Chicagoist: Honky Tonkin'

guest

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:50:51 -0600

I'm also from Kansas City, and can't find anything close to what I'm looking for here. Chicago barbecue places seem to think of barbecue as some kind of gourmet food that can be perfected through advanced cooking techniques or something. None of it is very good. Any barbecue place serving a "mixed-green salad with Michigan blueberries, walnuts, jicama, and goat cheese" along with your meal just isn't going to get it. Fixed-price dinners with a bottle of wine? Come on now..

guest

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:38:22 -0600

Thanks for the answers to my questions Chuck. Sincerely. (Verno) I think they're going to have a very difficult time getting a liquor license, particularly with the kind of business they are, in this part of town. May St. Cafe is still hung up, and they're much more like the locals than Mr. Wagner. Still, I'm looking forward to trying this place and I hope he does well.

mh95149

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:54:54 -0600

I've know Willie for 20 years (friend of a friend) and I can't wait to try his BBQ.

guest

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:54:50 -0600

I'm from Kansas City and now a landed citizen of Chicago and I have not found a good BBQ joint in this town. It seems fake. I think what really makes BBQ in a town good is if everyone in the town is a BBQ junkie. That has not seemed to happen here in Chicago. Competiton, style, taste and sauces have turned my hometown into a mecca for BBQ. Chicago needs to stick to hotdogs.

guest

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:26:23 -0600

Try as I might, I just can't get into Chicago barbecue. Chicago's good for a lot of things, but all the barbecue joints seem pale imitations of places where I've eaten down south. Then again, I don't often feel like driving to North Carolina, Kentucky, or Texas. I guess it's feast or famine.

guest

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:14:18 -0600

And FWIW our one visit was thursday evening, so maybe he tweaked things by friday. Again, this is based on one visit, and no barbecue joint is smoking exactly the way they want to be in their first, say, 3+ months. Takes a while to get used to the equipment.

guest

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:11:45 -0600

Also I have to say something about this: `He also adds no water to his meats. "I'll smoke my ribs for a couple hours, then wrap them in foil and put them back in the smoker, letting them cook in their own steam." He slow smokes his briskets for around twelve hours, then wraps them and cooks them for another two.` Bleh. Maybe this is how he's solving the dryness problem, but it's not a very good way.

guest

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:07:36 -0600

This is all based on one visit: Brisket was dry and underseasoned. The horseradish helped moisten the meat, but it shouldn't need to be. It looked like it was all cut from the flat, nothing from the point, which explains why it was dry. Baby back ribs (I'd ordered spares, but I rolled with it) were a touch too soft, but good. I wish they'd leave the sauce off all of the meats if you're eating in, because the sauce is a bit sweet. The short rib had great flavor but I think had not been smoked quite enough, as it was still fairly tough. Cole slaw was fine, baked beans were good, with bits of pulled pork in the mix. That said, I think the baked beans *might* have been, say, a tweaked Bush's. Nothing wrong with that, as Bush's baked beans are really fairly good. The highlight of the meal was the salad, which had a great dressing and was a great way to cut the richness and heaviness of the meal we were about to eat. As for my rib rankings, Honky Tonk wouldn't make the top 5 (neither would Smoque, which I'm also not terribly enamored of but which I think is superior to HT). That top 5 would include: Honey 1, Lem's, Uncle John's, Barbara Ann's, and I-57 rib shack. That said, these are the best ribs within a mile of my house, so we'll be back to try the spares and get another salad, but it won't stop me from grabbing Honey 1 on the way home from work every now and then. Things I wish HT would do: Start smoking hot links. That place could get a lot more of my business if they went to Uncle John's or Grant Park Packing, got a case or two of his hot links, and started smoking them. Not sauce anything for eat-in. Smoke packer cut briskets, or if they are, ask the customer whether they want fattier or leaner brisket. Season the brisket much more aggressively, with a much stronger rub. Salt Lick BBQ in Texas, for instance, has a great full-flavored rub that permeates the fat in the point and mixes with the smoke. Smoke the short rib a bit longer. Like I said, we'll be back to give the spares a chance, and because it's so close, but I wouldn't recommend anyone skip Honey 1, Smoque, UJ's, etc for it.