A Barbecue Tour of the South

When my husband and I decided to drive up to St Louis for a family wedding, I realized we had a unique opportunity to taste our way across the southeast. Since barbecue is the quintessential and universal Southern food, I decided we would use the opportunity to eat some of the South’s finest.  I started planning for our barbecue tour of the south by doing a little internet research.  Some of the same names kept popping up: Fat Matt’s in Atlanta, Pappy’s Smokehouse in St Louis, etc.  So, these were added to our “must do” list, but I am also a big fan of little known hole-in-the-wall type places and local favorites.  This love of a good hole-in-the-wall was born in me because I grew up in a rural area and everything there is a hole-in-the-wall.  My desire to choose small, local places on this particular journey stems from the fact that the barbecue joint in my home town, Ken’s, has been repeatedly slammed on Urban Spoon and Yelp.  This offends me greatly.  Calling someone’s hometown barbecue joint “disgusting” is like calling their baby ugly.  In the South, barbecue is as sacred as football and grandmas.  They may not be special to an outsider, but to small town denizens, the local barbecue joint is where life happens – gossip, impromptu reunions, politics, business deals, the carrying on of traditions – a small town restaurant is a microcosm of the world outside its walls.  That is one of the reasons I love to eat local when I travel, it gives you a sense of that community.    So, in choosing restaurants, I wanted a little of the “famous” and little of the “hometown”.  Join us on our culinary journey through the South!