Image via Complex Original
If you like your meat like you like your women (thick and juicy), then you'll find plenty of places in the South where you can find both of that particular design. But if you're a not planning to hit up the Barbecue Belt anytime soon, there are plenty of tasty BBQ restaurants throughout the rest of the United States. Some specialize in dry rub, some in sauce, and some in their variety of barbecued goods you can have them cook up. But all of them will give your palate that little bit of salt, fat, spice, and lovin' you can't get anywhere else than an amazingly barbecued meal.
RELATED: Rum Drinks That Make BBQ Taste Even Better
RELATED: A Guide To Picking Up Women at A Summer BBQ
RELATED: Great BBQ Recipes Dad Can Go Ham On
BrisketTown
City: Brooklyn
Address: 359 Bedford Ave.
Website: delaneybbq.com
Anticipation is the key to the gastronomic tease and the meat purveyors at BrisketTown/Delaney Barbecue have it down to an erotic art. Beneath the peppery shell of their infamous brisket is a meat that has been slow-burned into Central Texas-style brisket bliss after 15 hours of foreplay.
Once an idea fostered on culinary curiosity by a man named Daniel Delaney with a rooftop small box cooker, Delaney Barbecue then opened BrisketLab as pop-up before graduating to the popular brick-and-mortar, BrisketTown. As well as lean or fatty brisket—always a man’s personal choice—are 8-spice rubbed pork ribs, smoked pulled pork, hot link sausages, a red chili made with chopped brisket and pulled pork, a slew of traditional sides like slaw, and pies to cleanse the peppery palate.
Slows BBQ
City: Detroit
Address: 2138 Michigan Ave.
Website: slowsbarbq.com
Detroit is a city built on grime, grease, and sheer ambition. Going through an urban renewal of sorts, the city has seen better days but is slowly rebuilding itself. Slows BBQ is helping the cause, meaty rib after meaty rib. Open for nine years and counting, Slows has earned a national reputation for a plethora of draft beers and meat as solid as the Midwest spirit.
Dry rubbed Texas-style beef brisket and gorgeously glossy pulled chicken are met with the saucy drip of Slows’ St. Louis-style ribs. Sweet and spicy Carolina-style pulled pork falls off the bone and into your mouth, dressed in saliva-inducing sauce. The restaurant is so popular and such a charged contributor to the renewal of the Detroit food scene that Slows BBQ has even been showcased on Man Vs. Food with Adam Richman.
Fette Sau
City: Brooklyn
Address: 354 Metropolitan Ave.
Website: fettesaubbq.com
Sustainable eating doesn’t just mean foraging for seeds and drinking questionable homemade kombucha. Despite its fancy German name, Fette Sau (Fat Pig) maintains that down-home allure of barbecue while giving the hippies something to chew on. The Brooklyn-based barbecue joint has a menu that changes daily, but offers several kinds of meats on the regular.
Saucy St. Louis-style pork ribs, a rubbed-down smacked-up pork belly that’s ostensibly the most delicious bacon you’ve ever had, 3-day brined house-cured pastrami, rich Wagyu cheeks, and of course, a fatty, crusted brisket which lends burnt ends to the homemade baked beans. Five different woods from The Woodman smoke the meats, while local farms like Heritage, Creekstone, Berkridge, and more provide the animals who sacrificed their lives for your satisfaction. Wash that temporal guilt away with an American whiskey off Fetta Sau’s extensive list or beer in growlers.
Bludso's
City: Los Angeles
Address: 811 S Long Beach Blvd.
Website: bludsosbbq.com
On the streets that helped birth, foster, and feed West Coast rap, Bludso’s is a classic grab-and-go Compton staple. Tucked into the tiniest storefront, Bludso’s sticky-sweet ribs are Southern fare; accompanying cornbread soaks up the tangy sauce in a mélange of Texan tongue-tricks.
The smoke is balanced by the vinegary hum of the collared greens. The weekend boasts a special Angus beef rib, but all week long you can indulge in their meat combos with pork shoulder, rib tips, or beef brisket. Dinners include their crunchy slaw and legit smoky baked beans, cans of grape soda ready to wash down your feast in Styrofoam to-go containers while you sit curbside in Compton in the California sun wondering how life could get any better.
Smoque
City: Chicago
Address: 3800 N Pulaski Rd.
