Review: Sonny’s BBQ – Cape Coral, FL

I recently visited my folks in Southwest Florida. They know that I’d rather eat BBQ than just about anything else, and they also like to share their discoveries with me. So, when it came time to grab lunch they steered us towards the Sonny’s BBQin Cape Coral.

Sonny’s is a BBQ franchise with locations in 9 states. A quick look at their website find ~125 locations listed. With that kind of succes, you’d think they must do something right. Turns out, they do.

The place was pretty nice and business was a bit slow given that we were late for lunch and early for dinner. Nonetheless, we ordered up some sweet tea and took a look at the menu. It was extensive. I opted for a trip to the salad bar and the brisket plate with a couple of sides. Turns out, I should have skipped the salad bar. The brisket portion was generous, and the side dishes were large as well.

The brisket was sliced thin and had a good flavor. I had a little more fat on my plate than I’d prefer, but it was tastey. There was a variety of sauces on the table, all original Sonny’s flavors. They were all pretty good, but I opted to enjoy my brisket without sauce. My folks went for the sweet sauce and enjoyed it as well.

They had a decent selection of side dishes. I opted for cole slaw and green beans since I’ve been trying to watch my diet a little. They were both very good, but I was sure wishing for that I’d ordered some of the BBQ beans or baked sweet potato that my folks enjoyed. They looked great.

Here’s how I’d rate my trip to Sonny’s:

BBQ – B
Side Dishes – B
Atmosphere – B
Value – B
Overall – B

Overall, a solid joint that I’d enjoy eating at again. And, given their growing footprint that’s highly likely.

Cheers,
Braddog

The “Mini” Pig-a-palooza

For the past few years, I’ve manned the BBQ pit in support of Jacob’s Ladder and their annual BBQ & music event called Pig-a-Palooza. The event has a lot of momentum and this year was the best yet.

For the second straight year, we’ve donated BBQ for a private party as part of a silent auction item. This year, it was part of an auction package that included a miniature version of the entire Pig-a-Palooza event including side dishes, wine & beer, pulled pork and ribs, and live entertainment. The lucky winner of this year’s auction item selected October 6th for the date of their shindig, and we put the wheels in motion.

So Saturday morning, I was up early stoking the smoker for the BBQ. Getting pulled pork ready for a couple of dozen people is pretty easy. Heck, getting ribs ready for a couple of dozen folks is pretty easy. But, my bride also chose this day as one of her customer appreciation days where we cook ribs for friends, clients, and colleagues of The Bradshaw Property Group. That means 24+ racks of babyback ribs. Now that’s a lot of work.

Pork butts went on the cooker by 6:00am and at 10:30am I began the prep of the ribs. Prepping that many ribs single handedly takes some time. Did I mention that it’s a lot of work? But I had ribs on the Backwoods by 11:30am.

My timing was spot on! I had the butts wrapped by 4:30pm and resting in the Cambro, and I began the process of glazing and finishing the ribs around 4:00pm. Friends, clients, and colleagues began pickingup thier customer appreciation gifts around 5:00pm, and I headed out to Mini Pig-a-Palooza at 6:00pm with a second Cambro full of BBQ goodness.

We gloved up and served the party goers to rave reviews while a friend of mine, Steve Reeb, entertained the good folks. My co-pitmaster, Dave Dey, and I took up the guitar for a miniature set of our own while Steve was on break (thanks for being so gracious Steve!).

All in all, we had a great time and look forward to next year’s Pig-a-Palooza.

Cheers,

Braddog

Review: Cambro Food Carrier

I’ve written before about holding hot food for significant periods of time before serving. You don’t have to purchase special equipment to acomplish this, while ensuring that your product is safe to serve.

However, there are products targeted at the catering and food service business that make this simple and they’ve beome quite popular among competition BBQ teams. Now I don’t compete, nor do I cater. But I do find myself cooking large quantities for a variety of charitable functions.

It was this activity (and my insatiable need to acquire new gear) that led me to acquire a couple of Cambro Food Carriers . I’d priced these through a variety of restaurant supply websites and stores, but couldn’t bring myself to spend the money for a new one. Enter, Craigslist. I kept a eye out for awhile and finally my patience was rewarded. I was able to acquire 2 slightly used Cambro’s for the the cost of one new one.

