You can tell by the ground outside Porky’s BBQ that the place is going to be good—splattered around the restaurant’s street-adjacent tables are drops of dried barbecue sauce marking all the messy meals past. And really, anything less at a place like Porky’s would be a disappointment, a bucking of the usual barbecue bylaws. Porky’s [...]

Nothing out of the restaurant’s country kitchen satisfies home-cooked cravings more than its ribs. The baby back pork ribs are perhaps the most pleasing of the bunch, colored such a potent pink from slow smoking that the meat almost seems unnatural. The beef ribs, however, are just as good, trading in the pork’s pink streaks [...]

Welcoming back Johnny Rebs’

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
There’s something sentimental about walking up to Johnny Rebs’ again—the gravel lot grinding its way into your soles, the sight of lunch lines already baking in the sun. But it’s the banner stuck up above the rebuilt façade that hits the hardest: “Welcome Home.”
For Johnny Rebs’, however, “home” isn’t [...]

One keg at a time at Beachwood BBQ

PHOTO by RUSS ROCA
I can’t say exactly when it happened, but at some point beer became like fast food—something consumed, but not necessarily enjoyed; something purchased not for flavor, but for price. Beer—Bud Light, Coors Light—was a drink whose very lack of taste was matched only by the [...]

Beachwood—”Where the Fork Meets the Pork”—serves fish (salmon and albacore), ribs, brisket, beef short ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken . . . a farm full of meat. And it’s all dry-rubbed and slow-smoked with applewood, pecan and oak. (For vegetarians, there’s a formidable fried green tomato sandwich with smoked fresh mozzarella, basil, mixed greens, balsamic [...]