I am a BBQ nerd. This place was highly welcome in the Ballantyne neighborhood, and the service was great. But ultimately, the food disappointed and lived short of the "modern" BBQ idea.
Much prefer classic BBQ joints in the area like Midwood Smokehouse to here. I´ll tell you why:
-The chef has a problem with overseasoning to compensate for natural flavors. Fried Pickles and the creamed spinach was way too salty.
-The BBQ chicken didnt taste like itd been properly smoked, or was a few days old. Very dry. Almost like itd been just a cheap chicken stripped and mixed with BBQ sauce.
-I love burnt ends. But there wasnt really a good balance in both the places I had em, both the beans and the mac n cheese. The mac n cheese portion is a bit over the top, and don´t really like the choice of cheese. That orangey crap cheese for a modern BBQ joint? Coulda picked a host of others.
-The pork ribs were meh. Lacked punch.
My favorites were:
-The sauces. The Carolina, Texas and KC were spot on. And nods to all types of BBQ heritage.
-The coleslaw was the right contrast to the heavy sides
-Wine selection kickass
-The brisket was perfect
Understand they´ve only been 4 months open, but being in North Carolina there´s some pretty high standards to follow. A pretentious title like "modern" aint really helping. On paper it sounds good - but they need chefs who can really execute envelope-pushing flavors on the plate. If you´re the owners reading this -- not to worry -- you will surely always make a killing on the weekends!