The cool thing about these warming cabinets is that they have rails along the sides that will support food pans. The disposable aluminum pans that I typiclally use fit just fine also, although the lip of the disposable pans won’t support much weight if you overload them. The cabinets are polythylene (that’s a fancy word for plastic) and insulated to keep heat loss to just a couple of degrees/hr. The doors are gasketed and the latches ensure a tight seal.

I’ve been very happy with these and use them quite often. I’ve held pork butt for 4+ hours, and transported BBQ all over the midwest. So, if you’re looking for a way to hold and transport hot food you can’t go wrong with a Cambro Food Carriers

Cheers,
Braddog

How to Light a Backwoods Smoker

Wow, I thought I had documented this but realized that I hadn’t. I’ve been asked this question a few times, and it’s one of the most common questions asked over on the Backwoods Forum. Nonetheless, it’s worth covering for the pursposed of the readers here on GrllandBarrel.com.

Here are the steps that I follow:

Load ‘er up! I won’t get into the benefits of briquettes vs. lump in this post, but suffice to say that I burn briquettes only in my Backwoods smoker(s). That’s right, just the plain ‘ol blue bag from the good folks at Kingsford. I find I get a much more consistent and longer burn (in this cooker) with briquettes.
Open both sliding vents and the top vent completely. Top door shoudl be copletely closed.
I light the charcoal with a MAPP Gas Torch in the right front corner of the charcoal pan. There are lots of ways to light the charcoal, but I find that a torch held in one spot for 60 seconds or so is enough to get it going.
I then shut the firebox door, but I do not latch it. This leaves it slightly ajar and allows for more air flow.
I leave it like this until the temperature reaches 200 degrees. This can take 30-45 minutes.
Then I add water to the water pan, shut the left rear vent completely, close the firebox door, and close the right front vent 1/2 way.
If you’re adding wood chips or chunks, do it now.
In this configuration, the smoker will be completely up to temp in 60-75 minutes.

A couple of thins to note. My Pro Jr takes longer to come up to temp than my Fatboy used to, but that’s to be expected given that it’s much larger. Additionally on the Pro Jr, I close the exhaust vent 3/4 of the way to maintain cooking temps at ~250 degrees. With the Fatboy, I left the exhaust wide open at all times.

That’s how I do it. But there are debates about adding water before lighting, type of charcoal, source of ignition, etc. Find what works for you and stick with it. It’s important that you get some kind of routine down that’s repeatable, even if it isn’t this one. That way, you’ll be able to plan for start times when you cook.

Hope this helps a few Backwoods owners!

Cheers,
Braddog

Review: Famous Dave’s BBQ

I wanted to like it. Really, I did. I mean I’ve seen Famous Dave on TV and really wanted to like my first experience eating at one of his BBQ restaurants. But unfortunately, I was underwhelmed.

Okay, I liked a couple of the spicier BBQ sauces on the table, the sweet cornbread muffin, and the complimentary sample of BBQ chips that was served for the purposes of sampling the 5 BBQ sauces on the table. My wife ordered the smoked salmon spread from the appetizer menu and it was pretty good.

But as for the BBQ, I found it to be medicore. It wasn’t smokey, it didn’t seem all that fresh, and unfortunately they served it with a big dose of their house sauce on top. I had the combo lunch plate with pulled pork and brisket. I found it to be very bland when I could get a taste around the sauce.

This seems to me like an example of the franchise concept driving the quality of the food to a level less than the founder started with or intended. At least, I hope so.

The restaurant itself felt like I’d stepped into an Applebees or a TGI Fridays. Again, the franchise thing has driven all the originality and uniqueness right out of the place. If you blindfolded me before I entered and then you handed me a menu from one of the aforementioned franchises, I would’ve thought that’s where I was. It’s kinda sad actually.

Here’s my report card:

BBQ – C
Side Dishes – B
Atmosphere – C
Value – C
Overall – C

Nonetheless, I’d rather eat mediocre, chain-BBQ-restaurant food than a lot of other franchises. So considering the alternatives in the greater Branson, MO area, I’d probably eat at Famous Dave’s again.

Cheers,
Braddog

Recap: Pig-a-palooza 3

When I crawled in bed on Saturday night, my wife asked, “Did you have fun at Pig-a-Palooza”? I informed her that the question wasn’t one that should be asked at the end of a 21 hour day. But, ask me again in a couple of days.

Well, it’s been a couple of days and I can finally say “Yes, it was fun”. I always enjoy cooking BBQ, feeding folks who have never had good BBQ, and seeing their reaction. This year’s event delivered on all three, and we raised money for a good cause at the same time.

