"Florida BBQ"?

What a BBQ joint means to me

The MAP

Imagine for a moment a cash-only, styrofoam only (even if you "dine" in), plastic-fork only restaurant with red-checkered plastic table cloth on plastic tables. What it's about to me is the land and the people.

People who refused to be poor planted a flag in the land and, keeping their costs low, tried to cultivate a taste for the land itself. The dirt grew the corn; the corn fed the cattle; the cattle were butchered into brisket cuts, tongues, cheeks. The pigs, same thing. Sometimes a chicken gives its very life for your sustenance.

In the modern era, this is not exactly how it happens. Beef comes from Publix or H-E-B, not your farm. The cow wasn't fed with your corn, either.

Even so, most BBQ joints focus on the meat, and it is a way of doing business that invites the hipster snob to focus only on the brisket, because everything else is obviously shit.

South Florida

I know of only two BBQ joints down there. The Georgia Pig on 441 in Plantation and Tom Jenkin's on US1. The rest are franchises, and those don't count.

The problem is, of course, once you've been to Texas, it's hard to look at BBQ in Florida the same way. I'm sorry, but it's true. It's about the same as going to Peru, having ceviche, and then having ceviche here in the States. It's similar but not the same.

East Central Florida

My favorite place is Big Dog's in Grant Valkaria. It has a Facebook page. I think we should all stop using Facebook. Full stop. 

Big Dog's is next to a gas station and you can drive past it if you're not careful. 5385 US-1 in Grant-Valkaria. 

It has some picnic tables, and a view of the Indian River (though not a good view). What I like about this place is that their sandwiches are huge. If I'm paying $8 for a sandwich, I want it to fill me up. Big Dog's has my back. Their friendly and I think they're a family-business.

In 2nd place ... I just took-out from Shaw's Smoke Shack in Rockledge. It's a great example of "everything else [being] obviously shit" -- there's no web site! You can only take-out, and that has nothing to do with COVID and everything to do with there being no dining room.

Go to 1452 Garden Road in Rockledge, Florida. Only on Fridays and only after 3:30 PM.  I recommend going before 6 PM because that's about when the brisket runs out. You should also say "half-and-half" which means half-lean and half-fatty.

Big Don's on Merrit Island

That's a good brisket. I would say maybe better than Shaw's, who can sometimes serve slightly dry brisket. It's a food truck that's only outside of the Ace Hardware on Courtnay on Saturdays up to 3 PM.

Sonny's in Palm Bay is okay, but it's a chain, and BBQ to me isn't about chains. (How is a franchise chain "slow and low"?)

West Central Florida

Red Top Pit Stop. Yeah, it's okay. I took-out once and ate-in once and neither was anything I have to go back for.

M&Ms Old Hickory Smokehouse in Wildwood. This is the place I kind of work into my schedule when I'm nearby. There is a salt-of-the-earth thing going on that's about the people who make the BBQ. They are good, plain, ordinary, except that they work hard and you can taste that. 

Big Lee's Serious About BBQ (Ocala)

Same as Red Top Pit Stop. I was in town for the Trump Rally. It's a food truck. 

Orlando Sucks

That's it. Orlando is just the worst city in Florida.

Northern Florida

Western Florida