Quest for the Best! The Joint BBQ, New Orleans

At this point I am noticing that more and more restaurants in New Orleans are either really good or really bad; or it is me and I have really bad luck. I have not found a middle ground, although I did find a little southern café on Magazine Street called Joey K’s. It is super simple and super good. No matter where I go people keep telling me that my trip won't be complete unless I eat at The Joint.

After a few phone calls I was finally able to get a hold of the owner Pete and he said come on down anytime and that he’d love to have me.

That Sunday was the last day of Fleet Week and I wanted to get shots of all the navy ships while they were still in town. Before lunch I headed east over the 90 bridge and after a few turns found myself in the Fischer Development Neighborhood. With in seconds I was among hundreds in a southern black neighborhood with no way out. Everywhere I looked I there were custom tricked out low riders bouncing and motorcycle crews doing burn outs till the smoke filled the streets.

I found myself, in what looked like, an episode of “The Wire”. I pulled my hat brim down over my eyes untill I could barely see. My white knuckles gripped the steering wheel over the dash board and sweat pouring down my face. I’ll be honest I’m fuckin' scared to death; my heart is pounding so hard I can barley hear the engine. I was a lone Cali boy lost in the middle of a southern black street party and my California plates made me stick out like a sore thumb. It was obvious I lost was not welcome here.

Every side street I looked down was filled with more and more people. At one point I even hear someone yell, “Are you lost son?” It felt like there was no way out. Finally up a head I saw a small opening under the bridge surrounded by tons of motorcycle crews. I thought this is my way out. I got to the intersection and just as I made a left I thought I was in the clear  but a crew of about 12 bikes pull right up in front of me and start burning smoke as hard as they can. I thought, “This is it!” I’m stuck here in the middle of the street I'm toast. At this point I'm shaking pretty bad. The smoke starts to clear and all the guys are sitting off the side of the road laughing their asses off.

I popped some heart medication and finally decided it was best to just head to The Joint which was on the other side of the river, and in a way better neighborhood. I was done with sticky situations. After all I had no idea what I was doing. So the shots of the NAVY ships never happened, but when I finally arrived at The Joint I could not wait so sit down and enjoy what all of New Orleans was talkin’ about.

MEAT ME: This is obviously The Joint.

The Joint: You are at The Joint Barbecue. Yes.

MEAT ME: It says on the website “Always Smokin’” how does that tie?

The Joint: Well we smoke all the food, and we are literally constantly tending the smoker.

MEAT ME: How long have you guys been out here?

The Joint: June 2004 we opened.

MEAT ME: What is your background in Barbecue?

The Joint: Well I grew up in Baltimore, which is not much of a barbecue town, but I went to college in Virginia and there was and there was an older gentleman from eastern North Carolina. He was there cooking really vinegary barbecue. That was the first time I had ever had barbecue. It was not about this sweet tomato’y sauce all over the meat. I liked that. I was just one of those moments. I moved down here in 1999 and started cookin’ just at the backyard level. Circumstances kind of came to me where I was looking for a job and there was this building right around the corner from our house and there was the opportunity and my wife and I decided to go for it.

MEAT ME: So what is your specialty?

The Joint: Everything. We started out doing pulled pork was the first thing I learned to do. Then ribs and moved on towards brisket and chicken. We have a great sausage that comes in from Brokerage, Louisiana; that we smoke here.

MEAT ME: Do you get all of your meats locally?

The Joint: No. It’s not like we have local purveyors. It’s mostly commodities market and nationally sourced probably.

MEAT ME: Do you get involved in Barbecue Competitions?

The Joint: A little bit. We had some friends who used to live here before Katrina and work took them back up to Memphis. They ended up with a barbecue team up there. We actually went up there for a few years and hung out and cooked at the Memphis in May. Overall the restaurant isn’t dying to spend my off time cooking barbecue competitively.

MEAT ME: So you guys are basically smoking barbecue here 24/7?

The Joint: Well may be 18 hours a day, something like that.

MEAT ME: Do you also make your own sauce, and all that?

The Joint: Yea all the rubs and all the sauces; everything is made from scratch.

MEAT ME: Have you noticed any change in the food and barbecue culture since Katrina?

