Ramon's Smokehouse BBQ

1730 Alpine Blvd
Alpine, CA

Are we just gonna sit here like bumps on a pickle and wish we were back at Lucille's for some pulled pork and fried onion strings. No. There's work to be done. BBQ to be explored. Spin the wheel and let's see who's next. The wheel is spinning slower, and slower ....... and the winner is.... Ramon's Smokehouse.
Let's go!

This place was a little bit of a drive, but hey, the Good Bros have travelled farther than this to find good BBQ. We actually drove past this place because it's tucked away in the corner of a little shopping center, almost embarrassed to show itself. Eventually we double-backed and found it, not by our usual method of "follow your nose", but through the keen eyesight of Good Bro #1. He spotted the little sign out front.

Ramon's looks like a small town restaurant, with the seating capacity for a about a van-load of people. The restaurant is very "dog themed", specifically chihuahuas. There was a slight smell of smoke in the air, but is it going to be on the meat? Who knows? Let's order.

Dr. Q and his assistant were with us on this outing, which meant we could try just about everything on the menu. The list of food we ordered included beef ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, and hot links. To our disappointment, nothing was worth trying a second time. The brisket, pulled pork, and hot links had no apparent smokiness to them. Alright ribs, it's up to you. Can you save the day? Not today. The ribs did have a smokiness to them, but they were dry and fatty at the same time. The BBQ sauce here was another Wrangler version with quite a bit more vinegar taste. The coleslaw, looking wilted and worn out, was a big disappointment to me because I like coleslaw. The beans were OK, if you don't expect too much, but nowhere near the full, smoky flavor of a great bowl of beans. Good Bro #1 took the time to really enjoy the corn bread muffin, it was chewy and tough like something that would be reheated.

The one thing Ramon's has going for it is that it is original. It's not just another fast food BBQ joint like many others spouting up all over town. It also provides a place for people in Alpine to go get their BBQ fix, if they're within walking distance. If you are a hunter, you can smoke your bird for $1.25 per pound - what a deal! If you have the keys to the van though, load up and head out to one of the few good BBQ places we've reviewed. Have fun on the BBQ trail.

D+

Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ

7411 Carson St.
Long Beach, CA 90808
562-938-RIBS (7427)
www.lucillesbbq.com

You can call the Good Bros all kinds of things, but you can't call them quitters! Apparently, finding "A" grade BBQ in San Diego is as hard as getting the stock market to settle on the price of pork bellies. Out of necessity, it was time to expand our horizons and search for BBQ in unexplored lands. But where to go? No worry, we will use our handy Magic Box* to direct us to new northern frontiers. "Magic Box, we need BBQ in near Buena Park" So, we plugged in our destination - Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ.

"Destination, 5,3mi. Turn left in 500ft and prepare to merge right"

As amazing as Magic Box is, it can only tell us WHERE, not HOW GOOD. Once Magic Box told us we had arrived at our destination, squinting at a sea of neon glow. We drove through the maze of cookie cutter shops and restaurants looking frantically for our prize, and there it was: Lucille's. Smoke rises from the stack, and Tamara the White welcomes and invites us in.

To our disappointment, we couldn't be seated immediately at a table, so we were handed a branded pager and waited. This part was a little tough for the Good Bros. since we both were still on edge after several roller coaster rides and the BBQ debacle we refer to as Joe Cool's Big Mistake. Thankfully, the wait was actually good for us and helped us focus on the task at hand.

The waiting room at Lucille's, unlike many other restaurants, felt a lot like the back patio of a comfortable house. All rattan on the inside, and 50's diner seating in the bar called When Pigs Fly - this was our home for 20 minutes. After a long day, sitting on a comfy wicker couch almost made us forget that we came here to try the food. Buzzzzzzzzzz. Our table is ready!


