Friday Night Dinner - Big Anthony's BBQ

Our daughter Michelle asked us to come over and babysit Little Ben Friday evening while she and her hubby went out.  Sheila went looking for a place for us to have dinner in that neighborhood and stumbled across a Groupon for Big Anthony's BBQ just east of 21st and Memorial.

The decor is crisp but comfortable, almost homey.  Very informal.  The term "Big Anthony" is quite descriptive.  We were greeted by none other than former TU basketball star Big Anthony Fobbs, all six foot ten of him.  As soon as he seated us, he brought out some corn muffins for us to munch on while we studied the menu.  I was hooked after the first bite.  It was GOOD cornbread.

I had the smoked chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and baked beans.  The chicken was perfectly done with a pronounced smoky flavor that still allowed the delicate flavor of the meat to come through.  It is served with your choice of three sauces, a hot sauce, a medium house sauce and honey/Jack Daniels combination that is also delicious when poured over the corn muffins.  While the Jack Daniels sauce was good, intriguing actually, I still preferred the house sauce.  It is hard to describe.  I wanted to call it a Memphis sauce but it is not.  It is their own concoction and is a fine addition to the flavor of the meat without overpowering it.

Sheila had rib ends with macaroni and cheese and bacon fried cabbage.  The rib ends were smoky and tender.  The mac and cheese could have been made by your mother.  It was creamy and rich and the perfect foil for the smoky ribs.  The bacon fried cabbage took me back to my childhood.  My mom used to fix almost the same dish, chopped cabbage fried with side meat.  It used to be a poor man's supper on black and white dinner tables in the south.  Now it is a delicacy.

We Okies tend to classify our barbecue joints into categories like Memphis, or KC or even the dreaded Carolina.  Big Anthony's is none of these.  They are apparently doing their own sauces and rubs and they are unique.  There is an almost Oriental influence to the spice mixture.  It is a little unusual but good, very good actually.  Barbecue and barbecue places have personalities.  If they don't, they aren't authentic.  Big Anthony and Kim are expressing another personality in the barbecue family here and it is a pleasant one.

Anthony and Kim are gracious hosts.  They also seem to be very nice people.  We will be back and we will bring friends.