Blue Smoke

[tommy]

Tommy, have you been? The thread is too long and my bed's calling for me.

nah, i'm just guessing about the TVs.

actually, yes, several times. i like their burgers very very much. although they can sometimes be a bit overdone (but still juicy). i'm not a fan of BBQ in general i suppose, but i do like doing to Blue Smoke for that burger of theirs. and then off to the Rodeo for margaritas and music.

[macrosan]

They have two excellent TVs at the bar !!!! They're quite comfortable to watch, they're big, and they have good quality pictures. You may have to fight with the noisy crowd who want to watch something else (especially basketball !!!) but my suggestion is that when you arrive you tell the bartender you want to watch the golf, and hint at a big tip

[tommy]

cool. i stand corrected on the TV's.

[Lreda]

Made reservations tomorrow at Blue Smoke for 1:00. Will report back.

[tommy]

Made reservations tomorrow at Blue Smoke for 1:00. Will report back.

see you then. i'll try to not be late.

[Lreda]

More than welcome. We made reservations for the dining room but I'm more inclined to eat the bar.

[Fat Guy]

What they don't let Tommy in the dining room?

[Fat Guy]

By the way we have just added the recipe for Blue Smoke's excellent chocolate chip cookies to the recipeGullet archive.

[snowangel]

By the way we have just added the recipe for Blue Smoke's excellent chocolate chip cookies to the recipeGullet archive.

Thanks. The butter is softening as I type.

[cet2055]

Do any of y'all know if it affected his food???  Better?  Worse?  No noticeable change???

the burgers, up til my last visit last week, were still slightly over-done. not sure if that helps.

It's the brisket I'm most curious about. Everyone that actually knows anything about BBQ says that the brisket at Blue Smoke is subpar.

After reading in the Austin newspaper that Danny was hauling two of his chefs all around central Texas, I was wondering if it's made any difference in the quality of his brisket.

I like the brisket there. Used to live in Dallas, and I would say it's as good as Sonny Bryans or, my favorite, Dickeys.

[Lyle]

I like the brisket there.  Used to live in Dallas, and I would say it's as good as Sonny Bryans or, my favorite, Dickeys.

Unfortunately for me, that's not saying much. Dallas is totally underrepresented in the bbq arena, especially for a southern city this size. Sonny Bryan's at it's best is darn good 'que, but it is sorely inconsistent.

None of this really pertains to Blue Smoke, which I plan on sampling soon.

[Lreda]

OK looks like a burger, rare. Brisket, will look at the options and the Ribs, Combo of St Louis, etc, etc.

Root beer to start, Anchor Steam to continue.

Macro, thanks for the up on the TV . Must get my golf.

Tommy, know you're not a huge sports fan but I think you might have noticed Blind Date on the tube. Offers open for tomorrow if interested. We'll be at the bar most likely.

[Lreda]

Update based on my visit to Blue Smoke

Love it!!

Welcomed up my arrival and told the host that we had a reservation but would prefer to eat at the bar as The Open was on. He of course welcomed that as it opened a table in the dining room. Place was packed at 1pm, emptied at 2pm.

Started with Rouge Dead guy ale, while the Sue stuck with her Amstel but tried the Rouge and liked it. That is why she'll be a Mrs soon.

Started with the Rib sampler. Regular ribs, St louis & Texas.

The Texas ribs rocked, the crust from the pit added such flavor I wanted more.

St Louis were good, not great but had excellent flavor, need the extra BBG sauce, rubbed salt and BBQ tabasco. The regular ribs were also good but paled in comparision.

Had the burger, MRare. Cooked perfectly. Haven't had a great burger like thet in years.

The Pulled pork sandwich was like butter but flavorless. Even all the other accompinments couldn't add flavor. Just missed but would recommend it to someone trying pulled pork for the 1st time.

Bartender was very friendly, great service. effed up and forgot to order the brisket but might try it in two weeks after we hit U.S.G..

Good lord, I must be turning into a Danny Meyer groupie.

Lou

[tommy]

glad you liked the burger. i'd be happy if that's the only thing they served. and wine.

Edited June 13, 2003 by tommy (log)

[rstarobi]

I wasn't crazy about the burger the one time I had it there, but I've enjoyed everything else I've had. Love the root beer and the beer list, though.

[JeffWilson]

Can someone please explain the difference between St Louis style and Memphis style barbeque? Is it just that St Louis is wet and Memphis dry? Is one meatier? Juicier? Thanks very much!!

[Fat Guy]

Are you asking specifically about those two types of ribs at Blue Smoke, or are you asking about barbecue in general?

