When I travel around, I now try to hit as many barbecue
places as I can, or as many as my wife can stand.  I was in Montgomery,
AL, a little more than a year ago, and since it was a business trip,
stopped at an average of 1.75 bbq joints per day… my best record so
far!

I haven’t got a huge list of barbecue places I’ve been to since I got
into barbecue, but I’ll list out what I think of the places I have been.

I’ll start locally to me.  I live near Dayton, Ohio, and there are actually a couple pretty decent places around. 

City Barbeque, Centerville, OH
City
Barbeque is a small chain out of Columbus, OH.  The guy that started it
supposedly was a stock broker or some such thing and went into barbecue
after already doing just fine for himself.  He won the American Royal
in brisket one year, and started the chain to bring barbecue to
Columbus.  There are currently eight locations, with five in Columbus,
one in Centerville, one in West Chester (near Cincy) and one in Toledo.

I’ve
tried almost everything they have there.  His brisket is actually quite
good, especially for a restaurant.  The pulled pork is above average.
The smoked turkey is usually a bit dry, and his ribs aren’t anything I
care to order at all.  The smoked sausage is good, but that’s pretty
simple, I think.  His sides are quite good, with brisket chili at the
top of my list, followed by corn pudding.  It’s defintely worth going
to, especially considering the closest bbq place to it is Smokey Bones.

An added bonus… they’ll give you free sides of bark if you ask for it!

Smokin’ Bar-B-Que, Dayton, OH
Jim
is the owner of Smokin’, and moved from Kettering to right along the
Oregon District.  His sides are pretty good, with a definite Texas
leaning.  That’s appropriate in that Jim competed on the Texas circuit
a while back.  The beans are very good, whether backed or pinto, and
the banana pudding is a great side to have up in the north here!

Jim’s
brisket is pretty tasty, though it’s cut a bit too thin for me.  The
pulled pork and pulled chicken weren’t my favorite, but not bad, just a
bit dry.  The ribs, however, are the best around.  Meaty spares that
have just a little sauce on them.  This is by far my favorite thing to
get here.

Again, definitely worth a visit, especially if you
like spare ribs!  To her criedit, the local newspaper restaurant critic
agreed on the ribs being the best around.

Swallow at the Hollow, Roswell, GA
this
is a really fun place, with live music several nights a week.  The
Atlanta area is a great place for live music, in my opinion.  I’ve only
been here once, and I got ribs.  I have to say I was disappointed.  The
ribs had no smokey flavor, and were finished on the grill.  They just
were kind of bland. 

Someone else, however, had pulled pork,
which I tried, and it was very good.  I don’t usually order pulled pork
when I go out, though, as it’s usually just not that great.  If I go
back here, though, I’ll definitely try it.

For ambience, the place was great.  For food, there are better alternatives from what I’ve heard.

Dreamland, Montgomery, AL, and Roswell, GA
I
stopped in Montgomery at Dreamland, and the first thing I noticed was
the smell of hickory lingering all around the parking lot.  Good
start!  I went in, and the barbecue here is done on a big open pit,
with smoke everywhere (the good kind).  I ordered ribs, and they were
actually really good.  Sides were good, too.  I’d definitely go back. 

On my trip to Montgomery, Dreamland won for ribs out of the places I visited.

Fat Boy’s Bar-B-Que Ranch, Prattville, AL
The
brisket at Fat Boy’s was good… this was real barbecue.  When you pull
up, you see the smoker with wood piled up everywhere.  The food in
general was good, with the brisket being the best of the items I had.
I’d be back many times if I was in the area.

My favorite part of
our visit was when I was in line to order.  The woman in front of me
asked the owner if Fat Boy’s had lowfat salad dressing.  He smiled and
said, "You’re at Fat Boy’s; there ain’t nothin’ lowfat here!"

And my favorite barbecue joint….

One of a Kind Smokehouse, Hollywood, SC
My
wife and I were on vacation on Edisto Island, SC, and were on our way
to Charleston to do some site seeing.  I had been told to try Duke’s,
but didn’t really get any rave reviews.  I noticed we’d just passed the
turn for Duke’s in Hollywood, and turned around in a drive.  As I did,
I noticed I was at a place with barbecue signs up, called One of a Kind
Smokehouse.

Ken, if you’re reading this, forgive me, but I’m
going to be honest… My wife didn’t even want to go in.  It’s not a
great looking place, yet.  I went in to make sure they were open, as it
wasn’t obvious.  What we saw inside was a couple of refrigerated
displays and some old booths from another restaurant.  There was a
couple sitting in one of the booths, and they got up when we came in.
It turned out they were Ken and Holly, the owners, fairly newly
married.  It was obvious they were a Christian couple; they don’t hide
it at all. 

I told Ken that I do competition barbecue, though
I’m just starting.  He immediately took me back to show off his
homemade smoker.  Quite a piece of work!  And he burns only pecan wood,
my favorite wood to use.  He put together a sampler platter with
brisket with chipotle mayo, pulled pork, turkey and smoked salmon.
Sides included a tumeric cole slaw that was great, bourbon/cinnamon
baked beans and homemade mac and cheese.  Ken apologized that he didn’t
have his raspberry chipotle barbecue sauce; he’d run out. 

We
sat down to some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had.  I hear people say
that restaurants have to cook differently then competition cooks do,
but Ken isn’t buying into that.  Unfortunately, we weren’t there on
Saturday; he does smoked prime rib then.  However, we did get to try
some when my sister went to SC for vacation and brought some back.  Ken
and Holly also provided a great Christmas present to family that was in
the area for the holiday, including all the foods above plus smoked
bacon wrapped shrimp and a whole chicken.

If you’re near Hollywood, SC, go there.  If you’re not, get there!  Tell them Curt McAdams said hello!