Shack in the Back BBQ

I have traveled this great country and have eaten a lot of BBQ. I have lived in Charlotte and Memphis. This was one of the best places I have ever eaten at. The bark on the pulled pork was killer and the turkey wings where the best I have ever eaten.
I will go out of my to eat here again!

Catered for New Years Eve. The pulled chicken and pork was good albeit a bit dry. Loved the white lightning sauce and the pickles as sides. One of the better Mac n cheese dishes in town. I would stay clear of the wings. They are dry and small but ok in the sauce. Smashed potatoes was good. Not cuisine but ok for the money.
I’d cater from them again.

The best BBQ for the money in Louisville. The only thing that confuses me is being closed on Sunday. Gotta be losing money there. Easily the best brisket in the ville. And yes, the turkey ribs are tasty.

There are only a handful of barbecue restaurants that I have yet to try, this place ranks at the top of my list (there are a couple places that rank right alongside)! This independently owned (single location) restaurant does everything right! Combination of menu offerings, portions, pricing and flavor, this place is tough to top! Pulled pork sandwich is as big and tasty as any I have tried anywhere, at any price! Sides (from potato salad to Mac & cheese and everything in between) are all home made and fresh with no frills! The meats range from Chicken Wings to Turkey Ribs to the Brisket and even Steak on Friday nights! The appetizer sampler alone is enough to make your meal! I could go on and on but making myself too hungry now!!!

Way better than almost all «bbq» joints in Louisville. Had that taste we were looking for… That backyard smoker taste.

There are already some 70+ reviews for Shack in the Back so my opinion probably doesn’t matter much anyway :)
It is all about the food here. The ambiance is minimal as the name should suggest– SHACK. Most of the seating is in a semi-​enclosed outside space with roof, screening, half-​walls and heaters in the winter with drop-​down plastic sheeting. A few tables indoors with regular heat and A/​C. Servers seem to mostly be high school students or owner’s family members and everyone is friendly although they —might— need a reminder to bring an item or drink (not much really)
Order at the counter, get a number and find a table. Food is served to the table. I’ve never waited more than 15 minutes during the lunch rush hour which is pretty reasonable I think.
The meats— try a sampler. I love the smoked turkey ribs (which aren’t actually ribs), the wings with a not too thick sauce, and the pulled pork or brisket sandwiches. Several choices of sauce on the table so its best to take a small taste of each before loading up a sandwich since they are quite different. Smokey when they should be smokey without it being the overwhelming taste. Pork isn’t too fatty. The meat can even survive being had as take-​out and reheated.
The sides– good from what I have tried. The mac and cheese is very thick with cheese and had a definite cheddar flavor. Green beans are pretty typical for BBQ joints but on the good side of typical.
Other than ice water, I have only tried the tea and sweet was sweet but tasted fine.
Overall, this is the classic local BBQ joint with its occasional missteps but more consistent wins. I’d drive across town for a meal here

On the way home back to TX now but we are still full from all of the fantastic food we had last night, and for a great price. The baked beans, green beans, and turkey ribs are the top 3 «must try» in my book. Everything else is delicious (including the SPECTACULAR brisket) but those three have a special spin that only the shack in the back can provide. You won’t taste anything like their turkey ribs and white lightning sauce anywhere but here. When the lady at the counter heard we were from out of town she immediately brought us more food to make sure we had a chance to try everything. She also was constantly checking on our drinks. We had a great time and will make sure to stop by again anytime we are in Kentucky.

Out of way bbq spot. But real good smoky favor on the ribs, and the turkey rib as well. The whole family was happy with their meals. real friendly service, and very reasonably prices.

Arrived for dinner around 6:30. It was packed so I had my hopes up. I a big fan of BBQ and and also cook myself. I ordered the sampler plate #2 (baby back ribs, sausage and chopped brisket sandwich). The sausage was good but everything else was dry. Some of the reviews talk about bad service and they are correct. they messed up my friends order. there was only 3 of us. 2 of us were pretty much done before he received his order. the only thing they said was at least your fries are warm. which means a lot because my bbq was barely warm. if you are particular about your BBQ don’t go here. if you don’t really care you will probably like this place. I recommend the bagoo as a side.

