Nationwide BBQ Golf Trail

Travel & Leisure, 9/09

O'Fallon IL - Owensboro KY - St. Louis MO - Goldsboro NC - Memphis TN - Nashville TN - Lexington TN - Henderson TN - Kansas City MO - Lexington NC - Raleigh NC - Parsons TN

Fat Guy Foreword:  In 2009, two writers from Travel & Leisure drove 3,000 miles in a black 1972 Buick Limited, sampling barbeque from some of the best BBQ spots in the country.  Here's a list of the best they found, along with a few personal nominations from Fat Guy, and a good low brow course to play nearby each of these BBQ meccas.

Some quotes:  "Every morsel of barbecue tells a story, starting with the meat: if it’s sausage, you’re in or around Austin, Texas. Mutton? Owensboro, Kentucky. Whole hog might be eastern North Carolina, western Tennessee, or upstate South Carolina, depending on which hardwoods you’re using and how you seasoned your pork. Did the pit master put a dry rub of black pepper and salt on it before laying it over the coals? Did he baste it once it was on the heat, and if so, with what kind of liquid? Did he turn the pig before it was done, and did he dress it with sauce before it was served? Every decision a contemporary pit master makes might be rooted in tradition, in the choices our ancestors made; and even today these regional differences hold up."

"We were beginning to spot a pattern with the barbecue joints we liked most, a certain disrespect for the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, kitchen and dining room, a fundamental flexibility that allows for the main ingredients—smoke and fat—to flow where they may. Customers get to see the action firsthand and inhale a strong whiff of the wares. In a roadside setting, selling a product as slippery as barbecue, an open kitchen is an expression of honesty."

The BBQ Golf Trail:

O’Fallon, Illinois: 17th Street Bar & Grill
Few champion pit masters have achieved the level of celebrity of Mike Mills, whose postmodern barn on a strip of suburban sprawl provides a range of regional styles. Dinner for two $40.

Play:  Go upscale at nearby Stonewolf GC (www.stonewolfgolf.com), a Jack Nicklaus Signature design with generous fairways on a hilly, heavily wooded site. Off-season rates are under $50.  For a barbeque budget, hit Locust Hills (www.locusthillsgolf.com) for a front 9 routed through rolling hills and mature woods, which leads to a more open back with two ponds in play, for just $37 prime time with cart. 

Owensboro, Kentucky: Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn
The apotheosis of Owensboro’s micro-regional mutton ’cue. Order it sliced and chopped—always with “dip”—and in a meaty burgoo (a rustic Kentucky stew). Dinner for two $38.

Play:  Stay close at Summit G&CC (www.summitky.com) for a rolling farmland course with 5 lakes, or snag a great value at Panther Creek (www.panthercreekgolfclub.com) for more farmland holes at just $29 prime time.

St. Louis, Missouri: Roper’s Ribs
The top spot for the Gateway City’s barbecue specialties, such as St. Louis–cut pork ribs, snoots, and rib tips. Lunch for two $25.

St. Louis, Missouri: C&K
Dinner for two $20.

"In St. Louis, we bought the region’s specialties, snoots—no pretty way around it, it’s the snout of a hog—from C&K, a takeout window with nary a wood chip in sight, but a steady stream of locals on a lazy Sunday. We took the platter to the park below the Gateway Arch, near where the Mississippi River had submerged the riverwalk. Like oversize pork rinds, the texture of a rice cake, the snoots were sluiced with a tomatoey sauce that had the right amount of sweetness and heat cutting through its deeply porky hit. Did we get too wrapped up in it all—the newness of the snout, the majesty of the arch, and the fear of the rising river drowning the old Buick? Whatever the case, we loved the snoots, and we ate every last bite."

Play:  Head for Eagle Springs (www.eaglesprings.com), a 1989 design with nice floral flourishes for just a $45 prime time greens fee. Or hit the St. Louis area's best muni, The GC of Florissant (www.golfclubofflorisant.com) which had a $1 million 1997 renovation, with off-season rates of just $27.  Or, I'm told I once played St. Louis muni Forest Park MGC during a college buddy's wedding weekend. I don't recall much other than having a ton of fun.

Memphis, Tennessee: A&R Bar-B-Que
The rib-tip sandwich here is moist, with lingering smoke, and all too easy to eat. Lunch for two $20.

And it was an altogether different kind of love from the intoxicating one we experienced when we dropped down to Memphis and, in the space of two days, hit Charlie Vergos Rendezvous, Neely’s, Central, Leonard’s, Tops, and Cozy Corner—a charry, sticky blur of ribs and even more ribs, with only a trip to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music for respite."