Website: smoquebbq.com
Aside from the pretentious spelling of Smoque’s name that makes it seem like some faux, hipsterfied BBQ imitation, Smoque is internationally-renowned for making damn good food. They are so committed to detail that Smoque has written a BBQ Manifesto that talks about why the “meat not the sauce should be the star of the show.”
Everything about Smoque is detail-oriented and entirely legit. They smoke their pork shoulders for twelve hours; they smoke their moist brisket for fifteen hours. They’ve got pink and plump yardbirds that get smoked for three hours and Memphis-style dry-rubbed ribs cooked over oak and sweet applewood. If you can’t decide what you want, you can get a taste of pulled pork or Texas links added to your meal so you don’t feel deprived of all the flavors Smoque has to offer.
Hitching Post and Hitching Post 2
City: Central California Coast
Address: 3325 Point Sal Rd., 406 E. Highway 246
Website: hitchingpost1.com, hitchingpost2.com
Don’t whine about bad ‘cue on the Cali coast. In wine country, there are the sibling smokers and Santa Maria style BBQ experts, Hitching Post and Hitching Post 2 that serve up ribs and romance à la Sideways with barbecue cooked on a high-heat open fire under the stars. Some sort of cosmic cowboy energy is corralled into The Hitching Post’s meat, with entrees like pork baby back ribs sprinkled with Magic Dust and grilled Texas quail straight from the fantasies of a rugged vaquero. The mix of California’s agriculturally-knowledgeable Spanish rancheros and Southern flair makes The Hitching Post a gold rush of brilliant flavors, all culled from the local history of the Central Coast.
17th St Bar & Grill
City: Murphysboro, Ill.
Address: 32 N 17th St.
Website: 17thstreetbarbecue.com
Considered one of the best barbecue places in the whole entire world, the ‘cue at 17th Street Barbecue is all thanks to the meat-manipulating magic of Mike Mills. An award-winning artist of sorts, Mills brings all his heart and soul (and his audacious nickname “The Legend”) to the Heartland’s best barbecue joint. Mills is the guy behind Magic Dust, a “top-secret” spice mix of paprika, cumin, cayenne, garlic, and more that gets sprinkled liberally all over his goodies including fresh chicharones, BBQ nachos, and the Bon Appetit-touted “best ribs in the U.S.” (cooked slowly over cherry and apple woods for six hours).
Mills is so renowned for his barbecue prowess that he’s even authored a James Beard-nominated book called Peace, Love and Barbecue. “Life is too short for half a rack,” is Mills’ motto. Well, the barbecue tycoon is definitely working with racks on racks on racks. And damn good ones, too.
Podnah's Pit
City: Portland, Ore.
Address: 625 NE Killingsworth St.
Website: podnahspit.com
The Pacific Northwest isn’t exactly known for its awesome barbecue, but Portland’s buzzing beer and beard scene is giving way to another manly, lumberjackian pleasure: meat. Podnah’s Pit’s self-made smoker is spitting out about thirty tons of barbecue a year including, of course, the Texas-style St. Helen’s brisket, a ruby trout, a half smoked chicken, and the most popular item on the menu: the Pitboss.
This bad boy ponies up a quarter pound of brisket, pulled pork, ribs, sausage, and lots and lots of heartburn. Soak up your drippings with white, onion, or jalapeno bread and if you’re on a suicide mission, start that meal off with Podnah’s trailer trash tastiness: the Frito Pie.
Dinosaur BBQ
City: New York
Address: 700 W 125th St.
Website: dinosaurbarbque.com
Dino is a Greek word that can mean “fearfully great.” With eight barbecue places under their reptilian belts, Dinosaur BBQ is becoming one of the most fearfully great barbecue places on the East Coast. The chain started in 1983 as a mobile concession stand and over thirty years later became a nationally-acclaimed barbecue joint that has been featured on Good Morning, America, the Food Network, and more.
The menu is varied, but the best thing there is obviously the barbecue including spice-rubbed jumbo chicken wings, BBQ salmon fritters, and Korean style BBQ beef ribs. The Pork and Brisket plate is the sort of meal that would turn any herbivore into a carnivorous beast.
Sweet Cheeks BBQ
City: Boston
Address: 1381 Boylston St.
Website: sweetcheeksq.com
Looking for some Southern-style deliciousness near Fenway Park? With barbecue this good, Sweet Cheeks almost damn near revokes its Yankee geography with trays of Berkshire pork belly, buttermilk fried chicken, brisket, hush puppies, fried okra, and buckets of biscuits. Created by Top Chef contestant Tiffani Faison, Sweet Cheeks is a down-home-style culinary tour de force.
