Georgia Bob's BBQ, Macon

Georgia Bob's BBQ with locations in Warner Robins, Byron, and Macon. http://www.georgiabobs.com/.

Mid-twentieth century journalist Jonathan Daniels said it best….”Barbecue is the dish which binds together the taste of both the people of the big house and the poorest occupants of the back end of the broken-down barn" To barbecue is to truly “Cook American”!

A few of my friends and readers have been asking if I had every tried Georgia Bob's BBQ. I had tried Bob's original location in Warner Robins several years ago right after he progressed from a part time cooker at a convenience store to an inside dining room on the side of the store. I've kept up somewhat with Georgia Bob's as I've followed BBQ joints in Georgia, but I'd not been back to any of the locations until today. I had noticed that Bob had opened up a joint right across the road from the new North Macon Mall on North Riverside Drive. I'd asked my son who works within a couple of miles about it, and for whatever reason, he'd been there and wasn't impressed with the BBQ, but he'd later reported that he'd been back and had a cheeseburger that was good enough to rank in the "Scotts BBQ Cheeseburger Comparison" category....and for Jed Evans, that is up there. Interestingly, in 2007, macon.com held a barbecue voting contest over several weeks to try to identify the "Best of the Best" among middle Georgia barbecue joints. Some of the notables such as Fincher's, Fresh Air, Georgia Bob's, and Scott's were among the finalists with Scott's and Bob's making it to the final two joints. Bob's won out to the chagrin of the fans of the Cochran based Scott's fans. The point in going here, though, is that the Macon area has some of the best bbq joints imaginable within a 50 mile radius where you can get good barbecue on a budget.

A little bit of history about Georgia Bob's perhaps is in order. Georgia Bob's history dates back to at least the 1920's. Bob's grandfather, Robert Cherry Evans, apparently could fix up some pretty fine bbq. Following in his grandfather's tradition, Bob struck out on this entrepreneurial adventure several years ago. As indicated earlier, Bob started out about as small as you can get smoking bbq on the side of a Warner Robins convenience store to now having three locations.

I was thrilled today to be joining up with son Jed, his co-worker Brandon Ashley, and my long-time friend and former co-worker Jonathan Fordham who was meeting up the the Farm Bureau crowd in Macon. Jon was boning up on a national competition being held the next weekend after taking the state title in the Policy Discussions competition put on recently at Farm Bureau's state convention. I arrived early so this gave me a little time to "size the joint up". While I waited, I observed several good signs for a bbq joint. Patrons dressed in everything from service uniforms to business suits and everywhere in between were making their path to Georgia Bob's. Now it wasn't a big stand in your line crowd, but folks in North Macon have apparently found the joint and you can tell they are coming back for more.

I placed my order of a barbecue sandwich and Brunswick stew and the others got either barbecue or cheeseburgers. We found our table at the little quaint joint that is well decorated for a strip mall joint. While waiting for the food I checked out the 3 sauces available: Mild, Spicy, and Sweet. I tried out all 3 of them and found my favorite to be the sweet sauce. While Bob's doesn't get extra points for such things as crushed ice, I can tell you the food is clearly worth stopping by for. The pork sandwich was sufficient in size, and the meat was clean and did a good job scratching the barbecue itch. Bob's Brunswick stew is as good as you'll find. The consistency is something of a finer has rather than large, chunky pieces. Jed and Brandon gave the cheeseburgers a thumbs up, and with my suitable rating on the bbq, they'll be headed out to collect on a bet of some nature likely related to a college football game to again try out the Bob's Barbecue.

Overall, until I find a reason to rate downward, I'm giving Georgia Bob's a 4 out of 5 with the promise of going back for another sampling in the future. Now, I'm headed back to Cumming where I have a pocket full of gift cards from Jim 'n Nick's where my friend Brian Lyman is getting it right with quality and service that sets a new standard for BBQ!

Holcomb's in Greensboro, GA.

Holcomb's Bar-b-Que, Greensboro. Debbie and I were enjoying a 32nd wedding anniversary weekend at Lake Oconee when I just "happened upon" Holcomb's. I did a u-turn in the funeral home next door and wheeled into the joint. A couple of folks had recommended Holcomb's, so I had it somewhere on the radar screen, so when I just happened upon the joint around lunch time I figured we needed to check it out despite just the previous day we had gone overboard at the fabulous Fox Brothers in Atlanta.

Holcomb's is not a high volume joint, but it is one of those places worth visiting at least once. Holcomb's is located in a converted gas station just west of quaint downtown Greensboro. You can order up two ways at Holcomb's. You can place your order at the walk up window or you can go inside and dine in what is the dining room converted from the auto repair bays that once saw oil changes and tune ups being the order.

