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| - My trip to Union Pig & Chicken was long overdue, but when a groupon arrived and reminded me that this was on my "must try" list, I was on it.
We were seated upstairs and I was immediately intrigued by the fact that I was standing in a BBQ joint, yet the decor told me I was somewhere else. I don't mean this in a bad way..it was upscale, tasteful, kind of minimalist. The recycled-plastic outdoor wood pseudo picnic tables were a neat touch. You know, that plasticky faux wood they use at newer playgrounds to make park benches and stuff. Pretty cool.
Beer selection was very good, including some Pittsburgh brews on tap and a neat looking specialty drink list. We stuck with beer, but I'd come back to try a specialty drink.
Our waitress was excellent and sat down with us for a few minutes to go over the menu options and provide some recommendations. We decided to split a smattering of items to get the full effect.
1. Fried Chicken (white meat) - delicious. tender, juicy, all those good adjectives one would use to describe excellent fried chicken. They have a lunch special on this and if I worked closer to East Lib I'd be all over it. $8 for 2 pieces of chicken, a drink, and a side. That's a killer deal for this quality.
2. Brisket - a little slab of goodness. It was very tasty - served like a little slice of meatloaf of steak, but fork-tender and pulls apart, with a nice little crust on the outside. It was good with bbq sauce, good with the Carolina style vinegar, and good by itself. Mmmm
3. Pork Shoulder - don't get freaked out that it's served in "cubes". The pork was fantastic. I think I liked this better than the brisket. It was probably my favorite. I mixed the bbq sauce with a little of the habanero sauce for this. I could eat a full pound of this straight up... no sides.
4. Mac & Cheese - good not great. Cheesy and rich, for sure, but needed a little salt and pepper, of which there was none at the table. Not bad, but I wouldn't fill up on this instead of other things.
5. Cornbread - best cornbread I've ever had. My wife almost ordered a second piece to go. "It tastes like cake!", she exclaimed with glee. It was really, really good and quite dense. Not dry like many other cornbreads I've had. $3 for a slice is a bit steep though.
Overall, we were both really impressed with the food and enjoyed the atmosphere. To be clear - this isn't the kind of bbq place that's all about the sauce. They don't have a plethora of sauce options. This place is about the meat. The sauce is a compliment to it, not a cover-up for it. You're getting a supermodel with a little blush, not a back-alley hag covered with maybelline.
I'm docking 1-star only due to price. Not that the food wasn't excellent, but for some reason I have a hard time looking at the bill and realizing that it would have cost the same to eat at many other upscale places, but instead I got BBQ. Damn good BBQ no doubt, but I don't know if the "upscale bbq" thing adds enough for me to warrant the extra bills or enough to make me choose this over other restaurants for my next date night.
I will say this - I was really happy to finally eat somewhere where they clearly wipe down the bbq sauce bottles at the table. You have no idea how much bbq bottle crust ruins a meal before it even starts.
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