Our table #1 was next to the Zagat survey plaques and the door. Seemed like Lucille was trying to say "like it or get out." Once seated, we were eager to look over the menus. Wow! Look at all the food options here. After several minutes of tossing around ideas of what to eat, and some helpful suggestions, we were set. I'll take an order of the pulled pork sandwich with the coleslaw and baked beans. Good Bro #1 is going with the beef brisket and sweet potatoes. Oh, the fried shoestring red onion appetizer looks too good to pass up. We'll take an order of that to keep us company in the meantime.

As Tamara approached, we were glad we didn't stay on the comfy couch in the waiting room. Our playfully, patient server brought the food just as we finished gorging ourselves on fresh bread and apple butter. The food looked really good, and the aroma of real BBQ told us was time to eat. One whiff of the pulled pork and you can smell that hickory smoke. It was good enough to put in your pocket or wear it as a mustache. The brisket looked good, but seemed a little tough and oily. Good Bro #1 claimed that it melts in your mouth if you kept it in the side like chewing tobacco. The sweet potatoes had good color and texture, good enough satisfy the craving of mashed potatoes and a dessert. This BBQ joint didn't have cornbread - don't know why. But they might as well not have coleslaw either. The coleslaw didn't have that slightly sweet tangy taste, but was really just a small stack of freshly grated cabbage and nuts better suited for fish tacos. We didn't think the BBQ sauces were much to brag about either. Twist off the sticky cap, one taste and it was confirmed - ketchup and corn syrup. Didn't bother us though since the pulled pork and brisket, with that great smoky aroma, tasted fine without the sauce.

The service here was great, although our server seemed scared of us. (We got excited about the scent of hickory that filled the restaurant when the smoker was being loaded.) She hung in there and made our dining experience here fun. Thanks Lucille for the great time, and the great food. As we say,
"See you next Saturday!"

B+

* a cell phone with navigation service, affectionately called "Magic Box"

Memphis Championship BBQ by Dr. Q

The Good Bros. were not on this trip so we don't have a review but Dr. Q did submit his white paper report:

Read Dr. Q's White Paper

Fireman's BBQ - Knott's Berry Farm

Located in the Ghost Town area of Knott's Berry Farm is this little place called Fireman's BBQ. It claims it's the best BBQ in town, but remember were in a replica of an old ghost town, in a theme park. With that in mind, I think the line should read "We're the only BBQ place in town. Take it or leave it!" Having not eaten all day, the clock counting down minutes to 5:00pm, and our stomachs screaming to feed them, the Good Bros took on the challenge.

I think you could get on the most popular ride in the park quicker than you could order and get your food at this place. If I keel over from starvation, are they gonna make my skeleton part of the Ghost Town attraction? Don't get me wrong. I like the look of the Ghost Town at Knott's, (a lot of the props used seem to be authentic) but I want to go home at the end of the day.

By the time we finally got our food, just about anything edible would have looked good to us at that point. Looking back, I regret not following Good Bro #1 in getting the Jr. Fireman's meal here. I didn't think the kid's meal that included teddy bear cookies would hold me over for the rest of the day. Instead, I ordered up a BBQ chicken and ribs combo meal. Bad choice. The meat on both the ribs and the chicken were like leather, and the BBQ sauce was like a mixture of 5 parts oil to 1 part solids. If you're starting to feel sick, imagine how I felt, especially after spinning my stomach around on rides like GhostRider and the Silver Bullet. Good Bro #1 decided to go with some fresh roasted corn at a different vendor to complement his junior meal. The corn roaster was an interesting contraption, it resembled a big steel box with a ferris wheel inside to hold the corn. The baked potato that came with my chicken/rib combo meal was probably the only thing I should have eaten. Good Bro #1 rated the corn as the most pleasing part of the meal, followed by the bear cookies, Doritos, berry juice and then the chicken.

We were both rather parched and the thought of getting fresh squeezed lemonade to complement the meal was the perfect thought. Approaching the window with glee gave way to disappointment when the cashier said that they had run out of lemons. "Run out of lemons?" How could a lemonade stand at a theme park run out of lemons? Aren't theme Parks all about excess? So, we had to concede defeat and just try Knott's Famous Berry Juice. This Famous Juice was basically Kool-Aid. The kind of juice that would probably leave you with a joker smile if you didn't drink it through a straw.

