second visit to Ryan Smokehouse

I hit Ryan Smokehouse a second time Saturday night. This time around, I was more interested in the brisket than in redoing the Big Boy Platter I'd shared with Charles the last time around. Of the eateries at which I've tried the brisket, I'd put Ryan on top. Linus Barbecue's brisket comes with a very unpleasant fat cap that reduces the amount of actual meat you're being served. Manimal, meanwhile, serves a fantastic brisket about which I have no complaints... it's just that Ryan does their brisket better. Sorry, Manimal.

This time around, I also ordered the Brunswick stew again, but it was way fattier (read: greasier) than I remembered it from last time. The spice and seasoning were both on point, but there was an actual layer of oil on top of the stew. Was it there last time around? I can't recall. Then again, because I'd ordered the Big Boy Platter last time, there's a chance that my memory is a bit scrambled because I'd eaten a much wider variety of food.

My friend Ben, who was my dinner companion, thoroughly enjoyed his meal. He'd ordered the sausage plate, which came with mustard dip and a large, pornographic coil of sausage. We both ended up with cole-slaw sides (mayo-based, this time, for some reason), and while I would have liked to have had a bit more on my tray than a small pile of pulled pork (dry! alas!) and a single slab of brisket for the price I was paying, the food was generally good. Overall, I find Ryan to be solid when it comes to barbecue—not spectacular with things like pulled pork, sausage, and cole slaw (and, I suppose, Brunswick stew), but excellent when it comes to smoked chicken, ribs, and brisket. The hot buns that come with the meal remain stellar; sadly, we didn't get the fritters. That would've been nice.

A thought has been coalescing over the past half-year: the more I do BBQ-ish cooking at my place, the less inclined I am to go out for barbecue. Ryan is a very good chain, but the price point for it, and for places like Linus and Manimal, makes the go-out-for-barbecue experience a bit less worthwhile. An exception to this would be Joe McPherson's now-defunct place: I would go there repeatedly no matter what Joe charged if the place still existed. But Joe's place is gone, and once I figure out how to do slow-cooked brisket (and where to get hold of brisket in Korea), there won't be any reason at all to go out for barbecue.