Smoque

Smoque is the first restaurant featured on Food Network's Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives that I tried to bust.  Food always looks great on TV and tastes great to complete strangers that have no culinary rapport.  Thankfully, Smoque exceeds expectations.

Honestly my mom should be writing this because I don't know anyone who adores Smoque more.  Not too long ago I was hospitalized.  Now imagine these three locations as points on a isosceles triangle- my mom's house at the top point, Smoque, and the hospital.  The legs are roughly 40 miles long.  Since my mom was going to the city, or at least, 'close' to the city, to visit, she had to go to Smoque to pick up lunch.  It took her two hours to show up to my hospital bed- albiet she was bearing Smoque BBQ takeout to save me from the hospitals fare- instead of the 30-45 minutes it should have taken.  If that is not the thinnest, yet greatest excuse for [Smoque] BBQ, I don't know what is.

The menu is written on a chalkboard when you enter.  They do one thing and they do it excellently- BBQ.  Simplicity is a sign of perfection after all.  There are the standard BBQ choices of Ribs, baby back and St Louis, chicken, brisket, and pulled pork.  If you can't make up your mind you're allowed to add 'tastes' of items to your order.  This is how I was finally able to try the BBQ chicken.  Sure the chicken is good, but when you're presented with other choices chicken just never stacks up.  After sampling it I came to the conclusion that ordering chicken is a perfectly respectable decision at Smoque.

If the BBQ wasn't enough there are wonderful scratch sides to accompany the meal.  All sides come in a foil container- which from a production standpoint is quite genius.  Don't be fooled though, the mac and cheese is full of serious flavor and the cornbread is some of the best I've had.  Meals are automatically accompanied by a vinegar based coleslaw, which I much prefer over a mayo-base.  Did I mention that they smoke the baked beans in the smoker with their proteins?  And that there are chunks of brisket in it?  It's easy to make a meal out of all the sides.  I recommend visiting with a group to try them all.

Finally, there's the peach cobbler.  Of course, it is served in a foil cup.  This made me hesistent to order it my first few visits, but it turns out that I made those a visits a waste by not ordering it.  Breaking through the crunchy oatmeal topping into a hot haven of peaches makes for the best peach cobbler I've had- sorry granny.  The only fault I have with the dish is that there is no french vanilla ice cream around to go with.  The cobbler can stand on it's own but it pains me to see it so lonely.  It needs a lover.  It needs ice cream.

Smoque greatly exceeds all of Guy's hype and is a definite crowd pleaser. Just don't wear a white shirt.

Update on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 9:54PM by Stash

Here is the latest meal I had at Smoque.  Check out the thumbnail or go to my gallery.