Play:  Memphis native Justin Timberlake's Mirimichi ($31-$71). The real gems of Mirimichi are the four par 3s. Water makes your hands sweat on three of them, while the other, no. 3, is a 223-yard behemoth with large bunkers fronting the green. No. 11, Timberlake's favorite hole, is 181 yards with a green that is nearly surrounded by water. The only dry spot — the left side — has a bunker and a large collection area for anyone with a case of the pull-hooks.

Nashville, Tennessee: Jack’s Bar-B-Que
Located in the thick of honky-tonk bars on Music City’s tourist strip, Jack’s Bar-B-Que nevertheless draws local rockabilly kids and alt-country scenesters for remarkable beef brisket, pork ribs, and smoked chicken. Dinner for two $25.

Nashville, Tennessee: Mary’s Old Fashioned Pit Bar-B-Que
Locals line up for a superb rendition of chopped pork on a bun, as well as excellent grilled short ribs. Dinner for two $18.

Play:  Vanderbilt Legend's Club of Tennessee.  The Ropers Knob Course has two lakes that come into play. The most difficult hole for both courses is #10 on the Ropers Knob Course, a 465-yard, par 4, with water to the right of the green. The second shot requires a carry over water, and the hole always plays into the wind.

Lexington, Tennessee: Scott’s Bar-B-Que
Smoke rings are evident in these perfect pulled-pork sandwiches, which are topped with carrot-flecked slaw and suffused with a medium-hot sauce. Dinner for two $20.

Parsons, Tennessee: Jerry’s
Dinner for two $20.

"About halfway to Nashville, we were hunting for a barbecue restaurant among the grain mills and goat farms of Route 69 when a freshly painted barn-red hut came into view, a plume of smoke issuing from somewhere behind the building. A line of customers queued outdoors by a screened window. By this point in the trip, we knew what we had to do. We ordered our pulled-pork sandwiches, lightly sauced, and made our way to the perfunctory dining room, which is more like a freestanding screened porch. A truck out back was filled with squared hickory rods—evidently there’s a drumstick mill in the area that sells the curved or split blanks, the rejects, to the local barbecue shops to burn. In a barrel nearby a few bushels of sticks were crackling into the swelter of summer afternoon. Once the fire settled down, the glowing embers would be shoveled into the smoker to gently cook the pigs. Jerry’s pulled-pork sandwich was outstanding, perfectly seasoned and lubricated, plenty smoky, with a chunky home-cut slaw on top for tonic balance and a sauce that hinted at spice without overstating the obvious."

Play: Parsons and Henderson on are right down the road from each other.  There's only a 9-holer in Henderson (Pine Creek, 15440 Hwy 412E), so head 20 minutes or so east to Tennessee River GC (www.tennesseerivergolfclub.com), a flatish residential course with mild elevation changes and rustic bunkering that's a steal at $30 prime time greens fees. Or make the half-hour drive SE to Ross Creek Landing in Clifton, the best public course in the state per T&L Golf.

Henderson, Tennessee: Siler’s Old-Time Bar-B-Que
The most recent in a succession of barbecue establishments cooking whole hogs on this site. Ask for rib meat, pit meat, or tenderloin if you prefer. Lunch for two $15.

Play:  The Bear Trace Golf Trail is a collection of Tennessee courses scattered throughout the state, anchored by 3 Jack Nicklaus designs in state parks.  Here, play Chickasaw GC (www.chickasawgc.com) 15 minutes away in Chickasaw State Park. Abundant wild life, not a McMansion in sight, dense forest, great scenery, and a Golf Magazine Top 10 You Can Play for under $50.

Kansas City, Kansas: Oklahoma Joe’s
Dinner for two $20.

"Beyond the shamrock gas station’s pumps and past the racks of Hostess cakes, a warren of tables and booths makes up the Kansas City, Kansas, barbecue joint Oklahoma Joe’s.  The ribs were, indeed, redolent of white oak and porky, and they disappeared quickly. The brisket was fall-apart tender, a tad dry but then there were sauces to dress it with (permissible in Kansas City). Finally, the burnt ends came, and they were wonderful: salty, glistening with smoke-tinged fat, and prickly with the heat of black pepper. To us, they seemed to be the best bit.  Spicier sauce than Gates'."

Kansas City, Missouri: Arthur Bryant’s
Dinner for two $25.

