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| - Barbecue, Bourbon, and Beer is their tagline, but I feel they only do one of these well. I've eaten a lot of BBQ in the Carolinas, TN, TX, St. Louis, etc. And I was disappointed by this place. The concept is great, but they need a little help with the food.
I visited for lunch during the week after Christmas. It was not overly busy and we were able to get a table right away. The decor in the restaurant creates a great atmosphere and they keep it classy with brown paper on the tables, like a real BBQ joint.
I'll start with the high point. Their beer selection is amazing! Lots of craft brews and plenty of local stuff. They have rotating taps and their selection changes quickly. They also have a great list of bottled beers. They are listed on Untappd as a verified venue, but when I went their draft list wasn't up to date.
Their other schtick is bourbon. They have a decent list of standard bourbons, and even do flights, but there wasn't anything overly special in their list. Being so close to KY it might be nice to carry a special bourbon made just for them - just a thought if they want to really attract bourbon connoisseurs. They also do an array of bourbon cocktails, but I didn't try any.
Finally the barbecue. I will say it looked amazing and presentation was beautiful. I started with the burnt ends appetizer. The plantains they were served with was a different touch, but done well. The burnt ends themselves were not dry and had a good mix of meat and fat, but it was hard to taste the flavor of the meat, because it was drowned in sauce. For my meal, I ordered the half rack of ribs, mac & cheese, and dirty grits. The ribs were decent, not quite fall off the bone, but texture was ok, and definitely not dry. It was again difficult to taste the flavor of the meat, because it was once again drowned in sauce. The mac & cheese was average, and you could barely taste the cheese over all of the cracked black pepper. Lastly, the dirty grits... these could have been amazing if it the flavor wasn't completely over taken by flavor of the cracked black pepper - the texture of the grits were creamy, the chorizo, corn and other flavors were a nice add, but I just couldn't get past the over-powering pepper flavor.
I would come back, but only to enjoy a few beers at the bar and maybe give some of their bourbon cocktails a try.
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