My good friend (and fellow pitmaster) Dave and I arrived at the park at 2:30am. We had the cooker lit, the pork butt seasoned, and the meat on by 4:00am. I was figuring on an 8 hour cook time based on my most recent cook. I’d need the butts to start coming off the cooker at noon or shortly thereafter to make room for 24 sides of ribs (that’s 72 portions when you serve 4 bones/plate).

As noon approached, I began to get nervous. I wasn’t seeing the butts get to where they should be and we needed to get the ribs on. We got about 1/4 of the ribs on and I was out of space. So at 1:30, we decided it was time to start a fire in the grill that was provided for cooking burgers and dogs, wrap the butts that were close in foil, and let them finish there. Disaster averted. We were able to get all the meat done by serving time or shortly thereafter.

We began serving food at 4:00pm and saw a steady line of hungry folks for the next 4 hours. Now, we’d planned to serve BBQ as long as we could and then sell burgers and dogs when the band began playing somewhere after 7:30. Boy, did we misjduge the turnout.

In the first hour, we recognized that we were gonna be short on sides, burgers, dogs, soda, plates, and chips. We sent someone to the store for more food 4 times during the event. While I can’t make more BBQ in a couple of hours, we can keep grilling burgers and dogs. So we did. But even then, we were completely sold out by 8:00pm and couldn’t reasonably get additional product quickly enough to keep cooking. Hey, that’s a good problem to have.

All this just speaks to the turnout for this year’s event. I’d estimate that we saw at least double (if not triple) the turnout this year. I’ve thought some about why that it is, and I figure it like this. We experienced a perfect storm. The event has momentum. The band was very notable and entertaining. And, we had exceptional weather. All the ingredients to make the event a resounding success.

Or, maybe they just came for the BBQ!

Cheers,
Braddog

Review: Country BBQ – Bethalto, IL

It’s been awhile since I found and reviewed a new BBQ joint. However, this past weekend I had some time to kill and I was in an area that I don’t often visit. So, I plugged “BBQ” into Google Maps on my iPhone and found out that I was only a couple of miles from Country BBQ.

I followed the guidance directions and pretty soon, I’d located Country BBQ. It’s a small place that you’d miss if you weren’t looking for it, but that’s usually where you find the best BBQ. So I found a spot to park, stepped to the counter, ordered, and grabbed one of the dozen or so tables in the place.

I ordered the 2-meat plate. Sliced beef and pulled pork, along with sides of cole slow and BBQ beans. They did have sweet tea (the mark of any good BBQ joint), but I skipped it as I’m watching the extra calories and cutting them out where I can.

The food came out quick enough and I was impressed by the generous portions. Definitely a good value. The cole slaw was kind of a cross between a vinegar and creamy based slaw, but it was very good. The BBQ beans were okay, but there was a flavor there that I couldn’t put my finger on and frankly didn’t care for all that much. When I ordered “sliced beef”, I assumed that would be brisket. Disappointingly, it was closer to a shaved roast beef and not very “bbq like”. However, the pulled pork was very good. It was finely chopped, but I really enjoyed the flavor.

There were 3 kinds of sauce on the table. I chose the “regular” sauce and while it was thin, I thought it was very good. I did not try the mustard sauce or the other sauce that appeared to be a thick KC style sauce. Two giant slabs of Texas toast rounded out the meal.

Overall, I liked the joint. I’d recommend the pulled pork for sure. Here’s how Country BBQ in Bethalto, IL stacks up on my score card:

BBQ – B
Side Dishes – B
Atmosphere – B
Value – A
Overall – B

If you find yourself in the area, give this place a shot. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Cheers,
Braddog

Recipe: Grill Fried Chicken Wings

At Thanksgiving, I was visiting family in Pittsburgh and met the owner of Cafe Fifth Avenue. It’s a bar and restaurant that’s right next to Consol Energy Arena where we always take in a Turkey Day Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. He serves up some mighty tasty chicken wings and through the course of the conversation (and a couple of cold beers), he sent me home with a bag of the seasoning that uses for my very own. If you’re in Pittsburgh, please stop by and try his chicken wings. They were awesome!

I’d been itching to try this on fried chicken, but due to life circumstances in and around the holidays I’ve been trying to eat a little better and fried chicken just hasn’t been on my list. But Sunday, I deciced to try and adapt a recipe for “oven fried” chicken to the grill.

