McKoy's Smokehouse and Saloon

Ahhhhh barbeque. Everyone’s got their own opinion about what it is, what it isn’t, and which type is the best. People like to discuss it ad nauseum. I wish I had a dollar for every barbeque conversation I’ve been a part of since I’ve moved to North Carolina. Where I grew up (Southern California), when people said “barbeque” what they meant was they were going to put some meat on a grill and cook it, generally over charcoal. Out here in beautiful North Carolina when people say “bbq” they mean a certain type of meat, cooked a certain type of way, for a certain type of time, with a certain type of sauce and/or preparation. And you can be one hundred percent sure that THEIR preferred barbeque is way better than YOUR preferred barbeque. It’s quite serious in these parts, like college basketball. And I love it.

I have a confession to make. I want to be a professional barbeque judge. I want to travel from town to town and get a bunch of guys together and have them compete to see which of them can make me the best ribs/brisket/pulled pork/chicken. If I didn’t know better, and someone told me this was an actual job, I’d laugh at them and tell them it sounded more like a scam. Or perhaps they should rather set their sights higher, and try to be a professional building blower-upper because why stop after making up a job that’s only 90% awesome (90% because let’s face it, that’d be a lot of meat) (that’s what she said).

Anyway, I, like every other red-blooded American that lives in North Carolina, have my own opinions on barbeque. Heck, I fancy myself an amateur grill master and have even smoked a turkey for thanksgiving a few times. I’m not really going to go in to what my opinions are on what’s what in the giant panoply of barbeque ideas, but I am going to share with you my experiences at a local barbeque place called McKoy’s Smokehouse and Saloon.

We went to McKoys on a Saturday at around 6:00pm and didn’t have to wait at all. Sometimes I like this (when I’m hungry!) and sometimes I don’t (because let’s face it, sometimes the appeal of going out to eat is being around a lot of other people having a good time).

What we ordered: some special called (I think) the “q for two.” For twenty bucks we got to pick from a smaller list of their appetizers (a.k.a.; “Get’cha Goin’s,” ha!) and two entrees (a.k.a.; vittles, which were regular menu entrees, not some bullcrap list of special small entrees). For our appetizer we picked grit cakes. Our entrees were pulled pork with slaw and mac n’ cheese, and ribs with fries and okra. These pics really don't to justice the portion size. In fact, these look down right reasonable. But, whoa. I think the plates we a good 14 inches across. We had two more dinners off the leftovers. We also had two PBRs because they were like two bucks. Why not. Anyway, here comes the sigmas:

Deliciousness- .5

Hard to find fault with the barbeque. In fact, the ribs were top-notch. I’ve rarely had ribs as good as these, and I’m no rib-noob. They were smoked for a long time and then finished *to a char* on the grill. It’s that char part that set them apart from other smoked foods finished on a grill. The pulled pork was great. The sides were pretty blah. Certainly acceptable but nothing impressive. The only negative was the grit cakes. I’ve had some awesome grit cakes in my life (e.g., the mushroom grit cakes they serve/served at Top Of The Hill in Chapel Hill), and these were not they. The cakes themselves were ok, but the sauce they put on it tasted either old or stale or burnt or all three. No good.

Price- 0 (2)

Under normal circumstances I’d give this place a 0 for price. Right where it should be given the portion size and quality of food. The whole “q for two” thing (or whatever it’s called), however, was such a killer deal it made the experience a 2. We hardly ate any of the fried okra or French fries, and only managed to eat half of the pulled pork, so really: killer deal.

Value- 1

I feel like this place did a good job with their price-to-quality ratio. The meats we got seemed high enough quality that charging a little bit for them was worthwhile. The sides were kinda meh but there was so much of them that they satisfied my inner gourmand, if not my inner gourmet. The grit cakes were gross but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this was a one-off kitchen mistake. Also beers for two bucks. Even if it IS just PBR, you can’t go wrong for beer at the same price as iced tea.

Service- .5

Not too bad. Did what they needed to do speedily and with better-than-average friendliness without being too intrusive. Few things annoy me more about servers than when they ask you how everything is less than a minute after dropping the food off.

Menu Variety- .5

More than your typical barbeque place. Enough to bring me back several times, fo sho.

Unique Experience- -.5

Your typical barbecue place. The clever section names on the menu didn’t do anything for me.

Beer Selection- -1

Boo. Bad. I don’t need fancy special beers with barbeque but I do want more than four different kinds of Coors light. PBR fit the bill this time but if I ever want barbeque AND some interesting beer I won’t be going here.

Wine Selection- unknown

No clue. Not really relevant in a barbeque joint, anyway. I’m assuming they had white zin.

Frequency of Return Trips- .5

Despite some of the negatives, this place makes our short list of restaurants to consider when we want barbeque. There’s certainly plenty of stuff I’d like to try, but it’s going to be really tough to pass up another round of those ribs. Mmmmm.