Experience and common sense should tell us that you're not going to get "good" food at a theme park, but shouldn't it at least be somewhat edible? When at Knott's Berry Farm, enjoy the rides and the cool features of the Ghost Town attraction , but please, try to hold off on eating until you get out of the park. Head on over to Lucille's Smokehouse, just minutes down the road for some good stuff. Full review on Lucille's coming up.

D-

Geno's West Coast BBQ

291 W. Main Street
El Cajon

Hmmm. Getting hungry for some barbeque again. Let's try that place over there called "Geno's" that looks like an old Taco Bell restaurant. Might be good.

Actually, I didn't just stroll into Geno's on a whim, but I was hungry. I've heard that this place is pretty good, so in we go. Actually Good Bro #1 beat me to it. He visited here earlier in the day and saved some corn bread for us to analyze back at the cave. I'm gonna have to keep watch on Good Bro #1 trying to get a head start on a review. Man, he's on the BBQ fast track!

I'm sure they don't have a dress code at Geno's, but I think you might feel a little out place if you're not in beachwear. The look here is definitely Pacific Island, maybe Hawaiian? The poor panda bears at the zoo must have been on low food rations for a few days after Geno used up all the bamboo in the county to decorate the restaurant. Hey, don't forget the tiki torches and the artwork on the walls to remind you of your last trip to Hawaii. OK, come on, you're really in El Cajon, see the green cafeteria chairs and the tables. See the little sign on the wall that encourages patience to get your food? OK, let's order.

Whoa! Hey wait a minute. I don't see anything on the menu that looks familiar. That's because most of the food items have been given a name. Kind of cool, but that means you can't just grunt, "gimme pulled pork". No, that one is called the "Wipe Out". "Gimme ribs". Oh, you mean one of the "Shortboards". There are others too like Rip Curl= hot dog, Hang Ten= BLT. For all the "I'm tired of burgers", people out there, rejoice because you can get the "Un-Burger" here. It's a tri-tip sandwich.

So I went with the Wipe Out and a combo rib, chicken dinner with two sides (coleslaw and cornbread). The Wipe Out, pulled pork sandwich with slaw on top, was right up the barrel. I had to give up after eating part of the chicken and ribs though. Not sure if I was just full, they didn't impress me all that much, or I got tired of the soy flavored BBQ sauce. The three sauces are all the same here, only they vary in heat factor. I wouldn't call them teriyaki sauce because to me teriyaki has a more fruity taste. This one has a more sweet molasis and soy sauce flavor. I have to say, the best part of the meal were the side dishes. The block of corn bread was large, had good texture, grilled on both sides, and tasted good. The coleslaw was just the right texture and flavor for me. The garlic bread strips were also good stuff. I smelled them even before I pulled them out of the bag.

Good thing I got in here right before they locked down the place. If you want to drop by to pickup some food, get here before 8:00pm because that's when the doors close and lock for the day. We found that out the hard way last week when we got there at 8:15pm. I'll be back for another Wipe Out and some cornbread. See you there.

C+

Original Roadhouse Grill

9816 Mission Gorge Rd
Santee, CA 92071

Well, to our loyal fan, I want you to know that the Good Bros are not getting soft on our quest to find barbeque. We were on our way to Geno’s but much to our dismay, they decided to close at 8pm. Just our luck, after a hard day’s work we thought that we deserved some good barbeque. So we had to regroup and think fast: A friend said that we should try some ribs at this one place. it wasn’t really known for barbeque but the ribs we worth trying.

The place was Roadhouse Grill - I can think of one thing that was wrong with the name, “grill” that’s not really what we are about. At 8:30pm with not lunch or dinner so far, these are desperate times, and we have to take extreme measures to make sure that we get our nutritional BBQ requirements, so we decided to walk in. The Doors were rocking throughout the place, one of those 15 minute songs hearkening back to an era when musicians could hold a drug-induced trance and still make good music.

