REM at Walter's BBQ

Chain, Chain, Chain...Dickey's Barbecue PTC

Pork Sandwich: B
Brunswick Stew: C
Authenticity: D
Overall: B-


I found I liked Dickey's Barbecue in Peachtree City better the second time around. It's a chain out of Texas, located in a strip mall, but I'm gonna let that slide. Their pork sandwich was above average, if a little thick and rich. The stew was the thickest I've seen since starting this blog. It was basically meat with sauce added. I usually add crackers to the stew, but felt wrong in doing so with this concoction.
Oh, and it was pretty expensive, too. $9.00 for this:
















They do have a diverse menu that more adventuresome bbq fans will appreciate:







Oh yeah: they have free vanilla ice cream cones, too. Yay!

They are located at:
Braelinn Village SC
460 Crosstown Rd
Peachtree City, GA 30269

www.dickeys.com

Walter's Theme by REM

For the two years I spent in Athens, Walter's BBQ never once looked open. A pity, since they have one of the best theme songs a BBQ place could have. Grant did name his son Walter though. Hmmm.

You Can't Go Home Again: Fresh Air Barbeque

Sandwich:B
Stew:C+
Authenticity:A+

They say that you can't go home again and that you should never meet your heroes. Sadly, this is the case with my recent experience with Fresh Air Barbeque in Jackson, Ga. I had a very pleasant (if hazy) childhood memory of the place, and it was high on my list of places to rediscover with this blog. But the truth, as my taste buds see it, is that Fresh Air's barbeque is merely slightly above average, not the legendary fare that a very old set of electrons in my brain said it was.



The pork sandwich was okay, with a tomato and vinegar sauce. It did have a sort of personality to it: more of a zing than a twang. The lack of pickles barred it from ever being in my top ten though.

The stew, frankly, tasted like it came out of a can. Doing my little trick of adding the house barbeque sauce to it livened it up considerably, but I shouldn't have had to do that.

One saving grace for Fresh Air lies in it's authenticity. It's been around since 1929, and has been the favorite of former governors Herman Talmadge and Joe Frank Harris. It still has the gravel parking lot and the sawdust floored outside eating area that I remember from 30+ years ago. Pictures of late owner "Toots" adorn the inside. The cook inside was encouraging folks to purchase muscadines from her son who had a makeshift stand just outside the front door.

I just wish the food was a bit better.

Sprayberry's: Sweet Sorrow

Before we embark on our new format, I want to say a little bit about Sprayberry's Barbeque in Newnan, Ga, since we just went there last night and it's fresh on my mind.

Sprayberry's has been around since 1929 and is partly famous for being the favorite BBQ haunt of the late Lewis Grizzard, beloved southern author and columnist for the AJC. Country singer Alan Jackson supposedly waited tables here when he was young as well.

It all started on a whim, with me calling up Grant an hour or so before quitting time and proposing the adventure of driving down the back roads to Newnan for a quick dinner at Sprayberry's. Grant gives in very easily to the "call of the pig". I also called my friend and former bandmate Daniel to meet us there, as he lives in the area.

Turns out we were the only patrons there as we arrived at about 8:00, so we had the place to ourselves. Our waitress was very friendly and stayed so throughout the visit.

I ordered the "Lewis Grizzard Special" which was everything that I normally order (a pork sandwich and an order of brunswick stew) plus the addition of onion rings. No wonder dear old Lewis needed a new heart valve, if this was his usual order! Grant ordered two different kinds of meat, some stew, beans and Texas toast. Daniel had "the Aristocrat", which consisted of a pork sandwich, onion rings and fries.

I have to agree with a number of reviews I read online in saying that, unless you're a local, Sprayberry's is nothing to write home about. But then again, if you are a local, what are you writing home for anyway? I guess it's one of those things you have to grow up with, not unlike my family's obsession with the Varsity: I just don't get it.

My meal was, for the most part, average but was ruined by that most humble of ingredients: the pickle. Sprayberry's uses sweet pickles on the sandwich, which just made it all wrong to me. I'm definitely pro-pickle, but sweet pickles don't work for me on my BBQ sandwich. On the other hand, the stew was serviceable, maybe even above the average of what I've been getting lately.

So to wrap it up, I'll say Sprayberry's gets a C, maybe even a C+, but just barely. I would probably go there again and give them another chance. Even with a C, they are better than your average generic strip mall BBQ place.

Reboot!

Hey internet! It's time for my yearly post! Pathetic isn't it? Yes, I think so. It's not like Grant and I have stopped going to barbeque places. Lawds no! But I think we're just not motivated enough to pontificate at the level we were when we started this blog. So I'm going to change the way we review things. From now on, we're going to implement a scorecard method of rating the places we visit, and if we feel inspired enough, we'll say a few words in a paragraph or two at the end. We'll see how it goes.