My wife and I recently visited St. Louis and decided to stop by Pappy’s BBQ restaurant after hearing numerous rave reviews from friends and family here in town. Needless to say I was really looking forward to trying out this place as I love BBQ and St. Louis has needed a decent restaurant for a long time. Unfortunately, Pappy’s was unable to live up to its hype. In fact, and I hate to say it, the BBQ was terrible. Yes, I know, I can be picky of people’s BBQ after the recent success of our BBQ team, but I also know not to compare restaurant food made for the masses to that of properly prepared BBQ for competition. Even still, as good as what I heard Pappy’s was, I still expected it to compare to Jack’s Stack (I was in no way expecting it to live up to Jack Stack...hello, cheesy corn!) and Oklahoma Joe’s of Kansas City, or Corky’s and Rendezvous of Memphis. Not even remotely in the same league as these four excellent BBQ restaurants. So, what made it so bad? Please, read on. (Okay, let's!)
Upon arriving at Pappy’s you are greeted with some nice smells coming from the smoker which is located outside in front of the restaurant. Nice touch. They use a mixture of cherry and apple woods for their smoke and it shows when you arrive. Once inside you run into the massive line to get into the dining area. You actually have to wait in line first before entering the dining area and waiting in a second line to get to the counter. (Want to watch my head explode? Make me stand in an un-airconditioned hallway for 35 minutes...let me into the dining room finally...and then make me wait for another 35 minutes. Steam. Coming. Out. My. Ears.) Total time waited until ordering our food at 2:30PM was 1 hour 10 minutes. I was really expecting this food to be great considering how many people were there. The atmosphere is pretty cool with the standard red checkered table cloths over picnic tables, music, and walls adorned with BBQ pictures and awards. In fact, somewhere along the line someone involved with the restaurant won some big time awards from Memphis in May BBQfest, but I’ve come to the conclusion these trophies were either lent to the restaurant or bought off someone. No way these recipes did this well at BBQfest.
So, after the 1 hour 10 minute wait, Sarah and I ordered our food. She got the pulled pork sandwich, fried corn on the cob (how can you not order fried corn on the cob? I've never heard of such a thing and had to try it. I thought it was impossible to ruin something by frying it, but it is. Fried corn on the cob is rubbery, tasteless and you still get corn in your teeth. No bueno), and potato salad. I got a half slab of their ‘famous’ ribs, a few slices of brisket, fried corn on the cob and baked beans. All of this for a whopping $31. I thought I was going out for BBQ? So we get our food and take a seat at some bar stools. Let me tell you the main theme of all the food here: Bland City. I read all about how they were touting their great, Memphis style dry rub while I waited in line…. So where is it?
There is NO rub used at all on the pulled pork, ribs, or brisket. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I know restaurants are going to skimp from their competition team recipes to save some time and money, but comon’, you can’t just smoke the meat and call it amazing BBQ. The ribs were ok at best. The texture and done-ness were pretty much on target. The smoke ring was very deep in pinkish-red color but I expected that considering they were using cherry and apple woods. If you wanted to taste anything besides cooked pork, you better load on one of their sub-par BBQ sauces to give it any flavor. As for the pulled pork, it was their best dish. It at least had some of the sweet pork flavor to it, but again, no rubs or sauces used during the cooking process so it too was a little bit bland, but it was cooked properly at least.
The biggest let down by far and away was their disgusting brisket. I know they are touting themselves as a Memphis style BBQ, but if you are going to put brisket on the menu, you better know what you are doing. Texture and done-ness were completely wrong. Even the beef flavor didn’t taste right. At least they tried to season it somewhat by using salt and pepper as a dry rub, but that didn’t help. It was terrible. I don’t even want to talk about their sides. All of their sides were store bought and then put into little cups. Ridiculous. Again, I don’t expect this BBQ to be on the level of competition BBQ, but the other restaurants I mentioned put out a much better flavorful product and they don’t charge out the ass for their food. This place was underwhelming to say the least.
There is NO rub used at all on the pulled pork, ribs, or brisket. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I know restaurants are going to skimp from their competition team recipes to save some time and money, but comon’, you can’t just smoke the meat and call it amazing BBQ. The ribs were ok at best. The texture and done-ness were pretty much on target. The smoke ring was very deep in pinkish-red color but I expected that considering they were using cherry and apple woods. If you wanted to taste anything besides cooked pork, you better load on one of their sub-par BBQ sauces to give it any flavor. As for the pulled pork, it was their best dish. It at least had some of the sweet pork flavor to it, but again, no rubs or sauces used during the cooking process so it too was a little bit bland, but it was cooked properly at least.
The biggest let down by far and away was their disgusting brisket. I know they are touting themselves as a Memphis style BBQ, but if you are going to put brisket on the menu, you better know what you are doing. Texture and done-ness were completely wrong. Even the beef flavor didn’t taste right. At least they tried to season it somewhat by using salt and pepper as a dry rub, but that didn’t help. It was terrible. I don’t even want to talk about their sides. All of their sides were store bought and then put into little cups. Ridiculous. Again, I don’t expect this BBQ to be on the level of competition BBQ, but the other restaurants I mentioned put out a much better flavorful product and they don’t charge out the ass for their food. This place was underwhelming to say the least.
In conclusion, I feel it is necessary that I provide proper tasting BBQ to all of my friends and family from St. Louis that have been fooled by Pappy’s as to what good BBQ tastes like. I have a feeling that most people from St. Louis, including myself, were raised on tough, rubber-like ribs and Pappy’s can provide you with ribs that are properly cooked so it seems like they are putting out some great food. The only thing that Pappy’s has done right is the fact that they have marketed themselves properly and have broken into a market that has no idea what good BBQ is like so they have gotten off scott-free with doing a sub-par job and charging way too much for their food. In that regard, I’m jealous of them for thinking of opening up a BBQ joint in St. Louis first! (Yeah! What he said! Now, all of you are invited to come over for some real BBQ! :::Nick drags Sarah away from the computer:::)