“Two for the bar,” the hostess asked. “No, we need a table.” I guess she might be used to the droves of people walking in off of work to have a couple of hours of down time. But we’re the Good Bros. and we mean business. Now if you haven’t been to Roadhouse make sure that you don’t wear your best clothes. As we were told, the place is a sty because of all the peanuts that you can eat and throw on the ground, or at each other. This definitely came in handy as we waited for our St. Louis Ribs and Grilled Shrimp.

Well folks, we gave it a shot. Butlemmetellyawut - the sauce was actually pretty good, a nice tomato-based flavor with some sweet and spicy tones, and a good thick consistency. (Reminiscent of what the Wrangler offered.) One needs as much of this as they can get because the ribs were as dry as a desert and the meat did not have any flavor at all. The chili didn’t seem like they came out of a can but they did have a weird aftertaste. The fresh rolls were warm and sweet, and went well with the even sweeter whipped margarine that they served it with. Yeah, margarine. That’s not the worst of it, the grilled shrimp had a strong pungent gun-powdery smell, like it was shot out of a shotgun to be flash cooked. The dipping sauce wasn’t butter either, it was some kind of lubricant like WD-40.

I guess this all goes with the Americana chain restaurant’s theme. There were classic gas pump replica’s and all kinds of old signage on the wall mixed in with the glowing , neon beer signs. I thought about the poor chaps that sacrificed themselves to make the tables at the joint, what a waste. As we pushed through the doors, Lynard Skynard poured out the speakers and onto the parking out. Our job was done, check this one off the list.

D-

Tyler's Taste of Texas

576 N. 2nd Street
El Cajon

On a mission to fill up the fuel tank for my grill, I was in the neighborhood of Taste of Texas. It was about lunch time, so I decided to drop in and order something to go. If you want to instantly transport yourself to a truck stop somewhere on a lonely Texas highway, this is the place to go. It's full of stuff that says "I'm in Texas". There is a lot of variety on the menu here trying to serve up breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Texas style. They even have a bakery.

I've usually ordered up some version of a combination plate at a lot of the other BBQ places the Good Brothers have reviewed, but I guess I just wasn't hungry enough to try that this time. I ordered a bbq beef sandwich with some coleslaw to go. The sandwich was pretty darn big for the money, unfortunately, the taste was not so big. The filling on this sandwich was chopped bits of yesterday's beef swimming in a dark, sweet BBQ sauce. I was happy to see that I didn't get a BK bun on this one, instead it was a large onion sub roll. The coleslaw was not what I would call good. It was like it had been rinsed a few times then clumped up into my styrofoam container.

Texas is legendary for great BBQ, but I guess you'll have to pack up the wagon and go there to get it because I don't think you'll find it at Taste of Texas. If you make it to the real Texas, can you order up some BBQ for me too?

D

Joey's Smokin' BBQ

4645 Carmel Mtn Rd
San Diego, CA 92130

Did I take a wrong turn and end up at Lightning Jack’s again? No, it’s right, Joey’s Smokin’ BBQ is set in a strip mall between Starbuck’s and Daphne’s with a fountain feature just like Lightning Jack’s, go back and check the review yourself. This place, however, is not set in the Clairemont hood but the much more affluent neighborhood of Torrey Hills in the Carmel Valley area.

Too late for lunch, and too early for dinner, I walked towards an empty store. Luckily, they had something called the Southern Sampler which could give me a taste of their Pulled Pork, Pulled Chicken, and brisket in one order. The chaps behind the counter recommended the cornbread and beans highly so I took their advice.

