Best Indiana Barbecue Location?

[Hammerhead]

TC's used to be open in Columbus, but they shut down. They still do catering and will smoke meat for you if you know how to contact them.

I'll have to get over to Hickory Hills soon.

I'll also vote for South Street in Lafayette. It's been a while since I've had anything from there, though. That'll be on the list next trip north.

I'll be in Bloomington next week, so perhaps Smokin' Jack's deserves a taste.

I haven't found anyone else that I've been impressed with in the state. However, if we're considering those outside of the state, Bandanna's in IL/MO is almost worth the four hour trip, despite the having to travel through IL. I'll be having to go to MO next Spring, and luckily there's a Bandanna's right off 70 just before St. Louis that I can stop quickly and grab a bite and not be overly concerned with the People's Republik. I've also heard Mark's Feed store in Louisville is very good too.

Of course I prefer my bbq off my smoker as well.

 

[skydelta34]

I like Rib Cage in Muncie, Judges and GT South's in Indy. I have had pulled pork and chicken and brisket from Black Diamond and all were good, never have tried the restaurant. If you are in the Richmond area, I suggest going over the state line to New Paris and trying Baumbach's.

 

[Htrailblazer]

Going to Hickory Hills today for lunch! Love their chicken bacon swiss special on Wednesdays! Its an amazing sandwich with smoked bacon and served on toasted garlic bread. I can never eat the whole thing but always want to.

 

[Stubbleducker]

Judge's BBQ (michigan st. indianapolis) The BEST in Indy!

Best I've found as well....

 

[CountryBoy19]

Looks pretty tasty.
Me too, and every time I try to eat somewhere I am sadly disappointed. Recently I have had several people suggest I open a BBQ joint and market my rubs/sauces.....Ahhhh to dream.....I really am disappointed by everything I try though, I don't know If I'm setting my standards too high, if I'm spoiled or if mine really is THAT good.

I think many of us have those dreams.

When I was in high-school I was making jerky that blew out the local competition (very renowned butcher shop) and many people thought I should start selling my jerky. But it came down to resources, I just didn't have the resources in high school.

Same thing now, I've had many people tell me that I should open a restarant and sell my Q. But no resources.

And my wife makes cakes, cupcakes etc, but we can't afford to open a bakery despite the literally hundreds of people that have asked her why she doesn't have a bakery. They are so impressed with her cakes (they taste awesome) and her decorating skills that they just can't believe we don't have a bakery.

So I've decided, that whenever I hit the lottery, we're going to open a bakery/restaurant and that'll ruin all the fun in it.

Ok, in all reality, I do think doing it for a living, where you HAVE to get up and do it every day, would ruin all the fun in it. I think the only way I could manage is if I was just the general manager/chef/recipe creator, and I just told somebody else how to do it so I didn't have to be there to do it every single day.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I think many of us have those dreams.

When I was in high-school I was making jerky that blew out the local competition (very renowned butcher shop) and many people thought I should start selling my jerky. But it came down to resources, I just didn't have the resources in high school.

Same thing now, I've had many people tell me that I should open a restarant and sell my Q. But no resources.

And my wife makes cakes, cupcakes etc, but we can't afford to open a bakery despite the literally hundreds of people that have asked her why she doesn't have a bakery. They are so impressed with her cakes (they taste awesome) and her decorating skills that they just can't believe we don't have a bakery.

So I've decided, that whenever I hit the lottery, we're going to open a bakery/restaurant and that'll ruin all the fun in it.

Ok, in all reality, I do think doing it for a living, where you HAVE to get up and do it every day, would ruin all the fun in it. I think the only way I could manage is if I was just the general manager/chef/recipe creator, and I just told somebody else how to do it so I didn't have to be there to do it every single day.

