Since I became a KCBS BBQ Judge, I have had the pleasure of getting to know some true BBQ enthusiasts like myself, as well as, the pleasure of getting to meet some of the professional competition teams too.

I got to meet William Latimer or “Bubba” of the famous Bub-Ba-Q competition cooking team and owner of Bub-Ba-Q with locations in Jasper, Georgia and Woodstock, Georgia.

Bubba extended an invitation for me to check out his restaurant and give his BBQ a try. I also got to judge with and meet his mother-in-law Gail, who just couldn’t stop bragging on “Bubba” and his delicious BBQ. So if Bubba had his mother-in-law this impressed, I had to check it out!

I had to go to Kennesaw, Georgia to judge in the Pigs and Peaches BBQ cook-off, so I went over the night before to check out Bubba’s restaurant.

Bub-Ba-Q’s walls and shelves were lined with Bubba’s trophies from all of the contest that he has won. This was a family friendly restaurant, and they were very busy on the Friday night that I visited. We grabbed a table and went over the menu that was filled with delicious choices and some very unique items that I just had to sample.

One of their appetizers was called Bubba-penas, a smoked jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese, pork and then wrapped in bacon that was smoky and delicious. The menu was filled with all kinds of BBQ choices that covered any BBQ lovers need.; brisket, pulled pork, chicken and ribs, not to mention you could get burgers, fried shrimp and other choices, as well. There was one item I really wanted to try, called the Hog-a-Chong. This was a huge flour Tortilla stuffed with pork, beans and pepper jack cheese and deep fried and then topped with Brunswick stew. It was really a sight to see! But, I stuck with the basics.

So I ordered up the combo platter with ribs, that you can get wet or dry. Chicken and pulled pork with collard greens. My wife ordered up a vegetable plate of slaw, collards, fried okra, and corn on the cob with a side of Brunswick stew. Others in my party ordered a brisket plate and a pulled pork plate.

As we waited for our food I checked out Bub-Ba-Q’s sauces; they had a sauce for everybody’s taste. There was a nice flavored sweet tomato based sauce that was really delicious. There was a tomato based vinegar sauce that had a nice flavor and “twang” to it, and they also served up a mustard based vinegar sauce that was really delicious and tangy too.

When our food arrived everyone was eager to chow down. As I bit down into the ribs, they were cooked to perfection and were moist and pulled right off the bone. They tasted great! The pulled pork had some burnt ends in it and was also smoky, moist and delicious. The chicken was hot, moist and was also great. The brisket was terrific! It had such a nice flavor to it and was served hot, moist and was very tasty. It was cooked perfect and had the nice accordion affect to it.

It’s saying a lot when you go to a restaurant and everyone at the table is saying, “wait until you try this” or “wait until you taste this” .

The only negative comment was that the Brunswick stew was not as tasty as the rest of our meal. I think it is made with the vinegar BBQ sauce and it just really didn’t have a nice base to it. It just didn’t hit the spot, but other than that, Bub-Ba-Q was a hit with our crowd. The BBQ was cooked perfect and the taste was really delicious. I can honestly say that it spoiled me. The next day while I was judging BBQ at the contest, hardly any of the competitor’s BBQ was as good as what I had at Bub-Ba-Q.

I give Bub-Ba-Q a 4.5 on the squeal meter!

Pics are in the pic section

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.

Pics are in the pic section