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| - I'm not a food snob at all...until it comes to BBQ. I am very critical of BBQ, more than I would be at any other type of restaurant. When it comes to the 'Q I know what I want...delicious smoked meat complimented with a great sauce. There are a few joints in the area that I was underwhelmed by, as they either don't have a smokiness to the meat or the sauce is too strong or weak and does nothing for the meat. I'm happy to say that I have found my number two BBQ joint in the area, and it's Saucemans.
Sauceman's feels like a good BBQ place from the start. It's a small place with a few tables and counter service, though they will deliver the food to you if you decide to sit inside after ordering. They also serve a few local beers on draft, and that's always a plus for me.
The menu is pretty straightforward, offering a variety of smoked meats either on a sandwich or a platter with sides. The price is in the right ballpark, and the portions are gigantic. One thing I will say is that they tend to run out of food quickly. We got there at 6PM on a Saturday night and they were already sold out of smoked chicken, brisket and collards. Luckily I had come down with the intention of trying out the ribs, so I was not disappointed.
I got the half rack of pork ribs ($14) and was amazed with the quantity and quality of the food. For starters, the ribs themselves were some of the best. They are not super duper tender, but more importantly they had an excellent smokiness to them. There are a variety of sauces to choose from such as a sweet tomato-based, a spicy mustard and a traditional Carolina vinegar. I enjoyed all three, and I'm not usually a fan of vinegar or mustard sauces. What I found to be the best was combining the tomato and mustard together, making a sweet and spicy sauce that played very nicely with the ribs themselves.
The other important thing to note is that their sides are pretty kickass, which is a feature that some BBQ joints just lack. The mac & cheese is made with pimento cheese so it has a nice kick to it and the macaroni is cooked perfectly, so you get a bit of texture to it and not just a pile of mush. The hush puppies were also really good, though they were a bit too sweet for the missus'. The baked beans were good...nothing fancy, but just done simple and solid. The kicker was the white coleslaw which was crisp, refreshing and not overpowering. I rarely gobble up coleslaw by itself, but this stuff was so good I had no problem devouring whole forkfulls of it.
Now you may be asking how my vegetarian wife managed to eat a meal here. Luckily all their sandwiches are actually a bit indepth and just add whatever meat you want to order. So the missus was able to order the Dixie Cuban ($10.50) without meat and got her dream sandwich of pimento cheese with fried pickles. This sandwich was massive with the cheese oozing out all over. The fried pickles did lose their batter while submerged in this ocean of spiced cheese but they were still good.
It's tough sometimes for a carnivore like me to get to a BBQ joint with an herbivore for a wife. Most places don't have any true vegetarian options aside from a pile of sides, but no one wants a dinner of just fries, mac & cheese and baked beans. Thanks to pimento cheese I now have a place where I can chow down on succulent smoked meats while my wife can choose from a couple of different cheese-based sandwiches.
Thank you Saucemans!!!
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