Smoked Meats
IF YOUR FAVORITE MEAT IS "MORE MEAT", THEN YOU'VE FOUND THE RIGHT BLOG
Meat
Sweet
Beats
What's good?
- They're only open 1 day a week.
New Stanton, PA
http://bigblackgrill.com/
Big Black Grill
Today I will attempt to answer two questions as old as time itself. 1) Can Southwestern Pennsylvania house a top-notch BBQ establishment? 2) Is it possible for Sir Hoxton St. Louis-Rib to dislike a BBQ joint's food and write a negative review? Catch the shocking answers after the break.
Ribs. The staple of any respectable BBQ joint. To guage if they fell into the much lauded category of "respectable", I ordered a half-rack at BBG.
The Presentation: THE RIBS WERE KEPT IN A WARMING TRAY ALMOST COMPLETELY SUBMERSED IN A CHERRY RED BBQ SAUCE. THEY TREATED THEIR RIBS AS IF THEY WERE SOME KIND OF SOUP. I MEAN, COME ON!
The Portions: This is a half-rack? Are you kidding me? Maybe if the two runts of the litter had a developmentally disabled pig-child. I don't want to talk about this anymore.
The Taste: Well I'll be damned. Much to my surprise, the taste was..... GOD AWFUL. The aforementioned "cherry red BBQ sauce" tasted like a combination of Spaghetti-O sauce and sad tears. Not happy tears, sad "My dog just died so I'm going to write a country music single about it" tears. In addition to the sauce abomination, the ribs were chewy as a direct result of being kept IN A WARMING TRAY SUBMERGED IN SAUCE.
The Trash: Where these ribs belonged.
Brisket and cornbread. Not quite as iconic as ribs, but a necessary addition to any BBQ. I don't know why I went back and ordered more, maybe because I was still hungry, maybe because I trust too much. Learn from my mistakes, children.
The Presentation: Not as terrible as the ribs, but still kept in a chipotle-esque tray. At the very least, the brisket wasn't kept submerged in BBQ sauce. The cornbread was kept crammed into its own tray, but it deserved more.
The Portions: USING TONGS, THE SERVER COUNTED OUT INDIVIDUAL SLICES OF THIN CUT BRISKET. ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU PENNY-PINCHERS, YOU'RE KILLING THE SPIRIT OF BBQ. I LEFT UNSATISFIED. The cornbread was smaller than what I had hoped, but sometimes quality cornbread can transcend its size.
Do you want BBQ sauce on your brisket?: NO. NOT AGAIN. I WILL NOT PUT MYSELF THROUGH THAT AGAIN.
The Taste: The brisket? Not bad. Small, but somehow they didn't screw it up too badly. The cornbread? Dry. The taste did not transcend the size.
Conclusion