Holcomb's menus is rather light, but the bbq is quite good and priced well below the metro area bbq joints. I ate a rather light lunch this day due to the previous day's pigging out at Fox Brothers, but I had to do a bbq sandwich. The sandwich was a pretty typical chopped bbq on a bun with the sauce on the side. There is only one sauce at Holcomb's, and it is a thin, vinegar based sauce typical of a North Carolina style. The dining area, was lightly decorated with some Bulldog and Georgia Tech memorabilia. When you dine there, you are most likely going to be joined by a few locals and deer hunter's dressed in camo if it is during the fall months.

Debbie really enjoyed the extra sweet pickles on the table while I sampled the really good barbecue that was clean and adequate in portion size. While I really can't give Holcomb's much more than a 3 on the 5 point scale, it is a good stop for a cheap lunch that will scratch the bbq itch. You can go down towards Lake Oconee and spend 10 times more on whatever you want to eat, but Holcomb's is the latest on the list of Georgia bbq joints that needs to be on everyone's "at least once" stops!

Rib Country, Blairsville, GA

"So Good It'll Make You Squeal" is their slogan, and parts of this claim are true even if I had received at least one comment that was not particularly endearing for this location. This entry sort of has a funny story to it, so hang in there. Rib Country has four locations. Two in Georgia (Cleveland and Blairsville) and two in North Carolina (Murphy and Haynesville). I'd eaten a couple of times at the one in Cleveland, but on today's drive through the North Georgia mountains Blairsville was the stop. The place was buzzing on this beautiful October afternoon with leaf lookers from all over Georgia crawling through the mountains. Few counties in Georgia can match Union for its beauty in October. After a very short wait, Debbie and I were seated in this very well done little joint. Rib Country has their interior done just about right. They've got lots of folk art and relics of the past on the walls and throughout the joint. They've got paper towels on the table, and the placemats are paper grocery sacs like they used to have years ago!

Debbie ordered up the bbq sandwich, a side of fries, and a diet coke. I ordered the pork sandwich and cold slaw. The slaw was really good even if it was rather small in portion size. We both thought the bbq was good in both consistency, cleanness, and taste. We tried out two of their sauces. The sweet was good but highly akin to something that would come our of a Kraft bottle. Their "tangy mustard" (Lord forgive me) was actually pretty good.

This bbq joint does have a couple of downsides from our critical point of view, and it really has more to do with menu options as opposed to quality. Debbie claims the fries are mediocre in that its pretty sure they came out of a frozen bag. Secondly, their ice is cubed and not crushed. You always get extra points for crushed ice! While the menu is actually pretty good and sufficiently varied even for those who don't do pork, there are a few options that would make it better. First, they don't offer Brunswick stew...not good. Second, they don't offer turnips or other forms of "greens". That's such an easy one to fix as well as a great way to recycle pork and chicken trimmings.

As an overall comparison, Rib Country is probably the Blairsville area's best joint, it rates below some other options back down Highway 515 (Poole's). Now for the funny conclusion. As we were leaving, they were actually trying to decide to close the place for the afternoon. If you remember the Andy Griffith episode where Goober had bought the gas station along with Andy and Floyd, you'll remember that Goober ran out of gas on the opening day because he forgot to place the order for more. Ha ha!!! Same thing happened today at the Blairsville Rib Country. They ran out of gas and were telling customers they could not serve either french fries or ribs!!! That pretty well tells you that they don't cook over straight wood, and while most high volume joints do either I would guess, I'd say it is a pretty bad goof up to run out of gas in your bbq joint on an October afternoon in North Georgia!!!

Bill Miller Barbecue, San Antonio, TX

Bill Miller Barbecue Joints in southern Texas are seemingly everywhere, but contrary to my typical "generous" blogs, this one doesn't get much of a rating. I'd actually been told that joints like Rudy's and County Line were pretty good picks, my location put me nearest a Bill Miller joint. They've got something like 60 joints in southern Texas. I'm really not going to waste my or your time on a complete review, but the joint fit more in line with a Waffle House for BBQ than anything else. The ribs were yesterday's leftovers, and if I couldn't do brisket any better, I would not bother. Oh well. Next time I'm in southern Texas, I'm doing Rudy's at whatever the cab fare.

'Cue Barbecue, Cumming, GA

'Cue, Cumming.

Several weeks ago we were "thrilled" to learn that Cumming was getting its own 'Cue BBQ joint. The original location of 'Cue in Milton had already been critiqued, and my couple of visits to that location had been good visits. Having its original influence from "Swallow at the Hollow", 'Cue's fixings are some of the overall best you'll find. Everything you have at this joint, whether its the sauces, bread, or desserts are all homemade with their own recipes. Even the buns (more like big pieces of bread) are homemade right at the location, and you can tell it!!!

