Barbecue and Soul Food

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If you read this page with any regularity you know I have great affection for both pizza and barbecue. Food of the people? I think so - and maybe that's why it appeals to me so much. While the regional variations of pizza (Slice counts over twenty different varietals) far outnumber that of barbecue (four: Texas, Memphis, Kansas City, and Carolina) there certainly is a varying degree of quality when it comes to Cleveland.

I've been combing the "mom and pop" places for the last couple of months for a diamond in the barbecue rough. If you haven't read Smokestack Lightening by Lolis Eric Elie then you really are missing out on what it means to appreciate these spartan outposts that dot most every urban area across the entire country.

While I've found that most everything I've visited has had glimmers of sparkle hear and there, I have yet to see the entire package. People can make fun of Famous Dave's (a chain) all they want to but if we're talking Cuyahoga County, they are the best in terms of an entire meal.

Red Walter Bar-B-Q
8425 Cedar Ave
Cleveland, OH 44103
(216) 791-1420

One huge irritation of mine is the amount of half-assed fried fish and fried chicken these "barbecue" places do. This place was selling fried fish like it was going out of style. In the half an hour a waited for my shoulder sandwich I bet I saw fried fish orders outnumber cooked meat 4 to 1. Is that an indictment on the store? I would say no, they're apparently giving the customer what they want (which doesn't say much for the customers I'm afraid).

Red Walter is carry-out only, but don't worry I don't think you'll be going there. Cole Slaw that was pre-made (the finely chipped kind they serve at Arthur Treacher's), severely soggy fries (a common theme with all three of the places I went to), and a pork shoulder sandwich that represented the word "bland" about as well as it could have ever be expected. The place was doing a bang up business in the late afternoon. I don't know why - but they were.



Mt Pleasant BBQ
12725 Kinsman Rd
Cleveland, OH 44120
(216) 561-8722

I stopped in here on a Saturday afternoon. Mt Pleasant BBQ is actually the site of the first Whitmore's. The shop has been here since 1942 and for being there so long is surprisingly clean. I talked to the guy at the counter about how they cook their ribs. By the sounds of things it's just straight charcoal for two hours and their done. Thinking that it didn't really sound like my thing I opted for the Po Boy deluxe. The deluxe has shredded pork or beef on it (whichever you want). I ended up eating the sausage, pork, and cole slaw which I thought were all good. I didn't care for the baby food-like candied yams or extremely soggy fries. I'm not rushing back, but at least I didn't have to see fried fish flying out the door.



Angie's Soul Food
Harvard + Lee Road
Cleveland, OH

I'm going to make this short, there's one reason I would come here: the specials. I had the neck bone stew and loved it. While it was probably too salty for most people, I thought it was great. Did I mention that people love to eat fried fish in Cleveland's inner city? Fried food was all I saw going out the door.

If there is a case to be made for the value of good ventilation this Angie's outpost is it. When I walked in there were five people waiting for their to-go orders. Why? Probably for the same reason I was - the air was so full of frying grease it damn near pushed you out the door. It was thick and it was bad.

I thought the collard greens were okay and the fries were extremely soggy. Their specials are very atypical and that is what will bring me back. I recommend calling ahead so that you don't smell like grease after waiting for your food.

Zingerman's Roadhouse

If I had one word to describe Zingerman’s anything it would be "details". Attentive, friendly, knowledgeable service can be found at any of the various outlets in the Zingerman’s franchise of endeavors. You can bet that someone has brought back some of the best and intriguing food stuffs from afar and brought them back to Ann Arbor to share with their customers.

Zingerman’s Roadhouse is a homey sit down restaurant with a slant toward bringing back the best that regional cuisine has to offer. As with the other arms of the Zingerman’s empire, the best of the country’s best regional gems have been collected under one roof. From crab cakes to corn dogs, brisket to ribs, regional traditions have been put on the menu for all to enjoy.

The Roadhouse offers a good selection of locally brewed beers on draft as well as an impressive list of bourbons. If beer or bourbon isn’t your thing, the bar also offers a vast selection of nostalgic cocktails.

Zingerman's Roadhouse Oyster Mulch

As you walk into the restaurant you see a teapot shaped trailer out front. This trailer serves food breakfast, lunch, and dinner to go. A sign pointing you in the opposite direction of the trailer sends you to the front door (which has spent oyster shells whose gifts were enjoyed some time ago). I actually found the oyster shells much more interesting to look at than the typical mulch you find outside most sit down restaurant.

The Roadshow Trailer (in the shape of a tea pot)

One of the first things I noticed upon walking in is the salt and pepper shaker collection. I suppose it’s one of those things that you never really think about collecting until you…well…decide to collect them. I’m not quite sure how many they have, but it’s pretty obvious these things are really old and pretty cool.