I'm thinking maybe an enclosed trailer modified with gennys and smokers, a water tank, freezer, fridge, etc....and set up on weekends at the same location regularly....along SR37 to catch all the IU sports crowd...call it hoosier pit or something....maybe even make the smoker out of an OLD retired boiler or something to add to the whole IU/Purdue rivalry....I think as a weekend venture it would become as much of a hobby as a job thus leading to it remaining enjoyable....I'm sure there would be regular stoppers to socialize with etc...maybe even a bit of local business and I could have the wife run deliveries.......I'm giving it a little thought as I would LOVE to get out from behind the wheel on my job and if this grew to a 3-5 day a week thing I would be able to leave trucking behind. I have a BBQ for my daughters birthday every year, this year her 6yo friends and their parents have been literally begging her to invite them because of her daddies ribs...and her birthday isn't until JUNE....That makes me sort of think there's something to it...what 6yo girl likes meat THAT much? I thought it was just mine....Last year one of the girls chose to take some ribs home for later instead of CAKE.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I'm thinking maybe an enclosed trailer modified with gennys and smokers, a water tank, freezer, fridge, etc....and set up on weekends at the same location regularly....along SR37 to catch all the IU sports crowd...call it hoosier pit or something....maybe even make the smoker out of an OLD retired boiler or something to add to the whole IU/Purdue rivalry....I think as a weekend venture it would become as much of a hobby as a job thus leading to it remaining enjoyable....I'm sure there would be regular stoppers to socialize with etc...maybe even a bit of local business and I could have the wife run deliveries.......I'm giving it a little thought as I would LOVE to get out from behind the wheel on my job and if this grew to a 3-5 day a week thing I would be able to leave trucking behind. I have a BBQ for my daughters birthday every year, this year her 6yo friends and their parents have been literally begging her to invite them because of her daddies ribs...and her birthday isn't until JUNE....That makes me sort of think there's something to it...what 6yo girl likes meat THAT much? I thought it was just mine....Last year one of the girls chose to take some ribs home for later instead of CAKE.

I hear ya there, that would be the perfect startup gig. Just on the weekends where the big money is with a really affordable setup. That will let you take it as far as you want (keep it small vs. work up to a restaurant).

My problem is that I have a good job, that I "like" (like being a relative term), and I don't think I could justify giving up my pay/benefits to do anymore than just weekend/hobby stuff.

The hardest part about smoking is the long prep time. You don't just show up and start serving food. For example, pulled pork, you start it 2 days in advance with the rub down, start smoking it almost a day in advance, then pulling it is long and tedious work.


Story time: I did pulled pork for my wedding reception; also smoked some for my best friend's reception at the same time. We started with 450 lbs of pork butts. Because of cold storage limitations we weren't able to rub the butts ahead of time, we went straight from coolers full of ice to rubbing table to smoker. With the help of my parents and some relatives, we rubbed down almost all of the butts and put them in the smoker. I couldn't quite get them all in, so that means now I have to go back and do a second load in the smoker. So put the rest of the butts in the fridge, it was packed, good thing my parents have 2 fridges and 2 freezers at their house, we barely got the butts all in the spare fridge. Then the real hassles started. For some reason I couldn't get the LP burner on my smoker to stay lit right. It was windy and rainy out, but that shouldn't have been too big of a deal. So I resorted to wood fire alone (my smoker is dual fuel, wood and LP). I thought that was going to make it too smokey, so I came up with another solution. My dad has one of those big weed burner torches, I propped that thing up into the loading door of the firebox and let 'er rip. That actually worked out really great. Except I didn't check the LP tank level before church Sunday morning on the second smoker load and it ran out while at church. So now I've got a load of butts that were "close" to pulling, but now they are down to 150 again, and I have no idea what temp they peaked at. I decided to fire it up and try to get things back up to temp. A load of butts that were only about an hour from being done, but then allowed to cool back down took an additional 7 hours to get back up to pulling temp. Then I put them all in coolers to rest for a minimum of an hour. By the time they were ready to actually pull, it was getting late, and I was beyond frustrated.

To make short work of pulling (hand pulling 450 lbs of pork would've taken all night, and not be fun) we tried the kitchenaide mixer method. It worked out "ok". It wasn't an ideal texture IMHO. It seems that some of the meat was more tender than others, so by the time all the chunks get broken up/pulled, some of the meat is pulled to a really fine texture, almost making mush. Was it better than a store-bought frozen pulled pork "product" yes, but not something I would sell.

