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.

O.B.'s or not O.B's

Hello there, Internet. Long time no see. I'm glad to be back. I apologize to all our loyal readers (all 3 of you) for being gone so long. What say we skip the awkward "You never wrote" part and take up right where we left off?

Up to now, the reviews have been pretty straightforward. We either liked a place, disliked it, or were ambivalent about it. I feel this review is gonna be different. I went into this one kinda excited, because I had went to this particular place two or three times before, and it was growing on me. I wanted to be able to right a positive review. But I tell you, Internet, it's a little harder than I thought.

The place in question is O.B.'s Barbeque at 499 Veteran's Memorial Highway in Mableton. It's a recent new addition to the barbeque places available to Grant and I around our workplace. We discovered on our first visit that the location was once an Old Hickory House, a long gone but fondly remembered barbeque chain from my youth. (Old Hickory House trivia: The scene where The Bandit and Sheriff Buford T. Justice meet at the Bus Stop restaurant counter in Smokey and the Bandit was shot in a Old Hickory House in Jonesboro, Ga., the very same one that I grew up going to.)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not overly fond of barbeque chains these days, but the staff at this particular O.B.'s (if not a chain, at least a franchise) has a certain charm to them that goes a long way at dispelling any chain feel to the place. They do this by being very friendly, very casual, and honestly, kinda slow. Not speed slow, but, umm, brain slow. For example, I once heard one of the wait staff ask another, loudly:

"Hey, what's 12 minus 7?"

Another one has a entertainingly narcoleptic way of serving you. She kinda drifts over to your table and engages you in a style of conversation that most closely resembles the term "bedhead", if that makes any sense.

I know these statements sound derogatory, but they're not really. I find these things harmlessly entertaining, and they give me the opportunity to use that most southern of sayings: "Bless her heart!"

For entertainment value alone, the wait staff gets an A. (They do actually work rather well, I've never had a real complaint about the actual service here)

Let's move on to the food, shall we? To be honest, they do a lot of things that I don't like, but somehow seem right, for this place anyway. I'm on record as saying that I don't like it when a place doesn't make a commitment by not putting sauce on their barbeque. This place is one of those places. However, I like all three of their sauces that they provide on the table: mild, sweet, and hot. Therefore it doesn't bother me that you're obliged to put the sauce on yourself. But I'll tell you what I don't like is the large chunks of pork that make up their sandwich, and the lack of pickles on said sandwich. I've found I prefer the barbeque plate here, which is yet another contradiction to all I hold dear in barbeque. But seriously, go for the plate.

Casting our attention to their Brunswick stew, it started out pleasant enough, if a touch rich. However, as I got closer to finishing it, it lost a bit of it's character, becoming almost like stew from a can. This may have been because I ordered a mammoth 12 ounce serving. 12 ounces doesn't sound like too much when I ordered it. Oh well.


I'd also like to mention they something called "Frickles", which I assume is some sort of fried pickle. I'll have to try that next time.

So in review, I'm gonna have to give the food a C+, but I feel with a couple of tweaks, possibly on my part, it could easily rise to B- or a solid B.


So what do we have here? The exception that proves the rule? It's hard for me to say. I can say that I do like the place, and will return. And I guess that's what it's all about, isn't it?

p.s. I'd like to give a honorable mention to this here painting located above the booths in the back of O.B's. Like the restaurant itself, I find it contradictory, yet pleasing in it's own way. It features a deer couple serenely observing a flock of ducks from the lakeside. Relaxing, huh?

This blog could use a woman's touch...so here it is! Willamson Brothers BBQ

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce a special guest reviewer: My friend Laura has graciously taken on the task of reviewing one of the Atlanta area's favorite BBQ places:Williamson Brothers BBQ in Canton, Ga. Without further ado...Miss Laura, Guest BBQ Expert:

The parking lot was pretty packed at about 8 PM, which I guess is a good sign for a Monday night. The decor was all drab & brown, but I guess that's fitting for a BBQ joint. I felt out of my element a little, but I suppose I would be hard pressed to find a pink, frilly BBQ joint...LOL.

