Comprehensive Memphis BBQ Tour Roundup

The best part of a 7-5 season is a bowl game in Memphis; one of the South's iconic cities and the land of BBQ and Blues.  As soon as the bowl matchup was announced I began working on my BBQ tour itinerary. After a few weeks of research I narrowed it down to four places.  Here's my review of these four legendary BBQ spots in Memphis, TN.

First stop:  Germantown Commissary

This lovely jewel is located in Germantown, just East of Memphis and Liberty Bowl Stadium.  It's a lot smaller than expected, but that adds to the experience in my opinion.  It was placed right next to a train track and twice during our meal it came blowing by making you feel like you're in the movie 'Fried Green Tomatoes'.  The décor is all wood and littered with vintage signs and memorabilia.  As soon as we parked, you could see the tall smoke stack going and I said to myself, "well, it smells right".  When you walk in there's a small waiting area with a cashier counter on the left and right in front of you is a cooler display of several home made desserts including coconut cake, banana pudding and lemon pie.  I don't usually get dessert, but I immediately knew I had to save room for one of those.

I've heard from a lot of family and friends the ribs are a must at Commissary so I got them.  A full rack of St. Louis style spare ribs for two with several sides, which lets be honest, sides are just a formality on a BBQ tour.  My favorite part about the Commissary was each plate came with two deviled eggs.  They were outstanding.  The ribs were very flavorful with the right amount of smoke and char, however, they were sorta hard to eat because the bones kept braking in half. The sides we had were baked beans, coleslaw and potato salad.  All of them were excellent.  The beans had pieces of pulled pork which matched the flavor of the ribs.  Coleslaw was a mayonnaise base with perfect consistency.  Potato salad was just right.  Not cold and not hot.  Nice ratio of all the ingredients. 

The one thing I was disappointed in was their Brunswick Stew.  The menu even says, "for you folks from Georgia", so I expected it to be really good.  It didn't have much flavor.  It was very thin and reminded me of a school cafeteria vegetable soup.  Would not recommend it.  As good as the BBQ and sides were, the stars of the show for me were the sweet tea and banana pudding.  You even get to keep your drink cup as a souvenir.  If you ever get a chance to visit, you must absolutely get both of them.  On a scale of 1-10 from atmosphere and service to food and cost, I'd give the Commissary an overall 7/10.

Second stop: Marlowe's Ribs & Restaurant

 

This was probably the stop I most looked forward to.  It's a little out of the way just past Graceland.  This place was featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-In's and Dives.  Anytime I can mark a place off my Triple D map, I'm going to do so.  The place is famous for it's pink pig trailer out front and they aren't afraid to let you know Elvis used to eat there.  As soon as you walk in, you might as well be in Graceland.  There's a cardboard cut out of the king with a poster of Guy Fieri himself over Elvis' left shoulder.  Like the Commissary, Marlowe's smells right.  Before I even sat down I knew I was going to like it.  The staff was very cordial and made sure we were well taken care of throughout our visit. 

Although, I was very tempted by the BBQ Spaghetti, I couldn't resist the half rack of baby back ribs I'd seen on Triple D.  The ribs arrived pretty quickly and I thought to myself these have probably been sitting out all day...they were loaded with sauce and I wondered if I should've gotten the BBQ spaghetti.  One bite into them, the only regret I had was not ordering the full rack.  The ribs were absolutely perfect.  They didn't fall off the bone, they stayed on the bone where you could see your own bite mark. Great smoke flavor and good char on the edges.  The sauce was fantastic.  A perfect mixture of sweet and tangy. Not too runny and not too thick.  I'm salivating just thinking about them.  I again got baked beans and coleslaw as my sides and neither disappointed.  Baked beans were classic basked beans and the coleslaw was a typical mayo based slaw at the perfect temperature, I.E. not COLDslaw.  I don't like cold slaw.

The sweet tea was also very good.  Not quite as sweet as the Commissary but definitely sweet enough.  I also sampled the pork stuffed potato and it was also very good.  The pork was pulled, not chopped and had tons of melted cheese and BBQ sauce on top.  I would recommend getting it if you don't like ribs.  The waitress asked us how everything was and of course we said it was delicious, she in turn said, "We don't brag for no reason." I was very impressed with Marlowe's from start to finish.  I'll definitely be back.  Overall rating 8/10.