So I've resolved that if I ever did sell PP, I'd hand-pull it, and there is just no way I would have the patience to hand-pull it after a frustrating day of things not going right. That would be the point that I just break down and say that the little bit of extra cash and all the frustration on the side isn't worth it, and I'm only going to do it for fun when I have guests over etc.

Which leads to where I am now... making it a business takes all the fun out of it because it's not really an option anymore. It becomes a must do sort of thing. When you get frustrated, you can't just sit down and drink a beer and think about what you'll do better next time, you've got customers that depend on your delicious food, and a family that depends on your income.

Sorry for the long ramble, I sort of got carried away a little bit.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I hear ya there, that would be the perfect startup gig. Just on the weekends where the big money is with a really affordable setup. That will let you take it as far as you want (keep it small vs. work up to a restaurant).

My problem is that I have a good job, that I "like" (like being a relative term), and I don't think I could justify giving up my pay/benefits to do anymore than just weekend/hobby stuff.

The hardest part about smoking is the long prep time. You don't just show up and start serving food. For example, pulled pork, you start it 2 days in advance with the rub down, start smoking it almost a day in advance, then pulling it is long and tedious work.


Story time: I did pulled pork for my wedding reception; also smoked some for my best friend's reception at the same time. We started with 450 lbs of pork butts. Because of cold storage limitations we weren't able to rub the butts ahead of time, we went straight from coolers full of ice to rubbing table to smoker. With the help of my parents and some relatives, we rubbed down almost all of the butts and put them in the smoker. I couldn't quite get them all in, so that means now I have to go back and do a second load in the smoker. So put the rest of the butts in the fridge, it was packed, good thing my parents have 2 fridges and 2 freezers at their house, we barely got the butts all in the spare fridge. Then the real hassles started. For some reason I couldn't get the LP burner on my smoker to stay lit right. It was windy and rainy out, but that shouldn't have been too big of a deal. So I resorted to wood fire alone (my smoker is dual fuel, wood and LP). I thought that was going to make it too smokey, so I came up with another solution. My dad has one of those big weed burner torches, I propped that thing up into the loading door of the firebox and let 'er rip. That actually worked out really great. Except I didn't check the LP tank level before church Sunday morning on the second smoker load and it ran out while at church. So now I've got a load of butts that were "close" to pulling, but now they are down to 150 again, and I have no idea what temp they peaked at. I decided to fire it up and try to get things back up to temp. A load of butts that were only about an hour from being done, but then allowed to cool back down took an additional 7 hours to get back up to pulling temp. Then I put them all in coolers to rest for a minimum of an hour. By the time they were ready to actually pull, it was getting late, and I was beyond frustrated.

To make short work of pulling (hand pulling 450 lbs of pork would've taken all night, and not be fun) we tried the kitchenaide mixer method. It worked out "ok". It wasn't an ideal texture IMHO. It seems that some of the meat was more tender than others, so by the time all the chunks get broken up/pulled, some of the meat is pulled to a really fine texture, almost making mush. Was it better than a store-bought frozen pulled pork "product" yes, but not something I would sell.

So I've resolved that if I ever did sell PP, I'd hand-pull it, and there is just no way I would have the patience to hand-pull it after a frustrating day of things not going right. That would be the point that I just break down and say that the little bit of extra cash and all the frustration on the side isn't worth it, and I'm only going to do it for fun when I have guests over etc.

Which leads to where I am now... making it a business takes all the fun out of it because it's not really an option anymore. It becomes a must do sort of thing. When you get frustrated, you can't just sit down and drink a beer and think about what you'll do better next time, you've got customers that depend on your delicious food, and a family that depends on your income.

Sorry for the long ramble, I sort of got carried away a little bit.

I know exactly what you mean...I managed and cooked for a small restaurant/bar in StPaul MN for a few years.....when the time is running out and things aren't following the schedule you've laid out it gets stressful....It's got to be laid back or it just isn't worth it.

 

[kirch86]

I am a fan of baby back blues in columbus

 

[mrclean]

BTW, Charlies Mongolian is the best "BBQ" in Evansville.