"Inside Arthur Bryant’s, a snaking line stretched to the door, and as we inched toward the order window, an opening in a Plexiglas wall, we watched, riveted, as the workers performed the rough-and-tumble procedure: pulling a whole brisket, blackened and quivering, from the white-enameled brick smoker; throwing down a broad sheet of red butcher paper; slapping on it a few slices of Wonder bread followed by a generous heaping of brisket ribbons; piling a fistful of steaming, thick-cut fries on top; then rolling the heaping mass into a package the size of a swaddled newborn.

In the fundamentals of pit cookery, Arthur Bryant’s shone: brisket beautifully marbled, lightly smoky; pork ribs perfectly moist, not too salty; the sauce, rust-colored, almost gritty with dried spices, with a delectable Worcestershire-coriander inflection and a brisk vinegar bite. But since the taste, the texture, the flavor is so tied to a sense of place, it stands to reason that the way the establishment envelops you in the process—and its past—matters."

Kansas City, Missouri: Gates Bar-B-Q
Lunch for two $20.

"It was at the airport that we learned Kansas City lives and breathes barbecue the way New Orleans does gumbo. We’d simply asked the man behind the rental-car counter what his favorite barbecue spot was. “Gates, definitely Gates. Best burnt ends—you’ll want the mixed plate, too, with fries,” he said."

Play: For a great value, tee it up at one of the last courses that A.W. Tillinghast designed, Swope Memorial MGC. For something more upscale, head for Iron Horse GC, probably K.C.'s best public and a favorite of visiting athletes like Roger Clemmens.

Lexington, North Carolina: Lexington Barbecue
Dinner for two $15.

Raleigh, North Carolina: The Pit
Dinner for two $45.

"In Raleigh we found a third barbecue style—Postmodern—at the Pit. Eyes rolled and tongues wagged in this town when developer Greg Hatem, a guy with a knack for restoring downtown landmarks and outfitting them with upscale restaurants, recruited one of eastern North Carolina’s preeminent old-school whole-hog pit masters, Ed Mitchell, to take up shop in a loftlike former meatpacking warehouse (for comparison’s sake, imagine your local morning show luring the Rolling Stones to be the house band). Though Mitchell still wears his trademark overalls, the place is a barbecue joint for a new age: the kitchen is a spotless, open, stainless-steel affair at the back of a dining room with—you guessed it!—white tablecloths. We chose to sit in the stylish bar area, where college guys drink Bud Light longnecks, gnaw on ribs, and watch The Game on big-screen TV’s. And while Mitchell’s briquette-fired smokers might raise a few eyebrows farther east in the state, we were impressed by the chopped whole hog, which was classically eastern N.C. in style, with a blast of vinegar, red pepper flakes, and smoke, and the baby back ribs, with the lightest brush of caramelized sauce to frame the background smoke and salt. And they were crispy outside and moist inside. There were some thoughtful regional touches up front we didn’t expect, like a delicious sangria made from North Carolina Scupperdine wine. We had a lovely dinner at the Pit, but that’s just it—the place got us to thinking: At what point does barbecue become so mannered it stops being barbecue?"

Play:  Just about everything in the Golden Triangle is tied to Duke, UNC, or N.C. State.  Tee it up at N.C. State's Lonnie Poole GC (www.lonniepoolegolfcourse.com), designed by Arnold Palmer disciple Erik Larson, with jagged edged bunkers and good conditions.  Prime time fees are $75.

Goldsboro, North Carolina: Scott’s Famous Barbecue
Local legend Martel Scott Jr. serves lunch in a 1960’s dining room Thursdays and Fridays. Lunch for two $12.

Goldsboro, North Carolina: Wilber’s Barbecue
Lunch for two $20.

"Wilber’s: Barbecue Nirvana?

We’d read—and confirmed over the phone—that Wilber’s Barbecue, in Goldsboro, North Carolina, opens at 6 a.m., and when we rumbled off the highway and into the parking lot of the sprawling roadhouse at exactly 7 o’clock, three dozen cars had already crowded the lot. Smoke puffed from a fire somewhere and lost itself in the morning’s mist. We took a seat in one of the knotty pine–paneled rooms, with wooden schoolhouse chairs and red-checked tablecloths, next to a gathering of steely-haired farmers having their morning smokes and trading portentous outcomes.  The sandwiches were undoubtedly the best of the pilgrimage, freshly warmed, well seasoned."

Play: Try Lane Tree GC (www.lanetree.com), a John Lafoy course for less than $50 prime time, or Greensboro MGC (www.gmgcgolf.com), a flat, pine-lined course which saw a John Lafoy renovation in 1999. It's a steal at $31.

See Also:  NC BBQ Trail, TX BBQ Trail