The Joint: Yeah, I guess there are more restaurants and more people who are opening barbecue restaurants in town. I had always thought that New Orleans; primarily in this neighborhood compared to some parts of the city, is a bunch of people who aren’t necessarily from New Orleans but all the people are from the south have a good understanding of what good barbecue is like. I just feel that all these people have had an appreciation for it; just another nice offering coming to New Orleans. There are a lot of people post Katrina who come from other states, who are very barbecue-centric places. As far as people who open places that are from here and have always been here and decided to throw their hat into the ring.

MEAT ME: What separates barbecue out here from say Carolina, Texas, or the West Coast?

The Joint: Well I guess there isn’t necessarily the barbecue tradition in Louisiana. There is to some degree the andouille sausage which is exclusively a Louisiana thing, but smoked. There is the cochon de lait which is a young whole pig roasted on a vertical spit with hickory logs in the background. There is a festival dedicated to it in central Louisiana in mid May. New Orleans has always just always been New Orleans. It always had so many culinary traditions that barbecue just hasn’t taken root here.

MEAT ME: What are you guys doing so different that no matter where I go people are asking me if I have eaten at The Joint? If you can tell me…

The Joint: I’ll tell you what we do. We make our rubs and we make our sauces. We severe all the sauce on the side and we only do barbecue. We don’t do anything else. You know there are some places that are doing other things with their barbecue; like taco’s or something. That’s not us, we are just doing barbecue, and we do it the old fashion way. We start with charcoal in the morning and then it’s logs all day long and I think that does make a difference. I don’t have a lot of experience with a “set it, forget it” style smoker where it gas powered and it’s kind of pumping smoke into there. I am very suspicious of the results.

MEAT ME: What type of wood do you guys use?

The Joint: What ever we can get our hands on. Right now we have a lot of oak, pecan, and hickory. We try and get some kind of format with those 3 woods.

MEAT ME: What is your favorite kind of MEAT?

The Joint: Ribs are great. Brisket. You know the brisket is the hardest one to get right. We consistently try to pull the briskets off at the right time. A great brisket is my favorite it always depends. Ribs, pulled pork, brisket I certainly try it all.

It truly was delicious; the meat came right off the bone like a snake slithering into my mouth. I felt relieved that I finally got this amazing barbecue off my chest and lived to actually tell about it.

While I was there I ran into 4 guys who drove out from Toronto just to have his delicious barbecue. It that doesn’t tell you how good it is then I don’t know what will.

You can check out the joint at: http://alwayssmokin.com/
You can follow them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/alwayssmokin
Find them on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-joint-new-orleans

Keep it simple stupid,
Sean Rice
aka MEAT ME

Quest for the Best! McClure's Barbecue, New Orleans

You can’t win friends with salad but you might just have a chance with BBQ. Stop #2 pop up BBQ shop McClure’s Barbecue located at Dante’s Kitchen located just of Saint Charles Street. Yup that’s just 4 blocks from Squeal Bar-B-Q.

Not it’s not everyday that you see a pop up Barbecue shop but if you do stop and eat at it. Chances are it is not going to be there for very long. I got lucky McClure’s operation will only be there till the end of next week and then he’s moving on to another spot.

There is a lot that goes in to running your own shop you have to make all the bbq sauces over night you gotta smoke the BBQ for hour on end and then show up somewhere the next day and make sure it is perfect for the people who came from all over just to eat it. It almost makes me think that me driving here all the way from Los Angeles was less work then all the work that went into prepping the food for me to eat. That’s right! It takes that much work to make 15 minutes of you tasty pleasure worth it.

I hit up McClure’s Barbecue on twitter and they told me the would love to have me and your damn right I am heading right over anybody you gets that excited to see me. I walked right in and started mixing it up with Mr. McClure right off the bat!

MEAT ME: So have you always been in New Orleans?

McClure’s Barbecue: I am originally from Pensacola, Florida. I have been in New Orleans longer. I lived here for a little bit as a kid and then came back for college and never really left. I did a little time on the west coast but not very much just 5 years in Oregon.

MEAT ME: So how long have you been doing BBQ?

McClure’s Barbecue: Professionally I made the jump in November. I decided the night before I turned 40 to quit my job here as the general manager of Dante’s which is a casual fine dining bistro of which I have been a part of for 10 years since I have moved back from Oregon. I did a few pop ups in November and it was pretty overwhelming with people liking my barbecue. I needed them to give me money and tell me it was good rather than free and in my back yard. Which was great cause it got me rolling the ball a little quicker.  I was going to quit in a year. The ended up being in December from mid October to December and then January I started doing lunch here. So I have been doing that week days ever since.

