Blue Sage deserves 3.5 *Stars* and the half star goes to the owner/chef as he engages the customer with his passion & dedication as well as his willingness to share. Walked in and automatically followed my nose to the SMOKEY flavour.
As I look upon the menu I noticed another customer waiting for his take-out order, then another gentleman came in and did his order while the chef asked how he found this place, c---hound of course! That's where I found about this place too it seems.
I went with an order of Carolina Style Pulled Pork Sandwich($11.45) with a side option of Cornbread. As the chef went in to prepare, he shortly came out with 2 slices of Beef Brisket for the LUCKY two of us to taste test. He told us it would be a little dry because he pre-cut those for us but even knowing that it had the right smokiness and fatcap on the outer layer.
The chef told us he will be updating his menu soon to include Beef Ribs once he has perfected it as well as other BBQ favourites. He said he spend more than 1 year testing and perfecting his original menu to Canadian tastebuds, however he is going back to how our US neighbours like it best and that is up the smokiness.
The Pulled Pork Sandwich had a GREAT BBQ Sauce on it that is not too THICK and sweet. It had flavour as I took the BBQ Sauce condiment bottle and just drenched it on the Pork. The Pork is definitely hand pulled and I noticed the outside burnt-ends but make sure you eat it hot and fresh as it will tend to dry out.
What made this sandwich a WINNER is that it is not alone, it has the Sauce, Pork and Coleslaw triple layer which mades it A-OK in my books. It wouldn't have been so good if it missed out either that sauce or the coleslaw, but that's just my opinion. The Cornbread was yummy too but I was too stuffed from this meal and the prior to finish that LAST bite.
If you want to have someone passionate to talk to about BBQ for an afternoon, just drop by here because as I've noticed. This owner is just as enthusiastic about his BBQ as how the owner/chef at Chicago Pizza Kitchen is with his Deep Dish Pizza. I'm starting to believe US chefs that own their own small shops in GTA make our community so much more complete.