Vintage Salt + Pepper Shakers

The food here represents a wide array of down home favorites from across the country. I have a particular affinity for North Carolina barbeque, so I locked onto the pulled pork sandwich almost right away. I think one of the cool things about anything Zingerman’s is that they really want you to be happy with what you get. Not sure what kind of sauce I wanted on my pork, the server suggested that I try all three and decide what I want. After a few minutes she came back with all three sauces for me to try – with a small shred of pork in each one! I was impressed – it would have been very easy to just squirt a dab of each on a plate and hand it to me. Smalls things like this really grab my attention.

After settling on the South Carolina Mustard sauce (highly recommended), I told the server that I didn’t need the bun. When she asked if I wanted another beer I passed because I had to drive back to Cleveland that night. Would you believe since I passed on the bun she gave me a bottle of iced coffee for the ride home? *Excuse me while I dig around in my pocket and pull out another gold star.*

A popular complaint people have is that it’s a few dollars more for the food than it should be. I suppose if we were comparing apples to apples it would be, but the quality of the ingredients -as compared to conventionally produced food - and the level of cooking certainly warrant a slightly higher cost. If you pair the quality of the food with the enthusiastic service that Zingerman’s instills in their staff…well….I think the price point is appropriate.

Zingerman’s Roadhouse isn’t for everybody. If you’re looking for the maximum amount of food for the least amount of money (there's a Golden Corral in Westland (734)641-9163), then this is definitely not the place for you. If you want well researched cooking methods that stay true to their region of origin with an appreciation for quality ingredients, then Zingerman’s Roadhouse definitely needs to be on your list of Ann Arbor stops.

Zingerman's Roadhouse
2501 Jackson Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(734) 663-3663
www.zingermansroadhouse.com

Barbecue Legend

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that it’s been slim pickins the last month or so. Inexplicably, the less I post the more the traffic goes up. Wouldn’t it be nice if the less you worked the more you got paid? The whole thing is very strange and I stopped trying to figure it out a while ago.

With the exception of a few, I’m sure most people are sick of hearing about my barbecue obsession. Fresh off my visit to the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, I've got another little nugget for you to put in your pipe and smoke: Zingerman’s Roadhouse is hosting Ed Mitchell (yes, The Pit's Ed Mitchell) for a barbecue buffet that will be held on July 6th and 7th. This is the description from their website:

“Seven years after he visited the Roadhouse (before it opened) to teach the traditional Eastern North Carolina whole hog barbecue style we still use today, Ed Mitchell will return to the Roadhouse. He and Chef Alex will spend three days preparing for a two-day feast of traditional barbecue styles from all over the country. You can count on really great ingredients, like grass-fed meats managed by Cornman Farms – our very own farm in Dexter, MI, plenty of local vegetables, and all your favorite fixins.”

The bride’s going to be sitting this one out, but my guess is that my barbecue (and pizza…and hamburger) partners in crime (my brothers-in-law Cheesecake and Walt) will most likely being going up for the occasion. My guess is that it’s going to sell out, but whatever, don’t say you weren’t warned.

The Billy Bar

The Schmutz Buster

If it’s one thing I hate, it’s cleaning the grate on my grill. I think the only thing worse is going over to someone’s house and seeing someone cooking your food on a filthy, schmutz coated grate. As you gingerly bite into burger just waiting to taste a bit of last summer’s Sweet Baby Ray’s, on top of a touch of poultry seasoning from ’08, with a sweet kiss of grate rust.

I really wanted to find an alternative to the wire brush. I find that the brushes work great when you first get them. After a few uses (depending on how liberally you tend to let the sauce flow), the bristles begin to get gummed up pretty bad. By the end of the summer the brush's bristles are a mashed down filled with gunk mess on a stick.

When I was browsing the internet looking for an alternative to the gum loaded brush, I stumbled upon the Billy Bar. I think this little implement falls under the category of "This is so simple. Why didn't I think of that?". The Billy Bar is basically a hardened steel rod with a fork-like tip on it. The leverage of the bar makes easy work of the most baked on gunk. When your done using it all you have to do is wipe the tip off with a paper towel.

I haven't really seen this stocked in stores but I ordered mine from Northfield Fireplace & Grill. The Billy Bar definitely makes my list of grilling/barbecue "must have" tools.

Got Wood?

A few weeks back there was a discussion on the Cleveland Food Forum about barbecue and the subject of where to get wood (for smoking) came up. You can go to pretty much any grocery store around the city and pick up the expensive little boxes of chips. If you've actually barbecued with these highly overpriced bits of wood you know that because of the exposed surface area to the coals they don't last very long. (If you soak them in water, you might get an extra 10 minutes out of them.) So the question on the forum was where to get larger pieces of wood?

Dave from Live to Cook at Home mentioned a place south of Detroit Road that he claimed had "a mountain of wood". If there was, in fact, a place that sold woods native to Ohio like oak, maple, hickory, apple, and cherry in large pieces that would fantastic from a cost standpoint.

