Had the chance to visit E & SE Tennessee and when traveling through Chattanooga I had to find at least 1 BBQ place to visit. I let my wife decide from the available search results and she/we settled on Sugar's. https://www.sugarsribs.com/
The parking lot is hilly and cramped, but being hillside it has quite a view! Here's a view from their outdoor covered patio seating. It was wayyy too hot that day so we chose to sit inside. The fella in the pic has no idea he's being photoed, much less posted in a forum!
Stepping inside smells like it should; smokey, delicious. You see chickens rotisserie'ing (rotissing?) over the gas flames behind the counter. A simple, unassuming place like you might expect.
Their menu is on the simpler side but they do offer tacos, nachos, sandwiches, and a decent assortment of sides. I was a touch disappointed to see they only offered "chopped" brisket. I don't mean to discredit their chopped brisket, but to me this usually means there's a reason they choose to chop it (over done, fall-apart, perhaps?) but to be fair I don't know about theirs. It was so blasted hot, around 105, that I didn't want anything heavy and fatty like brisket anyway, I opted for pork.
My wife chose 1/2 rack of ribs & cornbread side, and I got the pork butt sandwich (pulled pork) and we intended to split them w/ each other. I ordered wood-grilled onions as a side. I didn't realize they were THICK sliced onions, as thick as a burger patty and no joke probably 2 onions in total...not at all what I expected. They tasted great but no way I was eating that much onion!
Here's some pics and final thoughts below them...
The food? Well, meh. Unfortunately.
The ribs, as had been my experience at nearly every BBQ joint or steakhouse I go to, were cooked perfectly, tender, gentle tug, decent-but-light smoke flavor, but there was zero discernible rub or seasoning on them. So disappointing. My wife agreed. And as you may notice above, grill marks! On ribs! At a BBQ joint! If you know you know.
My wife's BFF and her teenage kids were with us and she loved her ribs. Her son sided with me, edible, but rather tasteless and required sauce. My 3 sons all got different tacos, nachos, & sandwiches and loved them.
The sauces were good, but nothing to write home about. I don't remember details, I think they all erred on the sweet side (of course), but I tasted them all and found one I preferred and used that as my ribs seasoning. <--- This is something I dislike, relying on sauce to be the flavoring on your BBQ, which is why I try so hard to make my BBQ have a delicious rub on them that does not necessitate sauce. I also do not make production BBQ. Still I cannot help but think a shake or three of good rub can't be that hard or expensive. At least salt!
A decent lunch stop for sure. Would I make it a point to go back? No. Not with several other options in the city. But, location location location! It's in a great spot.
The parking lot is hilly and cramped, but being hillside it has quite a view! Here's a view from their outdoor covered patio seating. It was wayyy too hot that day so we chose to sit inside. The fella in the pic has no idea he's being photoed, much less posted in a forum!
Stepping inside smells like it should; smokey, delicious. You see chickens rotisserie'ing (rotissing?) over the gas flames behind the counter. A simple, unassuming place like you might expect.
Their menu is on the simpler side but they do offer tacos, nachos, sandwiches, and a decent assortment of sides. I was a touch disappointed to see they only offered "chopped" brisket. I don't mean to discredit their chopped brisket, but to me this usually means there's a reason they choose to chop it (over done, fall-apart, perhaps?) but to be fair I don't know about theirs. It was so blasted hot, around 105, that I didn't want anything heavy and fatty like brisket anyway, I opted for pork.
My wife chose 1/2 rack of ribs & cornbread side, and I got the pork butt sandwich (pulled pork) and we intended to split them w/ each other. I ordered wood-grilled onions as a side. I didn't realize they were THICK sliced onions, as thick as a burger patty and no joke probably 2 onions in total...not at all what I expected. They tasted great but no way I was eating that much onion!
Here's some pics and final thoughts below them...
The food? Well, meh. Unfortunately.
The ribs, as had been my experience at nearly every BBQ joint or steakhouse I go to, were cooked perfectly, tender, gentle tug, decent-but-light smoke flavor, but there was zero discernible rub or seasoning on them. So disappointing. My wife agreed. And as you may notice above, grill marks! On ribs! At a BBQ joint! If you know you know.
My wife's BFF and her teenage kids were with us and she loved her ribs. Her son sided with me, edible, but rather tasteless and required sauce. My 3 sons all got different tacos, nachos, & sandwiches and loved them.
The sauces were good, but nothing to write home about. I don't remember details, I think they all erred on the sweet side (of course), but I tasted them all and found one I preferred and used that as my ribs seasoning. <--- This is something I dislike, relying on sauce to be the flavoring on your BBQ, which is why I try so hard to make my BBQ have a delicious rub on them that does not necessitate sauce. I also do not make production BBQ. Still I cannot help but think a shake or three of good rub can't be that hard or expensive. At least salt!
A decent lunch stop for sure. Would I make it a point to go back? No. Not with several other options in the city. But, location location location! It's in a great spot.
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