Easy to find. Gravel parking-​lot loved the smell outside. Old authentic log house built in the 1800’s converted, it was a little confusing figuring out which door to go in.
Inside you order at a counter, get a number and find a table. Laid back atmosphere and employees. They told us about their specialty item, the turkey ribs, but we opted to go for the baby back ribs, which were delicious and meaty with that fresh pit taste that cannot be faked.
You have a choice of about 5 sauces, all were tasty. Sides of mac& cheese, fried corn and baked beans were okay but could be kicked up a notch somehow.
The sop sauce won me over so I will return to try that pulled pork I saw somebody get next.

Checked this place out because of Unilocal and I couldn’t have been more pleased! We got the sampler platter mine had pulled pork, pulled chicken, ribs, and chicken wings. While it was all delicious the ribs and chicken wings were some of the best I’ve had in a long time! I’ll definitely be getting more ribs and wings next time I go. We also went on a Friday night and not only was the food at our table in less than ten minutes, there was (good) live music which is always a plus in my book.

We checked this place out bc of the excellent reviews. Between 2 of us we had ribs, wings, pulled pork, chicken, brisket, their super thick bologna, baked beans, coleslaw, mac and cheese, homemade chips, banana pudding, chess cake, and choc cake.
Yeah. It was all great.
We love hole in the wall bbq spots, and this was fantastic!
We just wish we had tried the turkey ribs!
The chess cake was so good we got some to take home for my brother to try!

Each time we’ve ordered from here if we do not call at least 45 minutes ahead of time, food is not ready. Then, each time I’ve picked up the order sitting in drive thru is the biggest concern. A car will sit there for more than ten minutes rather than driving around to give the next person in line a chance to get their food while it’s hot.
The food is always delicious and prepped to perfection. Anything you ask for while ordering is always included plus more. You literally get more than enough for the price is paid.
Staff is always friendly and very talkative. I enjoy every visit just wish the wait time wasn’t so long. The music played on the patio is always an excellent choice for the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Really long wait AFTER you order your food. 40 minutes to get a pork BBQ plate. Really, why does it take food that has been cooling 14 hours that long to slice? They weren’t that busy. It only took 5 minutes for me to order.
The inside has a fly problem that is fairly annoying. Outside may be ok, but music was too loud for me.
Ultimately I left after 40 minutes. They refunded my $ 9 and I went on to Zaxbys.
Service was poor, not that I want good service with BBQ, it just seemed that the staff didn’t really care about anything. I won’t be coming back and don’t think it’s worth the drive. Not sure what the 4.5 stars is about, but good BBQ shouldn’t be this hard.

Turkey ribs were so fantastic. The ribeye special wasn’t great though and is nothing but fat. The potato salad and the beans were delicious.
Honestly my husband ruined it by picking the steak lol. I really think the pork and brisket would have been 4 – 5 star quality like the turkey rib and sides. Good job hubs

While in town for Derby weekend, we visited this place based on my fiancé’s aunt’s recommendation. My fiancé does not eat pork, that’s not something I can say. I, however, am not a huge fan of turkey — unless it’s smoked. (Rule of thumb, if you stop at a BBQ restaurant, and you don’t see stacks of wood, be aware of what you are getting into.) This place had plenty of stacks, and tons of smoke piping out.
There were four of us, 3 of the 4 were super excited about he turkey ribs. They didn’t disappoint. I like pulled pork, but I am a NC girl, so I also like a vinegar based sauce, and slaw with my pulled pork. I also seem to be drawn to smoked sausage when it’s fresh made. For this trip, I just got a pulled pork sandwich, with slaw as one of my sides. I promptly added it to my sandwich. (I learned the hard way, once I leave NC pulled pork sandwiches do not automatically come with slaw!) I put a little of the tangy sauce on my sandwich. To me it was a bit sweet, and I didn’t need too much of it, so it worked. I was going to order a smoked sausage to go, but they had a limited amount, and weren’t sure if they had any left, so I forfeited that addition. Around the table I saw turkey wings, white lightening sauce, chicken wings, shredded chicken sandwich, mac and cheese, fried corn, baked beans, and brisket stuffed potato skins. I have to say the baked beans were great! They seem to be homemade, I would say if you eat pork — don’t skip on the beans!
Everything was delicious, everyone was satisfied. This place is definitely worth a try, and it will have you hooked. The service was extremely friendly.