Today's visit was especially nice as I was getting to enjoy it with co-workers Joey and Valery. Sharing the BBQ joint experience with both family and friends far beats the solo experience, even though I won't turn that down if I get the chance.

On today's visit, I was suffering from a weekend full of doing my own bbq and attending a church homecoming at Big Creek Baptist Church in Coolidge, GA, so I was having to watch the intake. My order deviated from the normal as I ordered a pulled chicken bbq sandwich and a cup of their awesome Brunswick stew. Joey and Valery ordered pork sandwiches. Their reports of the bbq were great as you would expect 'Cue to be. This was my first bbq chicken from 'Cue and my first experience at the new Cumming location. Located on Highway 20 south of Cumming, 'Cue is easily accessible for a lunchtime break.

To the meal. The bbq chicken was really fantastic. The fairly good sized pulled chunks of pulled chicken made for a really good portion size. When piled on the thick sections of 'Cue's homemade bread, it was really out of this world. The meat comes seasoned with their awesome Kansas City styled sweet sauce. I had to try their outstanding South Carolina mustard bbq sauce, and they've really got it down. 'Cue also has as an option their thin, vinegar based North Carolina sauce. The Brunswick stew that 'Cue fixes up is quite good. The consistency is just about right. The visible vegetables include tomatoes, whole kernel corn, and a few butterbeans. The meat appears to be a mix of both pork and chicken which is alright by me.

All in all, 'Cue's got great food, and I am thrilled that they now have a Cumming location. They are located in an area that, though is very busy, has struggled to support a couple of other dining establishments. I do highly recommend this place and overall, it get's a 4+ on our 5 point scale. Special thanks to Valery and Joey for the treat!

JR's Loghouse, Norcross, GA

JR's Loghouse, Norcross. JR's had been somewhere on the fringes of my bbq radar screen for a few weeks. I can't say that I was even familiar with JR's until a few weeks ago when they had catered a Johnny Isakson fundraiser that I attended. I thought the bbq and Brunswick stew I had were pretty good at the fundraiser, so Debbie and I thought we'd try it out on this beautiful late summer Saturday. JR's is really a quaint log building tucked in among some of the Northeast Atlanta area streets just off of I-285 on Peachtree Parkway. The inside of this place is quaint. You quickly figure out that in addition to bbq, they've got a reputation for great country style breakfasts. A little history on the joint is picked up from both their menu and off of their website www.jrsloghouse.com/:

JR's Loghouse first started serving great barbeque and breakfast in May 1983. However, JR's history goes back more than 55 years to when "JR," Jerry Romano, started cooking and serving "real pit cooked barbeque" as a young teenager with his family's restaurant. The recipes we serve today have been handed down from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Many of them were originally part of The Old Hickory House Restaurants, which were an Atlanta institution for more than 50 years. Along with our great barbeque, we serve many different vegetables daily, all cooked fresh. We serve breakfast 7 days a week with the biggest biscuits and pancakes you've ever seen. Today, you can still see some of the same employees here who helped us open our doors in 1983.

We found the place not to busy when we went in, but a good sign was that there were several "service" type trucks in the parking lot giving indication that local service workers found this a good spot. We perused the menu that was adequate, and I ordered up my typical first visit order of a bbq sandwich and Brunswick stew. Debbie ordered her usual bbq pork salad. The order came out fast, but I was hit with a little bit of a "red flag" when my sandwich came wrapped in a foil wrapper. I've got to figure that one out. Once I got it out of the foil wrapper, it looked pretty good with a good portion of bbq on the bun. The stew had good appearance, so I took a few bites of it first. The presence of tomatoes, onion, and corn among the stew gave it great taste and appearance. The stew got a decent ranking. The bbq was pretty good in its course chopped texture. Rather than having sauce on the tables, it was lightly pre-applied to the bbq. Points are deducted for that fact, but otherwise, the bbq was good despite lacking sufficient smoked flavor.

Debbie was not impressed with the salad and further disappointed with the lack of "crushed" ice. Her salad lacked a variety of toppings. The sauce was heavily ketchup based, and while it was ok, it didn't really do anything for us. Her first two bites of bbq found both bone and fat.

Though we left adequately filled, we both agreed that a ranking of 3 out of 5 was about as good as we could offer. Perhaps the best part of the visit was one of the waitresses. As she walked by, I quickly told Debbie that "she looks a lot like Laura (our daughter)". We then struck up a quick conversation with her and found that she was just as sweet seeming as our daughter. With that kind of encounter, we left with a sense of delight having enjoyed meeting a nice young lady that reminded us much of our girl.

JR's seems to have an active catering business, and if you need someone to do catering, you can't go wrong with their choice as your provider; however, there are lots of great caterers in the area including my friends at Jim 'n Nicks, Dreamland, and Fox Brothers!!!

Now, if Georgia can just pull off a win against Arkansas!!!

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."