As part of our jaunt to visit Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, we had to stop off and enjoy some CarterQue BBQ. This small town shop is full of great food and some of the best customer service I've experienced this side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Gratitude and heart-felt thanks from the staff made us feel very welcome on our second visit.
**The company will be moving to a new, larger location in the coming months. Watch the website for more info.
Aside from the sweet staff, you will be greeted by this sign!
CarterQue makes their own sauces. We had a sampling before ordering. There's a traditional, smoky red, a sweet & tangy vinegar based and their award winning Blackberry Grillin' sauce.
We all split our side dishes, so we could sample. The beans were very mild and sweet. There was apple and some warmer spice notes in the beans. The hush puppies were the best I've had. Extra crispy with some green onion mixed in. But the main event. Three pulled pork sliders! I had three of the sauces. The favorites were the tangy vinegar and the blackberry! Ridiculous!!! This is so awesome it has extra awesome sauce on top!
Caroline had the two meat platter. Pulled pork and brisket. Her side was coleslaw, which was nice and light, providing a nice crunch to the soft succulent meats. For some extra fun, put some of the coleslaw on your pulled pork sliders.
Jason did the sliders as well, but went with the mac & cheese and cornbread as his sides. The Mac & Cheese is ridiculous! Extra cheesey, Crazy creamy. The cornbread. Let's be real...that's cake! It's dessert. Depending on how you look at it, that's a good thing, or not. I do like traditional cornbread with it's light, crumbly texture, but this was a treat. With a little frosting or even the blackberry grillin' sauce, you would have dessert!
And the crazy good, beer-battered french fries. Tee hee....giggles!
I'm so proud of myself. I cleaned my plate! I couldn't finish the beans, but I snarfed down the sliders and made my way thru good portions of ALL the sides.
Aside from the sweet staff, you will be greeted by this sign!
CarterQue makes their own sauces. We had a sampling before ordering. There's a traditional, smoky red, a sweet & tangy vinegar based and their award winning Blackberry Grillin' sauce.
We all split our side dishes, so we could sample. The beans were very mild and sweet. There was apple and some warmer spice notes in the beans. The hush puppies were the best I've had. Extra crispy with some green onion mixed in. But the main event. Three pulled pork sliders! I had three of the sauces. The favorites were the tangy vinegar and the blackberry! Ridiculous!!! This is so awesome it has extra awesome sauce on top!
Caroline had the two meat platter. Pulled pork and brisket. Her side was coleslaw, which was nice and light, providing a nice crunch to the soft succulent meats. For some extra fun, put some of the coleslaw on your pulled pork sliders.
Jason did the sliders as well, but went with the mac & cheese and cornbread as his sides. The Mac & Cheese is ridiculous! Extra cheesey, Crazy creamy. The cornbread. Let's be real...that's cake! It's dessert. Depending on how you look at it, that's a good thing, or not. I do like traditional cornbread with it's light, crumbly texture, but this was a treat. With a little frosting or even the blackberry grillin' sauce, you would have dessert!
And the crazy good, beer-battered french fries. Tee hee....giggles!
I'm so proud of myself. I cleaned my plate! I couldn't finish the beans, but I snarfed down the sliders and made my way thru good portions of ALL the sides. ~~~Chris Carter, the certified pit master & owner at CarterQue will be competing at the National Barbeque Battle in Washington, DC on June 27 & 28, 2009. If you can't get to Mt. Airy, check out the Battle.
4 comments:
Wow...it's only 9:45am and I'm salivating from the pics of your BBQ.
This meal pretty much killed me - in a good way.
I did like the sliders so I could sample more options, but I think I've settled my heart on the vinegar-based sauce and the blackberry sauce.
The sides were all really tasty, which is hard to find - I think some barbecue places put all their work on the meat. In the cole slaw I detected a bit of either radish or turnip. And that mac & cheese was really very good - unreasonably creamy!
I also have to highlight Caroline's brisket - I normally go right for pork when it's barbecue, but the brisket was tender and smoky. Very pleasing.
And another shout-out to the staff, who are very friendly and accommodating. You get that real "down home" feel up there in the hills of Maryland. I look forward to going back when they've opened the new location - I hear they are adding crabs to the menu!
Ahhhhh! That all looks and sounds so yummy! I love barbecue so much, but unfortunately we don't have really great places out west.
BUT Ms. Mia...you have In-N-Out...'nuff said.
Post a Comment