The chips are the best items on the menu.
When I first planned this trip to the Bible Belt land I thought, «well at least they’ll have good BBQ.» So I left my liberal values at home and travelled to Shack in the Back, but something with name Shack in the title has to be good, right?
I drove passed this place and when I finally found it I had to park in the gas station next door. I then open a swinging porch door and stand in living room of old church chairs and vinyl table clothes. I just knew this was going to be good!
I ordered a meat samplers, chips, mac and cheese, beans, sweet tea and any other stereotypical thing that crossed my mind. We are given a number and headed to the screened in almost insulated porch.
This is where it goes bad. 25 minutes later some of the meal finally arrives.
Wings:
Fine. They come covered in Sop Sauce, which is basically tangy honey. I wasn’t overly impressed with the sauce. If you are going to just put red pepper flakes in honey, at least use good honey. I moved on from the quickly cooling wings fast.
Ribs:
Fine. The meat was good, but they seemed to missing that valuable charr that makes Ribs so delicious. The sauce here was also better, but nothing too amazing.
The list goes on, the pulled meat sandwich were fine, but forgettable. The Mac and Cheese was runny cheese sauce that left me wanting purely melted cheese and butter (like it should be). The beans were baked beans, nothing out of the ordinary. The chips, however, were fantastic. I wish I had gotten two side of chips and skipped the other sides.
In fact, I would have been happier if I had chips and then left because the rest of the menu was not worthy of having shack in the title.

For Louisville BBQ, which is not very good, this place isn’t too bad. The pulled pork is a decent sized sandwich. And it does have a good smokey flavor. Well done there.
The sauces are also good. They have several. Four, I think? I like the hot bbq. Has a good flavor, and it’s not that hot. But you can taste a little spice. Good balance.
The brisket is average.
The sides are average to good.
It’s a very simple place. Something to be said for that, I think. I’ll keep coming here as long as they do keep it simple and stay reasonably priced.

They are doing some real bbq here. As soon as you get out of your car you can smell the wood burner. Smells like campfire, smells like bbq.
I ordered the ¼ slab rib plate with fries and baked beans. The portion was huge. Closer to a half slab. The meat was fall off the bone tender with a good light smoke to it. The problem was it was way under seasoned and they didn’t bother to peel the membrane off the back. A little more salt and pepper in the rub would have really made these ribs shine. The sauce was no help. The hot was not. It tasted like a commercial food service sauce.
The baked beans were really good. Mixed with green and red peppers they were sweet but not overly so.
If I’m in the neighborhood I might stop back to try the turkey ribs. I would not go out of my way for the pork ribs.

After getting lost for a bit longer than we intended in Jefferson Memorial Forest (and without naming names of whose fault it may have been), we were feeling rather peckish. I decided to look on the handy dandy Unilocal app and see what fine fares Fairdale had to offer. The only two restaurants that really came up were Dairy Queen with one 4 star review by Brian G. and this place. Now, I trust Brian G., and I have nothing against Dairy Queen, but Shack in the Back has a somewhat euphemistic name so it was hard to pass up.
On driving up you will be a bit confused what this place is. I’m guessing it used to be a stand alone shack where you would order at a counter and most people got food to go. Nowadays there is an extra «building» added on to the shack with extra tables. I call it a building in the loosest sense of the word but it does sort of have four walls and definitely a roof.
You order at the counter, but they bring the food to your table. There is a bathroom located behind the counter kind of back in the kitchen area. I think this may be a family owned and run restaurant where they have their kids work to save on labor costs ala Bob’s Burgers. We’ve all been there before!
I ordered the number two sampler which had pork ribs, brisket sandwich, pork sandwich, and sausage and also two sides, of which I got Mac and Cheese and Potato Salad. There were also 4 sauces on the tables to choose from, Hot, Tangy, Sweet, and Sop. You should just try all the sauces when you get there, they were all at least decent. As for the food the pork ribs and pork sandwich were both a bit on the dry side. The brisket sandwich was good and the sausage was actually very good. Unfortunately due to a bout of sheer stupidity I didn’t try the Turkey ribs even though every other review says they are fantastic.
If I were rating them out of five I would say
Ribs 1
Pork 2.5
Brisket 3.5
Sausage 4.5
The Mac and Cheese was ok, the creamy kind nothing special. The potato salad was excellent, would definitely eat again.
While we were out in the additional structure they were doing some sort of open mic night. If you come on open mic night, and I’m not going to tell you which night that is because I don’t want to ruin the surprise, get read for some good ol’ country folk singing some twang. When we left there was an older gentleman in a purple blazer singing some country songs from what I would guess was the fifties. It was quite the sight to behold.
All in all I would probably go back but stick to the things I thought were more noteworthy. It may seem as if I was poking fun but I actually enjoyed the atmosphere. The place also seems to be kept pretty clean which isn’t always the case in places like this.