Ice Cream Man

Ice Cream Man's BBQ tour

Words by Ice Cream Man
Photos by Ice Cream Man

What would a trip through the south be with stopping at some of the best BBQ places on the planet. Crewmember James, has a cool food blog, www.theeatenpath.com and this is an ode to him. Especially, since the first place on the journey, The BBQ Shop in Memphis, was recommended by him.

After slinging cream at St. Jude Children’s Hospital I sent James a message, “Any particular BBQ places you’d recommend here?” Last year Crash and I hit up Central BBQ, which was great, but I wanted to try something new. James quickly replied, “THE BAR-B-Q SHOP! (pulled pork sandwich on Texas toast with spicy sauce)” Thanks to trusty Google Maps on my phone it only took a few minutes before I was parked out front. I’ve gotten a bit lazy in my days and instead of coming back out to get ice cream for folks after eating, a lot of times I’ll just roll in with a handful of treats for the workers. Yes, it’s a bit strange just walking in and handing someone a bunch of ice cream sandwiches but it saves me a trip. And… this time, it paid off.

I ordered the sandwich like James recommended and it was possibly the best I’ve ever had. The pork was good, the slaw wasn’t mayonnaise-y, and the bottle of spicy sauce on the table had the kick I was looking for. Bringing in cream paid off in full when one of the guys working there walked out with a plate of four St. Louis cut, dry rub, ribs. I instantly put my sandwich down, added a lil spicy sauce then went to heaven. I couldn’t believe how tasty these ribs were. The best BBQ I’ve ever had. Mmmm…. They were so good that I kept looking around to find someone I could profess to. Since I knew James was a huge fan and since he’s been working hard to line up all our hospital stops this year, I thought it’d be a great idea to ship him a full rack of ribs. They brought them out all wrapped up then I cut up a couple Big Dipper ice cream boxes and wrapped the ribs in some dry ice. Next stop was the UPS store where they charged me an arm and a leg to get the ribs overnighted. It was all worth it when James sent me a message the next morning, “Outside of beer, this is the best gift ever bestowed upon a human being.”

The next stop on the BBQ journey was Interstate in Memphis. I was soooo tempted to just head back to the Shop again but a bartender I met insisted I check out Interstate on the south side. It actually worked out well because I was on McLemore Ave. visiting the STAX Museum right before then and could roll by on my way outta town towards Nashville.

Back in the late 80’s Interstate got a lot of praise from a People magazine article by a guy who traveled the country looking for the best BBQ. They were crowned runner up for all of the US and ever since then business has been booming. They’ve won numerous other awards as well. USA Today said they had the best BBQ Pork sandwich in the country and, my favorite, they were a finalist for restaurant of the year as ranked by the pork industry. One of the main reasons I stopped by was for their BBQ spaghetti. Yes…. BBQ spaghetti. I ordered a sandwich, a plate of spaghetti, and a sweet tea and was excited to be having world class BBQ for lunch two days in a row. The sandwich was definitely way above average but my heart was still with the BBQ Shop from yesterday. The spaghetti was definitely something worth trying. As one article on the wall said, it’s NOT al dente. I guess I’d describe it as… Shredded BBQ pork, BBQ sauce, spaghetti, and some spices to round it out. I’m not sure how many times I’d eat it again but it’d be great late night after some beers when you haven’t had anything to eat all day…mmmmmm. I missed out on Payne’s in Memphis but that’s all right. In addition to hitting up BBQ Shop again, it’ll give me a reason to get back to Memphis before too long.

I didn’t have enough to time to suss out top notch BBQ in Nashville but did stop at Edgefield restaurant to get a good southern meat-and-two meal. I asked the nice lady to give me what she liked best and ended up with some tasty chicken and dressing. On top of that I had greens and some mac n cheese. Not really BBQ but it helped get me through the first day of Bonnaroo.

My buddy Taylor, aka Heavy… or Heavy Pack, lives in Asheville, NC. We hiked the Pacific Crest Trail together and a chunk of the Appalachian Trail too. On the Monday after Bonnaroo, it’s a nice drive to get to Asheville, and I usually take a day “off” there to catch up on work and relax and catch up on things. I asked Heavy what the best BBQ in town was and it took him a millisecond to rattle of 12 Bones. They’re only open for lunch and the place gets pretty packed. After getting jacked up on coffee, I met him there to test it out. The place was amazing. They had a chalk board that listed five or six different types of ribs you could order and their menu had all kinds of good stuff on it. So much so that… I ordered a salad. Really….a wedge salad with some bacon on it. The kicker was that you could add 4 ribs to the side for a few bucks. On top of that I got a side of jalapeño cheese grits to make sure I was all full up. The salad was good but the spicy, dry rub, brown sugar ribs were the reason for 12 Bones existence. I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the chalkboard. I know they had spicy strawberry rhubarb ribs and some wasabi ones. The drink of choice was Cheerwine and it was super cheap. It’s the type of place I’d eat at multiple times a week if I lived in Asheville. Hopefully in the fall Newt and I will be spending some time in the south and I’ll be able to stop by and spend some more time at 12 Bones.

I’m in Brooklyn and will keep my eye out for some more BBQ. There’s a great soul food place, Ruthies, a few blocks down the street but my favorite BBQ place, closed down last year.