MY BBQ BLOG

Natural Born Grillers

Southaven, MS

Walking in to Natural Born Grillers was a little exciting.  As you open the double doors from a Northern Miss strip mall you enter a dining room adorned with giant award checks, dozens and dozens of 6 feet tall championship trophies, a neon juke box filled with great classic rock and shiny booths that look like they belong in a 1950’s diner.

 As you walk to the counter to order, your eyes are drawn to a large sign that reads, “Our goal is to serve you the best BBQ you ever had!  Let us know if we did!”  If your décor is nothing but awards, your location is 15 miles from BBQ Mecca, and you have this quote under your counter…you better bring it.

I will admit that I have tasted NBG championship BBQ as I have competed against them a few times on the circuit and I admit that they have a great team and the BBQ that they DON’T turn in because they don’t feel it is championship worthy is still better than 90% of any stuff that you have ever tasted in your life.  However, cooking a great shoulder or butt and trying to mass produce it consistently is two totally different things.

 Knowing what NBG was capable of, I was a little harder on them then some other places, as I had very high expectations.

I must explain some things before I get to the Q review.  I never can decide what to get at a BBQ joint so I have devised a pretty good philosophy that always seems to work.

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Angie’s BBQ – located at the Chateau Elan exit on I-85 (~45 mins N or ATL) 

It was Friday afternoon and we were heading up to Asheville looking for some lunch on the road.  Hark! A sign indicating BBQ just ahead at the next exit!  Could life get any better????  Well, we found the place (about 1.5 miles off the interstate) in a brand new strip mall, but I wasn’t going to let that bring me down.  When we went inside, I noticed the requisite Dale Sr and Dale Jr pictures on the wall, as well as a cheap sketch of Amen corner.  Things seemed to be looking good!  I took a look at the menu and immediately ordered the “Smokehouse Special” - A chopped BBQ sandwich on toast with slaw and a tomato.  Although I had never had a tomato on BBQ, I was open to this interpretation.  Now, let’s take a look at the sides (uh oh!).  They had fries, hushpuppies, potato chips, green beans, potato salad and macaroni salad -  but no stew, no greens, no ocra, no mac&cheese!!!  I was a bit discombobulated by the

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The Dixie Pig

4495 N Dixie Hwy

Oakland Park, FL 33334-3819

Hailing from North Carolina, I was quite surprised and delighted to find Eastern Style North Carolina BBQ in Fort Lauderdale. Anyone who has been to South Florida knows that the further South you get in this state, the less Southern it is, so finding a place that does down home BBQ and sweet tea is a real treat.

The Dixie Pig does the vinegar based pulled pork as is typically found in Eastern North Carolina BBQ. (FYI, Western or Lexington style NC BBQ is a tomato and vinegar base). I had pulled pork sandwich and it came naked so you can actually taste the meat.

The restaurant provides an array of sauces that can be doused on your BBQ as their meat is served naked so you can savor the true taste of the meat. Their signature sauce is a vinegar and pepper sauce that is wonderful doused on your sandwich but is equally wonderful doused on your fries (think fish and chips style, yall!). They also offer a more traditional sugary tomato based sauce (Memphis style) and a mustard based sauce (SC Style, think of Maurices BBQ). I’m partial to the spicy vineger base.

Dixie pig offers an array of sides such as

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Mean Pig BBQ

Cabot, Arkansas

Let me begin by saying that this was a planned trip to Cabot, AR for the purpose of taking the Shut-up Juice Challenge, not just some place on the side of the road that I stopped to get a pork sandwich.

“What is the SUJ Challenge?”, you may ask yourself…well it’s a Jumbo Pork sandwich topped with creamy cole slaw and Shut-up Juice, a tomato based BBQ sauce which contains 1 tablespoon of habanero extract.

Nestled between a Sonic and a Waffle House in the small community northwest of Little Rock, lies a gem of a BBQ place that was definitely worth the drive.

I have to admit that I wasn’t too impressed when I pulled into the parking lot; the place looked brand new.

I walked into the front door…too clean.   In my experience, the best BBQ I have ever had came from run down shacks, dilapidated buildings, gas stations, and even truck pulled smokers in parking lots, but I didn’t let my prejudice get in the way.  This place had one thing going for them…there was a long line for Mean Pig BBQ.

The challenge is to finish the entire sandwich (meat, slaw, bun) and hold it down for five minutes.  There is no time limit and the only caveat is that you cannot leave the dining room and if you miss the “Barf Box” you have to clean it up.

Now, I couldn’t do a fair review without actually trying the

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Tags: Arkansas BBQ

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Fresh Air BBQ

Yep, that’s right – I got my first taste of Fresh Air BBQ last night around 9:30 (Lori brought some back from Jackson).  Guess what folks, it was really good and the sauce was really good as well.  I’m not going to rate it yet as my feeling about BBQ is that you need to first eat it at the source before you attempt to take any away (it can dry up, not be as fresh, etc. etc.).  But I will give my initial impressions.

Lori brought some sauce back that was really good, but I don’t know what other options there were.  It was definitely a vinegar sauce (red – with a good spice – kind of reminiscent of western NC) and well spices.  The meat looked to be hand shredded (once again, not sure if there are other options, but this is what we got) and a little pre-sauced (once again, similar to some NC styles where they put a bit of sauce on the meat and let you control the rest).

The meat had

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Tags: Georgia BBQ

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