Stopped in at Southern Craft BBQ, located in Greenville, TN.
I stopped in for lunch intending to try the brisket, if it’s on the menu, and to also see what they use for sauce. I’m always interested in knowing if a barbecue joint uses their own brand or buy other brands to serve.
The Southern Craft BBQ restaurant use their own brand. They offer four different flavors Three are similar to North Carolina style sauce, which means they are thin. One is tomato base and sweet, according to the manager. Knowing this, I didn’t plan to use any of their sauce with my sandwich. I actually brought a bottle of Po’Richard’s Original Flavoring Sauce in with me to use.
The menu did not list a plain brisket sandwich but when I ask the waitress about it, she said she understood what I wanted. I ordered a plain sliced brisket sandwich, no sauce, with fries, and unsweetened iced tea. However, what I got was shredded meat on a honey flavored bun with blackberry jam on the bottom and the meat on top of the jam. The meat had some sort of sauce on it, but I could not tell which one since I did not taste any of three bottles on the table. I decided not to object when it was placed in front of me since my purpose for trying the place was to rate my visit. Although disappointed I went ahead and tried the meat. The taste of the shredded meat was mediocre at best.
Three things were wrong in my opinion. First of all, brisket should never be shredded. Brisket should only be served sliced or maybe chunked. Brisket has to be served in a manner that shows the smoke ring. Otherwise, one might think the shredded meat might be a beef cut other than brisket. Second, I did not understand the jam. It did nothing for the taste, and besides, who wants to pick blackberry seeds out of their teeth. And third, because their sauce is so thin, the paper underneath the sandwich was soaked and coming apart by the time the meal was placed on the table. I had to eat the sandwich with a fork being careful not to pick up pieces of the soaked paper.
The fries were very good and the tea was fresh. The service was very good. The manager was very polite and answered my questions about the sauce and if they would ever considered using another brand along side of their own brand. She took my name and number and said she would pass it on to the owner. I won’t hold my breath waiting to hear from anyone.
East of the Mississippi I rate BBQ joints on how they serve their brisket, if it’s even on the menu. I have found that if the brisket is done right, then most everything else is usually good. This particular BBQ joint gets nine stars for service and three stars for the brisket sandwich.