We stopped for lunch at Highlands Smokehouse.  We were on our way to Glen Falls and decided to eat lunch before hiking the trails.   For an appetizer, we decided to split a bowl of Brunswick stew.

Best thing we ate here.  It had just a hint of spice along with some meat and lots of veggies, including okra.  It was really tasty.  Normally I don’t like hushpuppies, but this one  just tasted like cornbread to me.  As for the rest of the meal, we weren’t as impressed.

Loren got a half rack of ribs with collard greens and baked beans.

He said the ribs were ok, but didn’t really have a lot of smokey goodness.  He did like the beans, but the collard greens had a really odd flavoring to them.  I thought they tasted like sweet dill pickles.  He didn’t like them at all.  I got a pork sandwich with corn pudding and mashed sweet potatoes.

I did not like the taste of the pork.  It wasn’t smokey and it had an odd aftertaste.  It’s hard to describe.  It was really moist and almost had a beer like flavor to it.  That’s probably not the right flavor, but whatever it was, it just didn’t do it for me.  The corn pudding sort of tasted like scrambled eggs with lots of pepper.  The mashed sweet potatoes were ok, but would have been so much better if they were served with a cinnamon butter.  Overall, not the best BBQ we’ve had.  Total bill was $35.

Highlands Smokehouse
595 Franklin Road
Highlands, NC
(828) 526-5000

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On our way up to North Carolina to see the autumn leaves, we stopped for the night in Athens, Georgia and ate dinner at Rafferty’s.  We missed the entrance to the restaurant twice as there’s only one way in and out. 

For a chain restaurant, the food was pretty good.  We started off with some batter fried mushrooms. 

These were really tasty.  The batter was very crunchy and Loren liked the horseradish sauce that came with it.  I opted for some ranch dressing.   For his entree, Loren got the West Texas BBQ chicken. 

He said it was good and believe it or not, it actually had more bacon on it than he could eat.  It was a little crispy around the edges, but otherwise tender.  I got the rack of baby back ribs and a baked potato.

The ribs were tender, but I’m not sure how to describe the BBQ sauce.  It wasn’t sweet, but it had a fruity finish.  It was different, but I liked it.  Our waitress was really nice, but she kept apologizing for putting in our entree order after the mushrooms.  The wait really wasn’t all that long, but she seemed to think she had to constantly tell us how sorry she was about it.  Total bill with a drink was $40.

Rafferty’s
15 Huntington Drive
Athens, GA
706-613-0045

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We drove over to Tampa tonight for some BBQ at Alex’s Southern Style BBQ.  Let me preface this review by saying that it was a very hot August evening and there was a definite lack of air conditioning in the restaurant.  Couple that with the overwhelming BBQ smokiness in the air and you end up with an overall uncomfortableness that definitely had an effect on how we felt about the food.  After a while, the air felt so thick and pungent that my eyes started to water.

Our initial reaction when we walked in the door was that the BBQ smokiness in the air was a good sign; that the food was going to have that deep rich smoked flavor to it.  We wanted to try a little bit of everything, so we got two of the two meat meals, one with chicken and pork, the other with beef and ribs.

Unfortunately, there was so much BBQ sauce on everything that we couldn’t really taste the meat.  It was a sweet and tangy sauce and a little went a long way.  The meats were all tender, but neither of us could make a good judgement on the flavor.  What’s funny is that so many of the other reviews we’d read said that they usually didn’t put a lot of sauce on the plate.  As for the sides, the onion rings and okra were both crispy and tasty, the cole slaw was good, but Loren didn’t like his greens.  He said it had a flavor that just wasn’t what he expected.

Total bill was $22 and the smell of BBQ smoke lingered on our clothes for hours.  I began to understand why people were coming in and getting take out instead of eating in the restaurant.

Alex’s Southern Style BBQ
5362 W Village Drive
Tampa, FL
813-269-0050

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Met some friends at the Dunedin Smokehouse for dinner tonight.  The restaurant moved into downtown Dunedin, right on Main Street next door to the Living Room. 

The last time I ate here, I wasn’t impressed with the food and unfortunately, this time didn’t change my opinion.  I got the pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries.

The fries were good, but a good portion of the pork on the sandwich was inedible.  It was very hard and dry.  I prefer a more tender and juicy pulled pork like what Eli’s BBQ serves down the street. 

They had live music tonight and the band was good, but the space really wasn’t big enough for them.  It was so loud in there.  Total bill was $7.50. 

Dunedin Smokehouse
680 Main St
Dunedin, FL
727-736-5202

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We’ve been wanting to try Eli’s BBQ in Dunedin for quite a while, but every time we think about it, they’re closed.  They’re only open from 11am to 6pm on Friday & Saturdays, but we were determined to make it over there today.  It’s a small little shack with some picnic tables out back, but they make some mighty fine BBQ.

We got there around 12:30pm and the entire time we were there, the line never got less than 5 deep.  People have learned to get there early before they run out of BBQ goodness.  We settled on some ribs and pulled pork and grabbed ourselves a bench out back.

The ribs were very tender and the bbq sauces were both very good.  I really enjoyed the pulled pork.  It was so juicy and tender and there was a lot on the sandwich.  They only have 2 sides available, baked beans and cole slaw, and I enjoyed them both.   With 2 drinks, the total was $16.  Definitely a place we’ll eat at again.

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