

Finding good barbecue in the South (Southern Virginia and below) is easy. Nearly every town, big or small, has a local joint that can appease the hungry masses. From Lexington Barbecue in Lexington, NC, to Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City, to Wilber’s in Goldsboro, NC, to Payne’s in Memphis, Tennessee – delicious barbecue is ubiquitous. That is, until you move to Boston.

Barbecue in Boston seems to refer to cooking hotdogs or burgers on a grill, not slow cooked, smoked, chopped or pulled pork. There is something special about going into a barbecue restaurant in the South where the building is in shambles, the sandwiches are $2.50, and the meal is to die for. But you won’t find that in Boston. In fact, there is only one restaurant that I have found since living up here that even remotely comes close to good barbecue. That place is Blue Ribbon Bar-B-Q in West Newton.

Blue Ribbon was opened by a man originally from North Carolina, which may lead one to think that it will be an authentic barbecue joint. But alas, it is not. Blue Ribbon’s faux-authentic nature is clear to the patron as soon as they look at the menu. The restaurant offers “Carolina Pulled Pork,” “Pulled Chicken,” “Burnt Ends,” “Texas Sliced Beef Brisket,” “St. Louis Ribs,” and “Jamaican Jerked Chicken” to name a few. At an authentic barbecue restaurant, there would be no qualifiers such as “Carolina” or “Texas” before the menu item. It would simply be, “Pulled Pork” or “Brisket.” This leads one to assume that Boston and greater New England does not have a true barbecue culture, but rather an amalgamation of different region’s barbecues styles recreated in the North.

That said, Blue Ribbon Bar-B-Q was able to pull off the flavor of their meats. Their pulled pork stands up to many that I have had across the South, and far surpasses many of the chain barbecue restaurants that are popping up throughout the North. Therefore, to be fair, Blue Ribbon has pulled off what many nonindigenous barbecue places have to do – offer a variety of barbecue styles. Likewise, Blue Ribbon’s sides were pretty good too. I had potato salad and baked beans, both of which had the right, down-home flavor (albeit the beans could have used a little more meat in them and the chunks of potato salad could have been cut smaller). Unfortunately, the collards were not too great.

As a grade, I would give Blue Ribbon a B+

Tips on Regional Barbecue of the South

North Carolina-style barbecue typically looks like naked, pulled white and dark meat (pork or chicken). After heaping it on a bun, you dress it with coleslaw and vinegar-based sauce. North Carolina barbecue is almost always served with hush puppies.

South Carolina does what North Carolina does, except they get an extra sauce that is mustard-based. South Carolina also likes to serve a side of “hash” – stewed organ gravy – over rice.

Lexington, North Carolina, calls itself the “barbecue capital of the world.” Barbecue from here typically uses a base that combines tomato/ketchup and vinegar. So, yes, you really can have both!

Go further south to Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, and it’s usually pulled pork with sweet, tomato-based sauce.

Texas typically serves pinto beans as a side.

Alabama also douses its sandwiches with a white mayonnaise-vinegar sauce.

The sweet, saucy stuff you see packaged in grocery stores is Kansas City-style. Much of it is manufactured in Minnesota, but the fact that the sauce is sweet, tomato-based and comes in everything from chicken to beef means it’s flexible like the barbecue in Kansas City