It looked like a hunting lodge to me with various animal heads mounted on the wall, but we were in the sticks, aka Canton, so it fits with the locals. No matter. I was there for the BBQ. At least it wasn't a Jim n' Nicks fake atmosphere. We were seated in a little nook of the restaurant, so I couldn't see much else. I did take this photo from our booth, because I was feeling a little homesick.

I also would like to note that they also had leather "privacy" curtains hanging up, which we found to be amusing.

Anyway, to the food.

We started off with Brunswick stew.

It was decent. I probably wouldn't want to try it again, simply because it had a bit of a sweet taste to it, and I really don't like sweet Brunswick stew. I was sad quite honestly. And for $3.49 each serving. Plus, I didn't even feel compelled to finish it. The texture and heartiness of it was fine, it was the sweetness factor that ruined it for me. Perhaps it would work for someone else that prefers it that way. I did dip my fries in it, and it was a much yummier alternative to ketchup, so I will give it that. I will say that it was the kind of Brunswick stew without lima beans, and that was a good thing as far as I am concerned.

I wanted to try lots of different things, so I opted for the BBQ platter, which had 2 nice sized ribs, a giant chicken breast (I specified that I wanted white meat, otherwise they may have brought dark), a pile of pulled pork (they asked if I wanted pulled, sliced, or chopped) and chopped beef. The platter also came with 2 sides and a slice of garlic toast. I got mac & cheese and steak fries. I think that is was like $14-15 for the platter, which is a lot for a meal in my opinion, but we were splurging.

I thought it was funny that the entire platter was nothing but lots of saucy meat, and one lone pickle...but I am easily amused. It was a ton of food! I personally barely made a dent in it since we had the stew and it had 2 sides. I could easily make 3 meals out of what I got. Maybe a guy with a heartier appetite could make 2 meals out of it.

The BBQ sauce itself tasted good to me. Not too sweet, not too spicy. Just pleasant. No other choices though...so you had to like it. The meat had it on it, plus there was a bottle at each table in case you wanted more. I ate one rib, and it was pretty good. I am by no means a pork expert, but I liked it if that means anything. It wasn't too small or dry. They had a roll of papertowels at each table, and I had to make use of it after eating a rib. Not a biggie. I prefer messy over dry if given the choice.

The chicken was honestly probably the most boring thing, but because it was such a fat portion of meat...so it was a little bland and a little dry when you got beyond the BBQ sauce layer. I can't remember if they had the option on the menu, but I think a shredded chicken with sauce version would be much yummier. That way it would be nice and juicy like the pulled pork and the beef. The pulled pork and the beef were my favorites. All around juicy and flavorful.

The steak fries were good. No surprises. Just your average steak fries. Like I said before, dipping then in the Brunswick stew was yummy. The mac & cheese was kind of rubbery and bland. I would pass on them the next go round. I did sample Alex's sides, and his were both yummy. Mashed potatoes & cole slaw. The cole slaw was excellent. It was finely chopped & very juicy the way I like it. I don't like it when the cabbage is shredded in strips...I mean, I'll eat it, but the more finely chopped way with lots of juice was awesome. The potatoes were scrummy with a hint of garlic salt and just a bit of the potato skins mashed in.

Alex got a slab of BBQ ribs.

I think it was $18-19 for the slab, plus the 2 sides and slice of toast. Again, we were splurging. With the tip we spent $52.00 for the two of us to have our platters, plus each a Brunswick stew and a sweet tea. He was only able to eat half, and he has a pretty hearty rib appetite.

While the stew was disappointing, I think the place deserves a B. I don't think I'll be rushing back, but I would go back...this time I know what to get and what to avoid.

There you have it folks! I'd like to personally thank Laura for her review. A review of Williamson Bros. almost killed this blog a while back!