Everett and Jones
City: Oakland
Address: 296 A St.
Website: eandjbbq.com
Befitting the Bay Area’s penchant to glam-up even the humblest of crafts, Everett and Jones’ motto, emblazoned across the top of their website, is “Cooking up a real good time.”
The family affair has been in operation since the early ‘70s, slangin’ sweet sounds with their live entertainment while you eat. Their barbecue sauce, which they sell on their website, can be found on their house menu which features a rib dinner with smoked pork ribs made with Super Q seasoning over an oakwood flame, a yardbird glossy with juice from an open-fire grill, of ribs accompanied by sides of greens, yams, slaw, or baked beans.
Hot Rod's Real Pit BBQ
City: Wharton, N.J.
Address: 19 N Main St.
Website: hotrodsbbq.com
While most barbecue places brag about their slow-stylings, Hot Rod’s Real Pit BBQ models their energy off the checkered speedways and cult status of classic cars. The place is no frills yumminess, a pit stop where people can pick up Chef Tony Sibona’s infamous Sweet and Spicy BBQ Wings.
These wings are slathered with a 14-spice rub and then smoked. In fact, pretty much everything on Sibona’s menu is smoked including a sumptuous pork tenderloin, burnt ends shoved into stuffed backed potatoes, osso bucco, and even a homemade meatloaf which is served with a tangy side of BBQ sauce to really get you revved up.
Lem's Bar-B-Q
City: Chicago
Address: 311 East 75th St.
Website: lemsque.com
This is one case where “just the tip” is a good thing. Lem’s Bar-B-Q is known for their chewy, fatty tips, the kind that even vegetarian girls fight over once they get a glimpse of those glistening, charred remnants dripping with animal grease. Chitown’s ribs-and-links game is spot-on at Lem’s, an architecturally-interesting foodie paradise behind a retro façade.
Created in 1954 by two brothers who went by the last name “Lemon,” Lem’s doesn’t just dabble in meat; they are masters of their craft and have other morsels on the menu like fried shrimp and fried chicken. Their infamous special recipe barbecue sauce can also be purchased by the gallon for those who want to guzzle that glorious stuff or just spread it on their tips straight from the pit they were smoked in.
Rollin' Smoke Barbecue
City: Las Vegas
Address: 3185 Highland Dr.
Website: rollinsmokebarbeque.com
Las Vegas is an official unofficial food city, where award-winning chefs from all over the world come to dish up their exotic, experimental, or gourmand wares for high-rolling tourists and carnivorous celebs alike. Trey Holland’s Rollin’ Smoke Barbecue sort of disregards the glam of Vegas cookeries with scandalously-rubbed meats prepared Southern-style and moderately-priced with “smokin’ deals” so that you can spend that money on poker—of the strip or hold ‘em variety.
Everything rolls out in hickory-smoked goodness like succulent pulled pork, ribs of all sizes and shapes, and hot links that are perfectly-sided with the spiced-up crunch of Rollin’ Smoke’s jalapeño coleslaw or bacon potato salad. The real kicker is Rollin’ Smoke’s Outlaw burger made with brisket, onion strings, red cabbage slaw, cheddar cheese, and chipotle aioli. It’s the self-described “best burger in Vegas.” We don’t mind being the judge of that.
Oklahoma Joe's
City: Kansas City, Kan.
Address: 3002 West 47th Ave.
Website: oklahomajoesbbq.com
Picking just one restaurant from the Barbecue Belt is like Sophie’s Choice: The Meat Edition, but Kansas City’s Oklahoma Joe’s national infamy gave it a rib up on the competition. The barbecue joint has years of awards and accolades including Reserve Grand Champion at the World Brisket Open and first-place almost-everything including lamb, sausage, and pork at the American Royal.
If you want some winning pork, you just have to hit up one of Oklahoma Joe’s many locations for a Flintstones-style full slab of ribs, the Pig Salad made with pulled pork, and meat-by-the-pound including smoked turkey, which is somewhat of a rarity on barbecue menus. Kansas is like a barbecue crossroads and that’s reflected in the cuts of meat chosen for Oklahoma Joe’s ribs (St. Louis-style) and Southern-style sauces. Are you still not convinced? Well, Anthony Bourdain says that Oklahoma Joe’s is one of the thirteen places to eat before you die…or diet.