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| - I absolutely loved Union Pig and Chicken and am still sad that they closed. I was excited to hear about Pork and Beans and have wanted to check it out since it opened, but could never score a table as the restaurant always had a wait and reservations were hard to come by. We recently tried Chef Michael Symon's Mabel's BBQ up and Cleveland and loved it so we definitely had to compare the two. I was totally shocked when my wife surprised me by taking me to Pork and Beans for Father's Day.
Being that it was Father's Day and a Pirate baseball game was starting shortly there were just a few other families when we arrived for our reservation. Once we were seated at a table Kylie our waitress came to tell us how the menu worked and take our drink orders. It was pretty much identical to Mabel's so we had a good idea what we wanted to order. The seating is communal which I usually despise, but since the restaurant wasn't crowded I didn't mind it so much. They do offer a few booths as well.
My wife and I were only going to just drink water, but after both tasting our daughter's Boylan Cream Soda which was delicious by the way we both ordered one for ourselves, but at $4 a glass next time we will all just drink water.
As far as the meat goes we went with the Pork Belly, Spare Ribs, Brisket and 1/4 Fried Chicken Dark Meat (drumstick and thigh). For our sides we chose the Collard Greens, Mac & Cheese and Burnt Ends and Beans. The pork belly was out of this world. It was melt in your mouth good! Like meat flavored butter. The brisket and spare ribs were quite tasty also. Very moist and tender enough to cut with a fork. There are four different barbecue sauces on the table. I only tried the mustard based sauce as that is the type I usually prefer. It was tanging, but too watery for my taste.
The fried chicken was outstanding. Perfectly cooked with a nice hard crust outside and tender meat inside. Not as good as Union Pig, but close. I really liked the honey tabasco barbeque sauce that came with the chicken. It had a slight kick and was quite unique. My only complaint is that the two pieces of chicken were quite small for $8. Next time I will just get a half chicken.
The collard greens were tender and cooked to perfection with just the right amount of seasoning. The mac & cheese could of had more cheese and I would have prefered for the noodles to have been slightly more al dente. The burnt ends and beans were not your usual bake beans. They were quite different as they featured several different types of beans, but were still enjoyable.
The pickles, cabbage and onion garnishes on the tray were a nice touch. I really like the fact that they give you diner rolls as well so you can make little barbeque sandwiches if you so chose. Once we were finished Kylie packed up the rest of our food and even packed us some of all four of their barbeque sauces.
So how does Pork and Beans stack up to Mabel's? I think that they are neck and neck. Both are similar and different at the same time. Even the decor is similar. Mabel's doesn't take reservations, have fried chicken or mac and cheese, but their ribs and brisket are superior so Mabel's squeaks out the win. Barely.
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