As I listened to the bluesy music playing in the background, I looked around my environment and could honestly say that this place didn’t really scream BBQ. In a few more minutes, there they were: my Southern Sliders. I took them to a table outside to catch some of the last hours of light. My, there they were: the plain white bread rolls filled with meat. A small cup of beans, and a birthday “cornbread” cupcake that was too sweet and soggy. How underwhelming. Let’s get back to the chase. The brisket was the most edible, probably because it was still moist. The pulled pork comes in next, and then the chicken was basically inedible because it was dry and tasteless. The spices that were dusted on the meat after cooking was all over the place and it was likely a mix of chili, paprika, and garlic. Sounds better than it tastes. The sauce was used sparingly but tasted artificial. (And this Joey’s Smokin BBQ place is going to be popping up all over San Diego and Orange County over the next year???)

As I trudged through my meal I watched a troupe of teenage girls on their cell phones calling their parents to be picked up. In a few minutes a parade of Mercedes, Volvos, Hummers, and BMW SUVs pickup their corresponding princesses and finally the air is cleared of their celluar-ly intended hormonal banter. I looked out in the distance where a hideous yellow Bently was parked and thought to myself, “Gosh, all that money and you don’t have any taste selecting a proper color for such a car” and then I thought again, “All the money around Torrey Hills and they can’t buy decent BBQ that has any taste.” So there you have it, NO TASTE coming to a strip mall near you. Yay : (

C-

West Coast BBQ

6126 Lake Murray Blvd.
La Mesa, CA 92942

Like a couple of determined gold miners, we hit the BBQ trail again looking for good BBQ. Up to this point we had encountered a lot of setbacks and disappointments, but we weren’t going let up and get ourselves stuck in average BBQ country. We were looking to stake a claim to good BBQ.

Straggling in 15 min before their closing we entered, and couldn’t help but notice that this place was different. It looked very “civilized” compared to other BBQ joints we had visited. I’ve seen this kind of place before. “Yeah”, says Good Bro #1, “Looks like an upscale bakery I’ve been to”. As we were greeted and promptly welcomed to sit at a table, something was nagging at me. Hey, it’s my nose. It’s telling me to pay attention to it. It smells ….. BBQ! Menus were placed in front of us, real honest to goodness menus with pictures, not a piece of paper with print on it that had been through several generations of copying.

Looking at the menu we see that they offer a wide variety of food options in addition to BBQ. Before I get too excited here, let me mention that they also do catering and they have a BBQ express window near the entrance to the restaurant for all those folks that like to take their food to go. After looking at the menu a while, I’m ready to order, but Good Bro #1 wants to have a little shop talk with our server. So I join in and we ask all kinds of questions about recommendations, sides, and BBQ sauces. Surprisingly, our server didn’t show even a pinch of annoyance at all our questions. In fact, she was very helpful at talking over the menu with us.

We both ended up ordering the three meat combo plates with chicken, beef, and ribs and we couldn’t decide on one BBQ sauce, so our server brought out all three. This is a lot of food, since the combo plates also come with two side dishes and a serving of hot bread and butter. The ribs were tasty without BBQ sauce, the beef was a little dry, but still tasty, and same goes for the chicken. The most fun was trying out the three different BBQ sauces, Traditional Texas, Southern Smooth, and Chipotle. Each has it’s merits, but all were pretty darn good. But let's talk consistency, the viscosity of sauce should not be water. Otherwise, I would gladly be pouring my drink on my BBQ. Thankfully, this place understood this concept. The Chipotle sauce had a a nice thick consistency and the taste was surprisingly good. It was the standout but let's not forget the Traditional Texas or the mustardy Southern Smooth. The side dishes were also good. I tried the coleslaw and the baked beans. Good Bro #1 tried the salad, (yes salad he needed some roughage after weeks of eating meats and bread) and the chili.

It was getting late, all the rest of the tables were cleaned up and they were closing the registers. If we stay any longer we're gonna have to do dishes or load the wood into the pit smoker. We both had smiles due to the level of service here and we even got to talk to one of the owners who was genuinely interested in how we liked our meals and was happy to answer any questions we had about the food, the restaurant, or the catering.So if you're in the land of average BBQ, head on over to West Coast BBQ. They'll treat you right, and you'll find the food to be a real treat.

B