OME: Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q (3.88)

Food

Combined: (4.5)

AT:

LM:

AT docked them right after we set down for not serving hush puppies. Fair enough (though you'll see that they managed to earn those points back).

Otherwise, the food was really, really good. I had a pulled pork sandwich with onion rings and a couple of Sweetwater 420s, and AT had the veggie plate with mac & cheese, baked beans, black-eyed peas and cole slaw and a diet coke.

My sandwich was topped not with slaw, but pickels (is this how they do in Georgia?). The meat's moisture level and texture were about perfect — it gave some resistance to the teeth, but was a long way from tough, and it was almost what you'd call dry. There were a few small carbonized grill nuggets, but it's barbeque, right? I took my first bite before adding anything, and the flavor was good, if kind of bland. I guess if it were wine, instead of pig, we'd say the flavor was "subtle", or "muted". But pig it is, so that's when I went for the sauce, and that's when, on a scale from "good" to "awesome", the sandwich went to "super great". It was a tomato-based sauce, which now that I no longer live in central North Carolina, I can admit that I favor once in a while, and it had all the flavor the sandwich had been waiting for. The onion rings were pretty solid, too.

The veggie plate is where the magic happened, though. The mac & cheese was — no kidding — the best I've ever had, and AT was pretty psyched about it too. I think it had cayenne pepper on top. And here's the thing about the baked beans: they had a bunch of brown sugar in there, but said sugar's dusky caramel flavor predominated over its simple sweetness (which is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned). These were by far the spiciest thing on the table, too, and altogether were pretty damn good. I didn't so much have the slaw, and AT didn't say anything in particular about it. She did like the black-eyed peas.

For desert, we split a serving of banana pudding. It was pretty good — good flavor, bananas and wafers not squishy. AT pointed out that the whole thing had been assembled in its serving dish, which helps to explain its freshness.

Service

Combined: (3)

AT:

LM:

Our waitress was a little neglectful, but only a little. And it is the first weekend in February — maybe she's unaccustomed to having tables on the patio. Anyway, the other staff volunteered help or provided it gladly when requested, so no harm, no foul.

Atmosphere

Combined: (4)

AT:

LM:

We were only inside for a few minutes, but it looked like a good barbeque place should: dark, tight and casual. The patio was nice. For both AT and I, the extra star is for playing classic rock, but necessarily the same fifteen tracks that seem to make up all of classic rock radio around the world.

Value

Combined: (4)

AT:

LM:

Veggie Plate: $10.95
Pork Sandwich: $8.95
Pudding: $4.50
2 420s: $9.50

That's about what I'd expect to pay for solid barbeque. For bad barbeque it would be too much. For decidedly good barbeque, that's a deal. But what's up with the five dollar pudding? Seriously?