The Mountain of Wood

I went out on a Wednesday just to see if I could find it. Driving down 83, I was on the lookout for a mountain of wood. Coming from the south I passed a number of nurseries and then on my right was the towering pile of wood.

Center Road Wood

They're only open on Fridays and Saturdays; since I was there on a Wednesday I don't have any price information, but I do know exactly where it is now. By the looks of things the wood is going to require a little time to season since it's just sitting out in the weather. If anyone has any price information please leave a comment and let us all know. Right now I'm pretty stocked up, but I definitely want to stop by so I can start drying it out while I burn through what I have.


View Center Road Firewood in a larger map.

Update
riverwinerat on Cleveland Food Forum had this to offer in terms of pricing. "approx $10 for a large handful of planks (sorry, I didn't catch the weight - about 2 ft. long and about 6-9 in the bunch). Also, prices varied when I was there. I think they had "Buy one, half off the second" of cherry pieces. I bought a small bag of apple logs, say 3 in long, about 7 in the bag, for $4."

Northeast Ohio Barbecue Classes

I love all things barbecue. I love reading about it. I love talking to others about it. I love cooking it. I love sharing it. Most of all, I love eating it.

I recently finished reading Mike Mills’ Peace, Love & Barbecue, and went to the KCBS website that was listed in the back of the book. While I was wandering around the site I noticed a link for classes. To my surprise The Heat Exchange Hearth and Patio Shoppe was holding a class taught by award winning pitmaster Chris Marks of Three Little Pigs in Kansas City, Missouri. I knew this was something I really wanted to do.

It’s been my experience that barbecue classes (like food) can range from the very expensive (Myron Mixon from Jack’s Old South offers a three day course for the low, low price of $750) to the extremely reasonable five hour course with Chris Marks for just $75. A cursory search through the KCBS website showed that classes offered by these experienced pitmasters hovered in the $200-$300 range.

If you haven’t been to Heat Exchange Hearth and Patio Shoppe in North Ridgeville, you’ve got to go. If there’s a store in northeast Ohio with a better selection of barbecue and grilling gear I’d like to know where it is. They sell an absolute ton of grills, smokers, tools, charcoal, and smoking wood. Most places carry either chips or chunks, but I was pretty stoked to find quartered logs of apple wood that measure roughly 6” in length.

Piece of Apple wood from a bag of Good One brand

The two main subjects covered for the class were ribs and chicken. We started the class off by prepping ribs the way Chris likes to do it. We removed the membrane, tenderized the meat with a fork, covered them with mustard, and then applied the rub. I personally had never used the mustard or the fork methods before, so I was interested to see how they worked.

Without giving the blow by blow of the entire class, all I can say is that there really wasn’t a point where you weren’t talking about barbecue with either Chris or your fellow classmates. In fact, I found the exchanges between some of the others at my table equally enlightening. A guy at my table, who also has a Big Green Egg, was telling me about how great the BBQ Guru works. The value of the class wasn’t just what the instructor was sharing, but also the exchange of information from the other attendees.

At the end of the class you took home the ribs that you prepped (that had been smoking during the entire instruction) to be finished in the oven. I can say that I walked away with a few more tricks than I had come with. I think what I liked most was that the lessons weren’t being delivered as the absolute right way or wrong way. Chris Mark does a great job of patiently answering every question that is asked of him. It was just a great experience.

So is all lost? Did you miss your opportunity? Well, yes and no. Chris will be coming back on Friday September 24th for a 3 hour grilling class that covers meat, fish, and vegetables. The next day he will be holding a Brisket and Pork Butt class that covers everything from marinades to rubs to injection to finishing techniques. If it’s anything like the Ribs and Chicken class, he will answer any and every question that relates to the subject.

I typically don’t post anything that I myself am not going to, but literally three days before this Brisket and Pork Butt class was scheduled we booked our vacation to San Francisco. My recommendation is that you sign up sooner rather than later (there’s only 30 seats). There were people who had come from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and even one from Canada who ended up not showing. I have no financial interest in any of this, but walked away so impressed with both the store and the class that I want people who truly love barbecue to know about this.

These are some other classes that are a little more expensive (Viking) and a little cheaper (OCBC) for those who might live on the east side or in Akron/Canton. If you haven’t been to Old Carolina you should try it.

Other barbecue classes currently available (Click class title for links to the class):

The Heat Exchange Hearth & Patio Shoppe - $75.00 Brisket and Pork Butt, $50.00 Grilling Class

Old Carolina Barbecue Co. (at Belden Village Store) - $29.95 Basic Barbecue, $19.95 Creative Grilling

Loretta Paganini - $55.00 How to make four different kinds of ribs (4 seats left)

Viking Cooking School - $135 Barbecue Basics