So I soaked a package of chicken wings in buttermilk, seasoned the flour with my new chicken seasoning, and placed the wings in a disposable pan. While this seemed like a reasonable approach, I don’t think my fire was every really hot enough. Towards the end I finally got it where it should have been all along, around 425 degrees.

I did pull the wings out of the pan and crisp them a little directly over the fire at the very end. All in all, the wings were tasty and preferred by my kids over the chicken breasts that I was also grilling. I’ll probably give this another try soon and I’ll use a little more of the seasoning on the chicken. Heck, the Super Bowl is coming up and you can’t go wrong with chicken wings at a football game, now can you?

Cheers,
Braddog

Review: Draper’s BBQ Rub & Sauce

I love the “microbrew” movement in BBQ sauces and rubs. It has created many new products and companies that share the love of good BBQ with a passion to make a great product.

Shane Draper at Draper’s BBQ is one of those folks who is sharing his passion and family traditions via his own “microbrew” BBQ sauce and rub. Shane is a 3rd generation pitmaster from Western Kentucky and as the label states, there’s “3 generations of pride and flavor in a bottle” that honors his family hertiage. While I had met Shane on line awhile back, it was only recently that I actually got to chat with him a little at the Kentucky Bluegrass festival where he was sharing samples of his products.

I came home with a bottle of both the A.P. Rub and the Smokin’ Sauce. I’d planned to cook with these products righ away, but a little knife accident sidelined me for a couple of weeks. I finally had the opportunity to fire up the grill and try out Draper’s rub & sauce. I like to sample rubs and sauces with pork tenderloin or chicken. I think flavors stand out a little more with these meats.

So, we had a couple of pork tenderloins ready to go for dinner last night. I applied the A.P. Rub to both and grilled them on the Bubba Keg. When they were nearly done, I gave one of them a coat of Smokin’ Sauce as a finish. Then, I sliced them and the family sat down to dinner.

Now usually, my wife and I like a finish sauce on pork tenderloin, but my kids prefer them dry. The Smokin’ Sauce definitely changed that. Much to my surprise, the kids couldn’t get enough of the sauced tenderloin. In fact, one of my daughters said, “I can’t eat any more, but can I lick the sauce off that last piece?” Now if that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is!

In all seriousness, Smokin’ Sauce is a tomato based sauce with a slightly sweet finish and just a little kick. Don’t think “Kansas City” when I say sweet, cause that’s not what I’m talking about. This is more Memphis than KC, but I’d even hesitate to put it in the category of Memphis style sauces. I have also tried the sauce on brisket and for me, I’d have to say that I prefered it on pork. But it was a good compliment to both.

The A.P. Rub is a really nice balance of salt, spice, and sweet. In fact Shane was sampling the product sprinkled on popcorn in Danville, KY. I found it just a little sweeter than the rubs I’ve been using most often. That’s probably what makes it more all purpose than rubs targeted at a specific meat. For comparison, I’d definitely put it in the cateogry of a Dizzy Pig or Yardbird type of rub. Truly, it’s an all-purpose (or A.P.) rub.

I’m very happy with the products and I’ll continue to cook with them. I’m also anxious to try the other sauces that Shane’s working on.

Check out Draper’s BBQ at http://www.drapersbbq.com

Cheers,
Braddog

How NOT to Trim a Brisket

After spending last weekend surrounded by awesome pork shoulder at the Kentucky BBQ Festival, I was ready for some brisket this weekend. So I was up and at it early on Saturday morning, trimming 3 packer cut briskets for the Backwoods cooker.

Just as I was finishing up the last one, the knife slipped and got into my left thumb. Now I’m not saying that I “sliced” my thumb, it was really more of a chopping blow when the knife slipped. I jumped up, said a few choice words, and thought, “I’m sure it’s just a flesh wound”. But when I bent my thumb and saw the gaping wound, I knew I was headed for the hospital.

A quick double-check with my wife to confirm my own diagnosis and a panic text to my neighbor and fellow pitmaster to finish up the brisket, and I was off to the ER. I walked into the ER slightly before 7:30 in the morning and by 9:00am, I had 4 stitches and a tetanus shot.

So here’s my advice to all you BBQ’ers. Slice “away” from you when trimming your BBQ meats. Here’s the proof that I know what I’m talking about.

Before treatmentDuring treatmentThe final result

The good news is it was a sharp knife and a clean cut. I should be healed up and ready to cook for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately my career as a hand model is over.

Cheers,
Braddog