MEAT ME: So what is the concept of a pop up shop?

McClure’s Barbecue: Just to occupy another space to get your product out there before you are on your own. To decide if your gonna get your own.

MEAT ME: Is it usually spread by word of mouth?

McClure’s Barbecue: It is. Facebook. Twitter.

MEAT ME: Have you done this “Pop Up Shop” anywhere else?

McClure’s Barbecue: No not yet. I just had my first adventure outside of my little nest here last Friday I did a bar down here in the CBD (Central Business District) called the Rusty Nail and had a great response down there. It’s really a different part of town. Every part of town here has got a different type of feel to it. That whole area is completely foreign to me because I have spent all my time up here for the last ten years and I really don’t go out much anymore. I got 2 kids and a wife of a long time ya know. From there I am gonna try a couple of other restaurants and have a fluid schedule while I am having my space built out. I can’t do $75 a week for ten hours of service and get my thing open.

MEAT ME: So is the eventual goal to have your own restaurant?

McClure’s Barbecue: Yes! In the mean time I have got friends in the industry; just in this city alone. I have got friends in restaurants everywhere and I’ll just kind of meander around waiting; do some catering, that sort of thing.

Yeah so I am zeroing in on a space and we are gonna start the build in a month or two and be open by the end of the year. It would be nice to be open by the Super Dome when the super bowl happens. It’s a block off the bridge and where Mardi Gras happens as well.

MEAT ME: So what do we have here? This is the pulled pork?

McClure’s Barbecue: Yes in deed.

MEAT ME: What can you tell me about the pulled pork?

McClure’s Barbecue: Its pretty simple I grew up just doing salt and pepper on pulled pork I didn’t think it needed much of a rub and it really doesn’t because it is about the meat and tenderness inside and cooking it slow till it gets to the right internal temperature which thankfully I don’t fret about anymore I know when it is ready just by the feel of it. I do a little finishing sauce on there, a little East North Carolina sauce essentially. Vinegar based, a lot of people inject their pork’s but I am not into all that it is a diminishing return after a while.

MEAT ME: Which sauce do you recommend with the pork?

McClure’s Barbecue: Oh Boy! Play with them. This is classic Carolina Style. I really like the Alabama Sauce this is a play on Bob Gibson’s Indicator he is one of the more well know Alabama Barbecue’s. It is a white sauce when I first tried it I thought this is an abomination, but it is really good on chicken and pulled pork. It is different at least.

MEAT ME: It gives you that salty/sweet thing at the same time?

McClure’s Barbecue: Yup. I really don’t use a lot of sauce unless I am doing it on a sandwich. My favorite sauce is the empty bottle and not using any. Although I will play; I gotta say I do like it on my brisket the red sauce.

MEAT ME: How do you do the brisket?

McClure’s Barbecue: Salt, pepper, and dry rub. My rub is the same and different for all of the meats. I dropped off when talking about the pulled pork I do put seasoning on there all of them are basically based on the same kind of Creole seasoning that we use in all of the kitchens here. Half of the chefs in town trained at Commanders Palace including Emerald using that Emerald Spice.

MEAT ME: How you would explain Creole to come one from California?

McClure’s Barbecue: Wow! Ahh, Creole is more city cooking it was more indigenes to New Orleans than say Cajun. Cajun was more down in the swamp. Creole was the influence of the French, the islands, and the Native American culture down here. It has a little bit of everything in it. It tends to be a little bit more sophisticated just in its over all process. The flavors did wonders for non refrigerated meat back in the day.

MEAT ME: The chicken I brine. It’s got a simple salt and sugar brine with a little orange juice and soy. I brine that over night and then I slow cook it about 4 or 5 hours. All of them go in the same cooker I don’t do separate temperatures for everything I have got a hotter part of my grill; but my thing  is an awesome machine so its not to big a difference throughout the whole thing. I bought it because of it’s ratings. I wanna build my own rig I am not going to kid anybody I am now a welder.

