How to Find Barbecue in Memphis
Look, good barbecue (ahem, BBQ) recommendations in Memphis is tricky. Especially as a tourist. Here’s a hot take: there is no best restaurant. BBQ joints here are a dime a dozen and there’s a reason for that. Quite a few restaurants have been established for decades. Others have only been around for a few years, but are still well established.
If you’re a first time visitor to Memphis and you want to check’em out, the list of places can be overwhelming. But don’t worry, there are ways to figure this out. Here is a guide to asking the right questions any time you visit Memphis.
Dry vs. Wet
How strong is the taste?
Do you like your meat cooked with or without sauce?
Do they have easily accessible sauces on the side?
How saucy should it get?
Questions like these should pop up when asking for a recommendation. This will
reveal what type of toppings each restaurant will carry. How much spice each sauce carries. It even tells you if they focus primarily on hot sauce or just spicy sauces.
Me, personally? I like sauce. Sauce is good. Especially if there’s more on the side of my plate. Plastic cups or ramekins, it doesn’t matter to me.
Hot or Mild
Growing up I always called myself a “wimp” when it comes to spicy sauces. That almost exclusively referred to bbq restaurants. But hot sauce is always about the Scoville units. Plenty of entrepreneurs have crafted their own sauces that are, indeed, spicy.
However, there is a focus on different flavors rather than how long that terrible feeling remains.
Atmosphere
What kind of place do you want to visit?
Do you want a history of the restaurant on the walls? Some, like Central BBQ, have
that. Others, like Tops, are pleasantly bare bones.
Do you want set dressing from all over? Rendezvous is the best place for that. To be honest, this isn’t something many bbq eaters think about. If you’re lucky
enough to meet someone who works at a restaurant, but they’re off the clock, then they are the best to ask.
Sometimes the menu might be ok, but others times the background vibe just... clicks with you. You feel like you could come here often and stay awhile. Let’s say you’re a solo traveler, bouncing around. So this may not matter. But if you have a family tagging along, it’s crucial for a good experience. When you ask around for a few different places, this can narrow down the options. Maybe you can do some recon before the whole family goes? Some restaurants may have fun art all over the walls, but it may be a hole-in-the- wall.
Cooking Method
How crispy do you like your pork cooked?
This is similar to the dry vs. wet questions mentioned above. Although that only asked
if you wanted sauce or not. This section goes beyond the saucy scope. What does a particular restaurant use to cook their meat? Two restaurants have amazing bbq and use two separate methods for producing their product.
Central BBQ uses oak and hickory wood where pork and ribs are slow-roasted in a pit
for fifteen hours each day. Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous uses a similar method (pit, time, et al), but uses charcoal instead of wood. Tops BBQ uses another method entirely.
Beer or Nah?
Does the restaurant have beer? Canned and/or on tap? What’s the variety? Can any of the employees pair a selection with something on the menu? This sounds like a “wine pairing,” but this is one reason why this is an important question. Even if you don’t drink alcohol, this can tell you if one restaurant carries Coke or Pepsi. My restaurant carried Pepsi, which constantly surprised customers.
Not all restaurants serve beer. At least, there are a few that I’ve noticed. But it has become popular for most restaurants to have their own beer menu, on top of the wide variety of meats and vegetables. In fact, beer on tap is becoming synonymous with BBQ restaurants. This may be in part because of the Memphis in May BBQ Fest held in May of each year.
I worked at Central BBQ (the original on Central Ave.) for two years. In that time I heard quite a few questions where I had to think of an answer, often on the spot. Some answers seemed obvious to me, but they often weren’t to the folks from out of town.
Ribs or nah?
This feels like a point of tension depending on which Memphian you ask. Do you want to try ribs? Or stick with a pork sandwich? Maybe you want to study the menu a bit more and look at other meat options, like turkey or beef. If this is your first time or trying a different spot on your fifth visit, you want to keep ribs as a separate question from pork or other meats. In fact, treat this as a completely different menu from the sandwiches.
Word to the wise: I’ll go ahead and say that Memphis bbq restaurants don’t know how to cook beef. Let Texas be the winner in that category.
Memphis BBQ is unparalleled. However, there are quite a few options and that gets overwhelming fast. When you visit some friends or family, start asking questions like the ones above and you’ll narrow down options fast. To rework an old saying: Break ribs instead of break. That’ll make more sense in the sense of BBQ. This way you can do what matters most: human interaction.