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| - We took some clients out to City Smoke the other night. I can't say that the food was bad, but it wasn't great. This place has a good beer selection and a nice list of bourbon specialty cocktails. As a bar alone, I would give it a higher rating. Nice atmosphere and huge bar area.
We started our meal out with the fried pickles, which were pretty good, but the shards of glass that I bit into in one of the pickle slices kind of ruined that. The staff reacted, comped my meal, etc. so I wasn't too upset, but it really did freak me out a bit to spit out a few pieces of glass after I just bit into a fried pickle.
But regardless of that event, my opinion of this spot wouldn't change. I would much prefer an NC barbecue restaurant to focus solely on NC barbecue and not try to be a mediocre version of Austin, Kansas City, and Memphis as well. The NC pulled pork was quite good, but the eastern vinegar sauce was horrible. I love Eastern NC style vinegar based sauce, but I don't know who came up with the vinegar crap I tasted there. No flavor at all. The Kansas City sauce resembled nothing like I have ever tasted in my 6 or 7 experiences in KC with their local style barbecue. It tasted like Ketchup when compared to Arthur Bryant's or Gates'. Their own "city smoke" sauce was decent and tangy, but nothing to write home about.
On a really positive note, the Brunswick Stew was killer. Probably some of the best I have ever had. It had a nice spicy bite to it and had a bunch of chunks of pulled pork. I could just order a giant bowl of this and I'd be happy!
As uptown barbecue restaurants go, I think Queen City Q has this place beat by a long shot. Unless I just want to grab a beer or a bourbon drink, I don't think I will revisit this place.
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