I love charlies but it is different than what some consider bbq. I love when charlie says want somthing hot?
me make you cry like little girl lol. Hawg n sauce in mt vernon is really good. Love the chicken and the pulled pork. Sometimes the ribs are alittle done for me. Baked beans are sooooo good! My cousin owns the place and is really doing the bussiness. Bands somtimes play at night in the warmer months outside. Best part is its about 2 miles from me. I like to think I can put a scald on some animal flesh and here is my tip for the day. When doing a rack of spareribs pick them up with a thick rubber glove and when the ends bend down about a 45 degree angle on the ends they are good to go.

 

[femurphy77]

I know I've already "voted" once but we had bbq pig sandwiches at the Smokehouse on Shelby over the weekend and it was pretty good! A little "juicy" but excellent flavor. It's right on the corner at Fountain Square, they will be seeing us again I'm sure.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I love charlies but it is different than what some consider bbq. I love when charlie says want somthing hot?
me make you cry like little girl lol. Hawg n sauce in mt vernon is really good. Love the chicken and the pulled pork. Sometimes the ribs are alittle done for me. Baked beans are sooooo good! My cousin owns the place and is really doing the bussiness. Bands somtimes play at night in the warmer months outside. Best part is its about 2 miles from me. I like to think I can put a scald on some animal flesh and here is my tip for the day. When doing a rack of spareribs pick them up with a thick rubber glove and when the ends bend down about a 45 degree angle on the ends they are good to go.

I love it down in Texas when it starts to get dark and someone shows up with a guitar or a banjo, and a jug, fiddle......It really completes the whole BBQ pit social experience....

 

[boileralum]

Out of my smoker.

I make my own rubs and sauces too.

Looks good, great smoke ring! I started cooking my own as well, and started off using the resources on BBQ Ribs Recipes, Barbecue Recipes, Grilling Recipes, Baby Back Ribs, Barbecue Spare Ribs, Outdoor Cooking, Rating Barbecue Grills and Smokers. I use his memphis dust rub on my pork and ribs, though I also started changing it up a bit (last time I used Weber's Tex-Mex Fiesta rub as a base layer and then the Memphis dust on top).

 

[samrothstein01]

I suggest going over the state line to New Paris and trying Baumbach's.

You mean exiting the hoosier horror and entering buckeye country!!I am a buckeye transplant.

And....Baumbach's may be good, but the Lamp Post was a restaurant icon, so I hated to see that it changed over.

 

[gvbcraig]

BIG BUBBA BUCKS BELLY BUSTIN BBQ BLISS

I went out of my way last week and stopped at Hickory Hills in Edinburgh, they had okay pulled pork, the brisket was very good, but no ribs on the menu.

I was on my way down to Southern Kentucky, I explained my experience at Hickory Hills to some of the guys I'm working with. They said "we can take care of that for you" so they took me to:

BIG BUBBA BUCKS BELLY BUSTIN BBQ BLISS
about a mile west of I 65 at the Munforville exit.

Now, I would not have stopped here, but my buddies insisted it was some of the best around.

I got my fill of ribs and pork shoulder (local favorite), and you did not need any sauce, this was hog heaven for me.......sorry Indiana, but what we call barbecue just does not compare.

Also if this was in Fort Wayne, the local board of health would have shut it down since they do not allow restaurants to cook outdoors in this part of the state.

 

[phylodog]

I went out of my way last week and stopped at Hickory Hills in Edinburgh, they had okay pulled pork, the brisket was very good, but no ribs on the menu.

I tried their brisket the first time I went in because brisket is typically what separates the men from the boys as far as BBQ goes. Their brisket was in the running for the best I've had, surprised to hear their pork wasn't up to snuff. The only other brisket I've had that I could say was better was oak smoked brisket at a BBQ place in Temple, TX when I lived down there. One of these days I'll get my hands on some oak and do one myself.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I tried their brisket the first time I went in because brisket is typically what separates the men from the boys as far as BBQ goes. Their brisket was in the running for the best I've had, surprised to hear their pork wasn't up to snuff. The only other brisket I've had that I could say was better was oak smoked brisket at a BBQ place in Temple, TX when I lived down there. One of these days I'll get my hands on some oak and do one myself.

Next time you're in Texas check out the brisket at Hard Eight in Coppell just outside Dallas, OMG! It's what got me hooked.Hard Eight BBQ
And don't forget to try the brush poppers.