[JeffWilson]

Actually, in general. But I didn't know which forum to put it in so I referenced BS.

[JosephB]

Jeffrey Steingarten's, The Man Who Ate Everything, has a delightful chapter on Barbecue which I recall discussed the difference between these two styles.

[Fat Guy]

Well, I think you'll do better if we can get some of the folks from the Southeastern forum to chime in -- they tend to focus on these issues more than us Yankees. I can tell you, locally, that Blue Smoke uses two completely different types of ribs for the St. Louis and Memphis styles. For St. Louis, Blue Smoke uses a St. Louis rib -- that's a specific technical name of a cut of meat. For Memphis style, Blue Smoke uses baby-back ribs. Here's a good primer explaining the differences, butchering-wise: http://www.tonysmarket.com/pdf/rib_primer.pdf

Then there's the question of the seasonings, rubs, sauces, styles, etc. Those are fairly intricate, but at Blue Smoke basically the Memphis ribs are more of a wet style (aka, what most people think of when they think of barbecue ribs) and the St. Louis ribs are more of a dry-rub style (which, if you actually go to Memphis where many places offer a choice of wet and dry ribs, is how the majority of connoisseurs seem to order theirs).

As for general differences in barbecue, I don't really know that there is a St. Louis style that's as rigorously defined as the Memphis and North Carolina styles. Nor do most barbecue places in any given region limit themselves to the local styles. And the US isn't like Europe -- over there, if they had a barbecue culture, they'd have some sort of AOC system where they'd say if you live within these geographic boundaries you have to smoke this kind of meat and season it this way and mop it with this and if you don't do it and you try to call it barbecue we'll send you to Devil's Island prison like that Papillon dude. Here in the New World, attempts to get too precise with the geographic taxonomy of barbecue are bound to yield inaccurate definitions. Not the most convenient answer, sorry.

[bilrus]

That's interesting about the dry rub vs. wet style. I grew up in St. Louis and most of the barbecue I had used a fairly to very seet sauce that had enough sugar that it carmelized on the meat as it cooked. It made for very sticky, but tasty ribs, etc. Another peculiarity about St. Louis barbecue is the use of what we call a "pork steak", which although I am not very up on cuts of meat, is essentially a cross cut of a boston butt or pork shoulder. It is a pretty fatty, chewy cut, but it works well with the carmelized sweet sauces.

Danny Meyer has metioned that he remebers growing up with a Sauce made locally in St. Louis called Maull's. My grandfather's barbecue sauce used Maulls as a base, adding sugar, Lea and Perrins and a few other things. The ribs and pork steaks were cooked long and slow over a cynder block pit in the back yard (and later on my parent's gas grill).

I am going to Blue Smoke next week. I will be intersted to see the differences.

[Suzanne F]

A couple of friends originally from St. Louis gave me a bottle of Maull's. Since I can't make real barbecue (no smoking, no outdoor grilling), will it make my oven-cooked ribs taste more like the real thing?

[Suzanne F]

We were at Jazz Standard last Sunday (Olu Dara ), and had the St. Louis ribs (still quite tender and good, if a bit sweet), the chili with hominy (excellent vegetarian dish!) and something new to me there: Fried Chicken, served with mashed potatoes, gravy, and a biscuit. All were very, very good to superb. The chicken was very crisply coated, with plenty of salt and pepper in/on it; not at all greasy; and since (I assume) it's the same top-quality chicken they smoke, very flavorful and tender and juicy. (Not to confuse people: the fried is not also smoked, only fried). The potatoes were a bit lumpy and very buttery. The gravy tasted a bit like chicken base, but went well nonetheless. The biscuit -- oh my, the biscuit!! About 2 inches thick, obviously cut with an extremely sharp cutter, flaky, cakey, a bit sweet, no baking-powder astringency -- easily the best biscuit I've ever tasted.

But they mash up bits of orange and maraschino cherries in their Old-Fashioned -- tasty but strange.

[bilrus]

It's a good sauce, but I think it is tough to make oven cooked taste like they wre smoked outside. It's worth a shot though.

[Andy Lynes]

It's the brisket I'm most curious about.  Everyone that actually knows anything about BBQ says that the brisket at Blue Smoke is subpar.

I am a dumb Englishman who knows bugger all about real BBQ, but judging purely on the basis of "is this nice to eat?" the brisket that I tried at Blue Smoke was glorious. Tender, smokey but not so much so as to overpower the natural flavour of the meat, nicely marbled with fat, not at all dry.

I also got to try the salt and pepper and the baby back ribs, both of which were the best I have ever had, but again bear in mind my relatively limited experience of this sort of food.