Bluegrass BBQ

Tried the pulled pork and pulled chicken. I thought the meat was pretty good and the sauces were excellent– I tried their house sauce and their spicy variety. My main problem was the sides. As another reviewer mentioned, the sides taste straight out of the can. The woman working there was very friendly and sweet. I hope they can make some improvements and have success.

Went after work to check it out. The food was just OK and they weren’t friendly at all. I would not recommend this new place. You would think since its new that they would be friendlier. I was the only person in the whole place.

Ok, a couple of disclaimers here. As you may know I am a bit of BBQ snob, not really a snob but I have had some of the best in the country and have a lot of trophies to prove that I know how to cook it as well. And as this restaurant is new, you expect some things to be a bit off.
The problem here is that the usual issues you expect form a new place; slow service, disorganized kitchen /​serving were present but the larger issue was that the product was not good at all.
BBQ is a tricky thing and even the best places in the country will give you a substandard product if they are not busy. I have yet to see any cars outside the place but sometimes new places need some time to generate a following. When I went there was no one there and for the time it took me to eat (20 mins) no one came in. Even with me being 100% of the clientele it took a 5 minutes to get my food.
I ordered a brisket sandwich which comes with 1 side and a pulled pork sandwich which also came with a side. I asked for no bread since I wanted to see what the meat was all about. For my sides I got cole slaw and baked beans.
The brisket was not good, I know they are using wood to cook with since I saw it in bins labeled «hickory» and «apple» in their storeroom but I could not discern any smoke seasoning at all by taste or sight. This was in addition to the fact it was very tough. On a side note here the owner cut the brisket with a boning knife which I can say I have never seen, therefore it took about 3 times longer than it should have to cut and serve.
The pulled pork tasted like, and I am serious here, dry thanksgiving turkey. It was very dry and really tasted bad, I had to use sauce to bring any real flavour to the party and even then it was the taste of the sauce not a deep pork flavour. Again no signs of smoke…
The sides were straight from the can, I saw the big can of Bush’s baked beans on the shelf in the store, which is fine I use them all the time to make big batches but they did not use the leftover brisket cuts (point etc) or rib bones to flavour them they just cracked them open and put them in the steam table. The cole slaw was Sysco brand and was so creamy it could not even be used to help the pork out as an addition like in Memphis.
they had 4 sauces on the table, House, Sweet, Sweet Mustard, and spicy. The house was very strong and very sweet with some back end heat it reminds me of a base sauce we use for competition but was very overpowering given the dull flavour of the pork. The Sweet was the best pairing for pork, the Sweet Mustard was a South Carolina sauce and I think a direct copy of Bessinger’s out of Charleston without the tomato paste addition. The spicy was sort of Texas, sort of KC style, it went OK with the brisket but was not the best example of a sauce you might find elsewhere like in the Hill Country of Texas for instance.
Overall I have to give this place a thumbs down, they probably wont be around long as they have too many issues and some are not new restaurant related.