Poppies Rib Shack, Blairsville, GA.

Poppies Rib Shack, Blairsville. Union County is one of Georgia's true gems. It is home to Georgia's most beautiful mountains, a great lake, some fabulous parks, and the county seat of Blairsville is as quaint as can be found in the country. The antique stores and other wonderful shopping spots (like Alexanders) are worth at least a once a year visit if not more often. With all of this going for it, today seemed like a great day to head up and explore the bbq options. The blond chick pictured here and I cruised up through the mountains with one of a couple of options in mind. After a couple of sweeps through town, I couldn't find Rib Country. Poppies, though, is located just a block north of the town square, so we decided to give it a try as it had all of the promise of being one of those special bbq joints. The place has the appearance of a decent q joint. With lots of car tags on the wall and at least one framed printing of the "Ten Commandments", it has elements of being a place that ought to be a winner. The provision of a full roll of paper towels at each table helped confirm that when eating at Poppies, be prepared to do some damage. Deb and I sat in a booth giving me a view of the single flat screen tv so I could watch the Georgia game as the Dawgs were being kept in check by the Gamecocks. The menu is pretty expansive for a bbq joint. We could tell from the plates being delivered by the waitresses that food quantity wasn't going to be a question. The sandwiches were overrunning with chopped pork and the portion of home cut french fries on the sides assured us we would not leave hungry. We didn't.
Debbie ordered the chopped pork salad and I got the traditional first visit pork sandwich and Brunswick stew. The salad was a good one in size and makeup. Debbie nor I either one are overly thrilled when the bbq comes already sauced as this did. That's probably the biggest criticism. They actually have a pretty good house sauce which is relatively mild and sweet and does add flavor to the meat, but please let me do it myself. On the 1 to 5 scale, it ranked a 3. Pretty much the same could be said for the stew. It was edible with decent amounts of pork, corn, and a few lima beans visible. The bottom line is Poppies is a decent place, but it will probably not make anyone's list of top q joints. On the upside, you won't leave hungry. On the downside, the bbq and the stew is average. On the final upside, you can't leave Union County without saying, "wow, it was a great day."