The only time I get excited about driving into Atlanta is when I’m going down there to check out one of Atlanta’s many great BBQ restaurants. To me, Atlanta continues to lead the pack with the best places to go for BBQ. Out of all of the restaurants I get comments on for me to check out, the majority of them are in and around the Atlanta area.

Well, for this trip I decided to check out Community BBQ. I had read articles about Community BBQ , not once, but twice in the Atlanta newspaper. One was for their great BBQ and the other for their homemade mac-n-cheese. So we headed down to their Clairmont Road location in Decatur to see what Community had to offer. We arrived on a busy Saturday night and the menu was filled with great BBQ choices like pulled pork, chicken, sliced brisket and sausage and St. Louis Style, as well as, beef ribs. They also had quite a selection of homemade vegetables like collard greens, black eye peas, and an assortment of other down home favorites. That night they were running a special, smoked sweet potato with swiss chard. Now that’s something you don’t get everyday!

I ordered up their pork ribs and sliced brisket with collard greens and their famous mac-n-cheese. We grabbed a tabled and waited for our food. I tasted their BBQ sauces which were a sweet ketchup based sauce, as well as, a vinegar based sauce; both had great flavor to them. Once the food arrived we began to chow down, and the food was really good. The ribs were cooked perfect and the brisket was nice and tender and had a great flavor to it. The collards were very good and vinegary and the famous mac-n-cheese consisted of great big noodles smothered in their cheese sauce and top with melted cheddar cheese that was really some of the best I’ve had yet.

All in all it was a great BBQ experience, and we weren’t let down at all. If you go, get there kind of early because they only cook enough meat for that day to ensure freshness. So if it is busy, they will run out of meat and your choices are limited. The atmosphere was family friendly with an eclectic flair! The food is delicious and the BBQ is old school great!

I give Community BBQ a 4.75 on the squeal meter. Well worth the trip to Decatur.

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They say you can judge a good BBQ restaurant just be looking at the wood pile behind the restaurant. While I was driving in South Georgia through Lumber City, I came across Stinson’s Bar-B-Que. The first thing I noticed was the oak stacked behind this old southern restaurant. My family and I had to stop and check it out to see what this charming restaurant had to offer. As we stepped into Stinson’s, we were immediately in love with the smell of smoke coming from the pits located in the back of the restaurant. We placed our order of BBQ sandwiches and Brunswick stew, and I was then introduced to the owner and true pit master, Mr. John Stinson. Mr. Stinson is a true pit master. By that, I mean he cooks his BBQ the old fashion way. I have only read about true southern BBQ, but Mr. Stinson took me into the back of his restaurant and showed me his pits, four in all, where he has mastered his profession of true southern BBQ.

Stinson’s BBQ has been in Lumber City for over 30 years, and like he says, you must be doing something right to still be going at it 30 years later. You see, to achieve true pit BBQ, he has a fire pit burning behind the restaurant and then takes the coals and places them into his cinder block pits and lets the hot coals smoke his butts and hams. By doing this the fat from the meat drips onto the coals and then smokes the meat with it’s own juices. Today, this is a rare treat and it was a sight to behold for me. I’ve seen it done at church socials and a few other events, but never commercially. When he raised the lids to his pits, one was filled with about 20 butts and the other one was filled with about 15 hams. It was really a treat to take in the sight and smells coming from his smokehouse. After the smoking process, he mixes and chops the butts and hams together, producing a leaner product than just using the butts.

I have to agree after eating one of his BBQ sandwiches. It was lean, moist and delicious. He mixes the pork with his very mild mustard BBQ sauce and I couldn’t even tell it was a mustard based sauce. I asked Mr. Stinson if he uses any rubs or injections, and he told me that hides the true flavor of smoked pork. I have to agree, after judging in BBQ contests where all the ribs and butts are covered with rubs, it was a nice treat to just taste pork in it’s natural flavor. He let me enjoy a few of his ribs also, and they were cooked to perfection. His mustard based sauce just added to the enjoyment of my meal. I also enjoyed his Brunswick stew, which was a real stew served with corn, huge chunks of potatoes and tomatoes. The stew had a great base to it and was rich in flavor.

It was real stroke of luck that I stopped in to check this place out. I felt like I stepped back in time with a seasoned and very proud BBQ pit master. I like it when an owner comes out and sits with me while I’m trying his food. That shows me a proud and confident restaurant owner that stands behind what he serves. Not only did Mr. Stinson sit with me, but he come out with articles that had been written about his restaurant and he showed true southern hospitality that the south is all about. The attention to detail is what really sets Stinson’s Bar-B-Que apart from most I have visited.

Lumber City is about 50 miles south of Dublin at the intersection of Hwy. 19 and Hwy. 341 in Georgia. If your anywhere near there, take the time to stop by and try true BBQ by a true pit master! This was a stop I will never forget and the whole reason I started this sight...To find great BBQ throughout the south.

I give Stinson’s Bar-B-Que a 4.8 on the squeal meter!

Pics in the pic section