 

Third stop: The Bar-B-Q Shop

We had originally scheduled Elwood's Shack to be our lunch spot on Saturday, but some friends told us it had unfortunately burned a few weeks ago.  I got back to my research and decided on The Bar-B-Q Shop to replace Elwood's.  This place sits on the road in an old set of buildings on Madison Ave in Midtown.  It has an old classic sign that hangs over the sidewalk which really shows its character and while the others "smelled right", this one looked right as soon as I saw it.  They were understaffed this New Year's Eve day and told us that up front.  No bother to me, I had nowhere to be and I was a long for the ride.  It's a typical BBQ joint on the inside.  A lot of wood walls, chairs and doors with plain old green tables.

We started off with a smoked bologna and cheese plate.  It took a while to arrive and once I got it I probably could have done without.  It wasn't nearly as smoky as I wanted and wasn't very flavorful like I expected it to be based on the sites and smells of the place.  It wasn't bad at all, just a little underwhelming. I was pleased with the addition of pepperoncini's for the sausage plate.  Most come with banana peppers, jalapeno's or pickles.

The Bar-B-Q Shop has a unique sauce.  It's a little more red in color than a traditional Memphis style sauce and it's very glossy.  I thought it was going to be heavily tomato flavored, but it wasn't.  It was actually very good. Like Marlowe's it had a perfect consistency for me, not too runny, not too thick.

I ordered a "regular" slab of dry spare ribs with baked beans and slaw. Perhaps an 11 am spare ribs lunch was a bit much, or maybe it was the 4th time I had ribs in about 36 hours, (had Rondezvous ribs in the sky box of the Liberty Bowl on Friday), but these ribs didn't do it for me.  They were fatty and a little heavy on the rub.  When I added their sauce, they were much better, but out of six bones, I only ate four.  The baked beans were standard baked beans but their slaw was interesting.  It had a mayo base with chopped celery in it.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't my preference.  Safe to say I had order envy at the Bar-B-Q Shop.  Both people I was with got the pork sandwich and I sampled it.  It was excellent. Chopped pork served on Texas toast.  The pork was tender, smoky and chopped perfectly.  I was the only person who left food on the plate.  If I ever go back, I'll be sure to stick with a pork sandwich or pork plate.  Overall rating based on my order was a disappointing  5/10.

The fourth and final stop: Central BBQ
 

They say you save the best for last and that's exactly what we did.  I've been to Central before and often have Memphian relatives bring me a bottle of their sauce whenever they come home.  Even though this would be my 6th BBQ meal in about 3 days, (of course the NYE party we attended had ribs and pork), I was ready to do some damage.  I will say however, the ribs at The Bar-B-Q Shop turned me away from getting them at Central, even though they're the best restaurant ribs on the planet.  There's usually a long line to order and sometimes a security guard is on staff to maintain the flow of traffic from outside line to inside line.  A real testament to how good this place is.  We timed it perfectly, because on Sunday January, 1 around 1130 AM there was hardly any line. 

I ordered the pulled pork plate, (voted Memphis' best), with greens, mac & cheese and slaw.  The others had BBQ Nachos and a half slab of ribs with mac & potato salad.  Their sweet tea is second to none so naturally I got sweet tea as well.  Like Commissary you can keep your cup as a souvenir which is always a plus in my book.  The pork plate was a generous portion of pulled pork topped with plenty of Central's delicious mild BBQ sauce.  It wasn't the best pork I've ever had, but pretty darn good. However, I definitely had order envy once again when the ribs and nachos arrived.  I can't explain to you how good their baby back ribs are.  They are perfectly charred and in my opinion are the perfect rack of ribs.  The slaw was very cold which I didn't care for, but the mac & cheese and potato salad were outstanding.  Both have sprinkles of their rub on top.  The greens seemed canned and didn't have much flavor, but as I stated earlier, on a BBQ tour sides are just a formality.  If you ever get to Memphis, I highly recommend Central BBQ, specifically their baby back ribs.  Dry or wet, you can't go wrong.  Their dry is basically a char, not a heavily caked rub and their wet is a nice amount of sauce glazed over the top.  Overall rating 9/10.