Sunday, October 4, 2009

Daddy D'z Barbecue......Atlanta, GA

It's not everyday that people from Texas get a chance to eat real southern style barbecue. Having just got back from Atlanta I can assure you that Texas barbecue is anything but "Southern Style". Although Georgia is not as well known for it's barbecue as it's neighbors from the Carolina's and Tennessee it boast's some great barbecue nonetheless. Unfortunately while we didn't have enough time to check out Atlanta's barbecue scene we did get to visit a special place called Daddy D'z.

Daddy D'z was really not our first choice for barbecue. We had tried the night before to go to Famous Daves only to find out that all of their Atlanta locations had just recently closed down. We went ahead and decided that we would wait until Saturday to try again for barbecue and wound up grabbing a hot dog at the Braves game instead. We had decided that if we were going to eat barbecue we wanted to find someplace good with a pretty solid reputation. Daddy D's was just the place. They have had a long history of serving barbecue in Atlanta and have been featured in USA Today, The New York Times, The Rolling Stones Magazine, and claim to be Atlanta's only restaurant to be featured on the "Food Network".

Upon arriving at Daddy D'z one of the first things you notice is the appearance of the restaurant. I would definitely call this place a BBQ joint rather that your typical BBQ restaurant. The outside has been painted to reflect a bluesy type of atmosphere.





Once we entered Daddy D's we were greeted by the owner who's been there for 17 years. His name is Ron Newman and he's a Chicago native. He brought us out a sample of ribs which were great in flavor but were really not that comparable to some of the ribs you will find on the competition circuit. I know it's harder cooking for the masses but you would think that if this place had been voted as "Best Barbecue in Atlanta" that they might have been a little better.

My father ordered the rib plate and I had the sampler platter. Both were served on throw away plastic plates. The rib plate comes with 4 ribs that come out completely covered in BBQ sauce. They had a great smoke flavor but were a little on the dry side. I had ordered the sampler platter wanting to try a little more items off the menu, however for some reason all they brought me was just the sandwich. They forgot to bring me the 2 ribs it comes with as well as the fried pork wraps. On the sandwich I was given a choice of either brisket or pork. I wanted to try the brisket but it more less tasted like stringy roast beef with lot's of barbecue sauce. I only ate a portion of it and rounded out the meal with side orders of mac and cheese and fried zucchini. I also tried a few bites of the Brunswick stew that he brought out for us to sample. This was probably some of the best stew that I have ever eaten.

One thing I try to do in every barbecue restaurant I get to, is to at least visit with the owner a little, to learn a little bit about them and about their barbecue. I learned here that they cook with hickory and like to do it low and slow. I was also awarded a pass behind the kitchen and got to see how it's all done behind the scenes. Overall this was a great place for BBQ. Although the new guy's from Fox Brothers in Atlanta were just featured by MSN as one of the nations top 10 best barbecue joints in the country I think Daddy D'z has more of a southern feel to it and a lot more authenticity.