McClure’s Barbecue: By trade I have been a front of the house guy for most of my career. I have been a general manager. I have done a little cooking on the side but tickets have always driven me crazy. Cooking different stuff for different tables all at the same time would make me wanna… Now I know why chefs wanna stab people! It makes you insane. I am a great prep cook. Give me a knife, give me a stuff to chop and I’m down. Give me 20 things to cook on the stove at the same time to be ready in 6 hours that’s how I grew up cooking, but needing an escargot for table 20 and red fish on the half shell for table 30 and still trying to cut the greens for tomorrows salad… No it wasn’t my cup of tea.

MEAT ME: So what do we have over here?

McClure’s Barbecue: That is my 4 cheese macaroni. Mom’s potatoe salad, it is a German Potatoe salad but I do it cold. There is some egg in there and some bacon. Most of it has bacon. The mac and cheese has bacon. The beans have bacon. The pulled pork, rib meat… It’s called pork and pork and beans. The original name was pork explosion beans but that didn’t test well. It conveyed to many bad images for people I guess. (laugh)

The beans were a big project. In my back yard I have always done canned beans made better. Everybody in my family swore that I could not even think about changing them because they were so good. I have done gourmet food all my life. I have done casual fine dining. This is one of the best restaurants in the city by the way. I couldn’t see beans out of a can to people. I had to come up with my own version. I didn’t have any background in it so I played and played and played. Basically I just cook them the way I cook red beans and rice and added traditional flavors. Then I could kind of pinpoint and then I threw a bunch of meat in them. It has got a ton of meat and bacon in it. How bad can it be?

MEAT ME: The corn bread?

McClure’s Barbecue: Roasted jalapeno and corn with a molasses base.

MEAT ME: That’s good, and the coleslaw?

McClure’s Barbecue: Spicy sweet salt because I am not a huge mayonnaise fan and you need this to cut the fat in all of this food.

MEAT ME: So you have been doing this for?


McClure’s Barbecue: 4 months now. Fulltime but this is my last 2 weeks in this location. Then I will be more part time and bouncing around some bars and other restaurants. Doing this all summer while I am getting my space built out. I can’t cook all night and server lunch, squeeze sleep in there and see my kids and try and build a space at the same time it is impossible so as much of a following as I have found here for lunch. It has been great but I have to cut it off. It is going to make some people mad at me, but it will make them happy when I pop back up in the neighborhood at some point this summer.

MEAT ME: So how did you get into BBQ?

McClure’s Barbecue: I grew up just doing pig stuff. Pig cooks at home. We had a axel from a Carmagia that was rigged to a washing machine motor and fencing and we’d splay the pig out and roast it over an open flame and smoke it Carolina style pig roast. That is what I grew up doing. I didn’t know it was Carolina style but it was and we’d lean a 10 foot tin roof over it to keep the heat in. It was very Red Neck. (we laugh) We were sophisticated Pensacola types it is called the Red Neck Rivera for a reason. I don’t deny my roots.

MEAT ME: So what is your favorite out of everything you do?

McClure’s Barbecue: Brisket. I have had to play with it so much cause it was foreign to me. I really didn’t know brisket as good barbecue. My friends out at The Joint (famous place I am trying to cover on my trip) his brisket really started my motivation for all of this so I bought a better smoker than the little crappy charcoal thing I had in the back yard. It took a couple years till I was happy with my brisket. With lots of trips out there he started to notice you really drive a long way for a $10 lunch. They paid me the return favor a couple of weeks ago and when he came in here and cleaned his plate of ribs I was happy.

MEAT ME: So your favorite meat is brisket?

McClure’s Barbecue: Yea but there is room on my plate for all of God’s wonderful animals. I too am a MEAT lover if there is a big ole thing of meat on the menu I am getting’ it! I can’t help myself it is what I cook at home. I like my vegetables I like my seafood, but I love my MEAT!

Well… I can’t wait till McClure’s Barbecue has his own shop and ya won’t have to chase him around anymore. Good barbecue is hard to find and when I meet someone that has basically given everything up to do it you know it is going to taste amazing. It shows. I could tell by his hands that they barely get any rest. The entire time I was there no one customer came or left without him saying “Welcome”, “Goodbye” and Thank you”. I guess there is something to be said about southern hospitality you never get used to it and the food might even taste a little better because of it.

You can check out McClure’s Barbecue at: http://www.mccluresbarbecue.com/
On Twitter at: https://twitter.com/#!/McClureBarbecue
On Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mccluresbarbecue

Go out and make some friends,
Sean Rice
aka MEAT ME