Religion. Politics. Sex. In the South, add barbecue to the list of topics sure to provoke a heated debate wherever two or more people are gathered. While our sister city to the west is frequently heard to boast BBQ superiority, Nashville is no slouch when it comes to smokin’ swine. Every corner of the city has a contender for best ‘cue in town. Here are five that are frequently found at the top of the never-ending discourse on barbecue.
Dee’s Q
If you’re of the school of thought that the best barbecue is the hardest to find, get on MapQuest and enter “1000 Riverside Drive” for directions to this family-owned and -operated barbecuterie. Named for Reggie and Tracy Crowder’s daughter, Dee’s Q has been a neighborhood lunch and dinner staple since opening four years ago. If your familiarity with East Nashville begins and ends with Margot and Rumours East, the trip from Five Points will be illuminating, passing by Eastland Café, Rosepepper Cantina and Portland Brew on Eastland Ave. before turning left onto Riverside, left again at Rosebank and then left into the gravel lot behind a small yellow building with red trim and hand-lettering touting BBQ wings, chicken, fish sandwiches and Polish sausage. All of those deserve the accolades heaped upon them, but the primary product is pork—shoulder and ribs prepared with Reggie Crowder’s own dry rub, slow-cooked 18 hours in the hickory-wood smoker on the side of the lot, then doused with his tomato-based sauce, mild or hot. Dee’s Q, 1000 Riverside Drive
Martin’s Bar-B-Cue Joint
Or maybe you think the only barbecue worth its weight in wood is the one that requires a 30-minute drive to the boonies. Martin’s, located in Nolensville, almost 30 miles from the Batman Building, fulfills the distance requirement, though considering its relative proximity to a Publix and subdivisions spreading like kudzu either side of Nolensville Road, booming might be a more apt description than boonie. Either way, Martin’s slam dunks the taste test, whether administered by loyal locals or a posse of genuine CIA-trained chefs who can frequently be found pigging out and throwing down some cold ones at one of the red-and-white checked oilcloth-covered tables. Pat Martin, who opened the Joint in the summer of 2006 with wife Martha, cut his ‘cue teeth 20 years ago in one of the state’s most revered pit stops, Henderson, where he learned the craft of cooking whole hogs from the pitmaster elders. At his place, he uses a mixture of hickory, oak and apple wood, taking pride in cooking slower and lower. The extensive menu includes the usual suspects, but for something a little different, try the redneck taco—pulled pork on a hoecake with slaw and sauce. Martin’s Bar-B-Cue Joint, 7215 Nolensville Road
Hog Heaven
Let’s say you’re making an outing to Centennial Park this summer, catching a concert at the bandshell, taking the kids to the playground, showing off the Parthenon to out-of-town visitors. You work up an appetite but don’t want to get back in your car. Oh, look, over there on the west side of the park, two choices for food within walking distance, side-by-side: A McDonald’s, one of thousands with a cookie-cutter menu of pre-shaped burgers, machine-cut fries and fried nuggets of formed fowl, or Hog Heaven, the one and only, serving buns piled high with hand-pulled pork, pickles, prize-winning BBQ sauce and, for a mere 39 cents more, a scoop of slaw. Talk about a meal deal. And when it comes to secret sauces, Micky D has nothing on Hog Heaven owners Kathy and Andy Garner. Their sassy white BBQ sauce is all the reason many customers need to forego pork for the original white meat, pulled or sold by the quarter- or half-chicken. Hog Heaven, 115 27th Avenue N.
Jim ‘N Nick’s
A flying pig with wings stamps a whimsical touch on Jim ‘N Nick’s to-go menu, but this company is dead serious about their product, which has its origin in 1985 in Birmingham, but traces its heritage to roadside BBQ joints in the Deep South. Though the company now has 22 stores in six states, Jim ‘N Nick’s proves that quality and quantity can go hand in hand. Their commitment to spreading the gospel of this regional specialty is firmly stated in their long-term membership in the acclaimed Southern Foodways Alliance. Jim ‘N Nick’s restaurants are large, clean, comfortable and inviting, and their menu extends well beyond the smoker to please the rare few that aren’t ‘cue fans, offering nachos, onion rings, salads, chili, pimento cheese, grilled chicken, burgers and steaks. But at the end of the day, Jim ‘N Nick’s dances with the one that brought them, and their pulled pork slow-cooked over hickory wood in specially-built brick pits is bringing home the bacon. Jim ‘N Nick’s, 7004 Charlotte Pike
Judge Bean’s Bar-B-Cue
About five years ago Aubrey Bean drove east across the Mississippi, fired up his smoker outside a wooden shack on a dirt lot on Wedgewood Avenue, and before you could say “Hook ‘Em Horns,” a line of transplanted Texans had formed impatiently at the counter. In the Lone Star State, the cow trumps the pig when it comes to barbecue, and Judge Bean’s Bar-B-Cue cooks up brisket like nobody’s business. Fans of his hearty beef plates, sausage, brisket tacos, smoked tamales, shrimp Diablo, hand-cut fries and cowboy beans have followed Bean to The Gulch and currently to Greer Stadium, where he’s taken over the restaurant atop the park and delivers a grand slam of barbecue, beer and Blue Bell ice cream. Judge Bean’s Bar-B-Cue, 534 Chestnut Street