I find myself in the southeast corner of Iowa, and there are no breweries, so I decided to look for some barbecue. I found it half a mile from my hotel. This establishment has a twin in Pella, apparently. The menu is huge, and they cover far more than barbecue. I don't know, maybe you have to do that to make it in small town Iowa. Mostly the food besides barbecue I'd say is grilled, so it's in the same family anyway, but there's other things like pasta and flatbread (?) too. The only ribs they have are baby backs, but otherwise pretty much any traditional BBQ meat you can name.
Anyway, I went with the two meat dinner plate, which comes with your choice of meats and two sides, plus Texas toast.
Chopped pork, brisket, cole slaw, and baked beans. All in all, solid barbecue. This guy has been doing this for a while. Nothing was dried out, the smoke wasn't too heavy, good flavor. Tender. This was flat, and I gather the point is used for burnt ends (available daily while they last). In fact, the only real knock I have was the beans. Too saucy, too sweet. And that's just me, I know some folks like them that way. Actually, the beer selection could be better too, but again, small town Iowa probably likes their macro brews. The sauce is unremarkable.
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The above plate plus iced tea was under $20 including tax (tip extra). I would go back.
Anyway, I went with the two meat dinner plate, which comes with your choice of meats and two sides, plus Texas toast.
Chopped pork, brisket, cole slaw, and baked beans. All in all, solid barbecue. This guy has been doing this for a while. Nothing was dried out, the smoke wasn't too heavy, good flavor. Tender. This was flat, and I gather the point is used for burnt ends (available daily while they last). In fact, the only real knock I have was the beans. Too saucy, too sweet. And that's just me, I know some folks like them that way. Actually, the beer selection could be better too, but again, small town Iowa probably likes their macro brews. The sauce is unremarkable.
​​​​​​
The above plate plus iced tea was under $20 including tax (tip extra). I would go back.
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