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| - Found the place in the corner of the shopping center on a Saturday dinner. New ownership, and even a Saturday special for burnt ends seemed promising. The pricing is pretty good, and both the place and the food had a lot of heart. Even so, our meal ended up being okay.
Came with a couple bros - one wanted some saucy, tender ribs. With some succulent pictures and their menu focus on their meatier Pork Back Ribs, we figured this fit the bill. And with the Saturday special of burnt ends, this should have been some of the most tender bites of meat ever. And with BBQ, the meat is always the focus.
Pork Back Ribs: the smokiness and dry rub were fantastic, going all the way down to the bone. But our expectations were askew - that Mahogany Glaze felt cooked through to a barky crust. Definitely doesn't match some of the other pictures of ribs on the Yelp page. There is enough flavor you don't need sauce to eat, but of course sauce helps. But the biggest issue was the ribs somehow being moist and tough at the same time. Just a hint above tender, we could bite the meat off the bone but needed a little more effort to chew through the meat. A braise or finish in sauce could have counteracted that, but that's not the AZ BBQ Shack style, and I respect that.
Burnt Ends: I was on board with this Saturday Special from the first minute, perhaps 8 very saucy cubed bites in a cast iron for 1/2 pound. Then I took the first bites. I could not find the marbling I needed for that melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Unlike the ribs' stylistic difference, this was just straight off - they were chewy and hard to eat, just under a giant cube of beef jerky. I don't know if these were true burnt ends or brisket just incinerated to a crisp, but I was just straight up disappointed. Maybe I should've seen it coming on an 2/3 empty Saturday night dinner.
I think the sides largely fit the bill. Mac and Cheese, Cornbread, and the Collard Greens were all good, just a tad bland. We asked if the fries were fried alongside bread crumbs due to a gluten allergy, but our waitress didn't know. We ordered anyways, and it turns out the fries were the frozen kind that are slightly battered. Not gonna detract from the experience since they were delicious, but it seemed like an easy enough question the cook could have answered and sad that our friend who wanted fries couldn't eat them.
I might come back in the area to try their sliders or some of their other meats, but the stars of tonight's dinner largely did not perform. Maybe could go for a lunch special, but would not order meat en masse again based on faith.
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