stockyards, $5
Bean bonanza (D)
They do fab brisket ’n’ beans: Tender brisket chunks with red beans in sauce with just enough heat, sweet and smoke.
Stack, $4
Brilliant bread (E)
Sweet, moist cornbread with fab lard “butter.”
Smoque N’ Bones, $3.90
Slaw-fully good (F)
Skip the potato salad. Too much mayo, tastes like a church basement potluck + chilies. But we love their slaw, trad but much more finely wrought, not so vinegary as most.
Electric Mud BBQ, $3.50
Pickle perfection (G)
The deep-fried panko-crusted asparagus and pickle chips are surprisingly yummy, not at all greasy.
Baju BBQ, $5
Packin’ heat (H)
Pleasant BBQ corn with a good char, and interesting red cabbage slaw with a strong dose of heat.
AAA Bar, $4
A grand match (I)
Nicely eggy potato salad.
Big Crow, $7
Cornbread chops (J)
Their claim to fame is meat, but the trad slaw with caraway is better than everybody else’s, as is the super-moist cornbread with jazzy jalapeno butter.
The Carbon Bar, $5
Want more of our meaty coverage of the city’s best southern-style smoked food? Check out the rest of the BBQ City stories below: