Hogswoggled

Seems to be a fair amount of food stuff happening recently so I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

Firstly this past Tuesday was Dine Out For Hunger an annual event here where a handful of local restaurants donate 10% of their profits to the Omaha Food Bank. I wanted to participate so I surveyed the list of restaurants and found a place called Billy Mac's BBQ. I had recently stumbled upon a list on GFC that was a ranking of some local BBQ joints, several of which I had never heard of. Although it wasn't a participant one of the comments said they should have had Billy Mac's to get the BEST in town. The unanimous winner in their review was Heartland BBQ (you know, that weird little place on the eastern edge of Benson on NW Radial) which is also on my short list of places to try immediately. I consider myself somewhat of a BBQ snob and have repeatedly been denied really good BBQ here, Amarillo is the closest I've come.

After a visit to Billy Mac's website I saw the address and thought, oh damn that must be that little place that is right next to Little King on 108th, literally half a mile from our apartment. So in the cold and rain Tuesday after class (I was wearing my winter coat, MY WINTER COAT IN EARLY OCTOBER) that I made my way to "Billy Mac's" for some BBQ. Course if I would have paid more attention to the name of the place instead of just the approximate address I would have realized that Big Boy's BBQ ≠ Billy Mac's BBQ. After some cajoling from the proprietors I walked out with the 3 rib combo, wet, hot with a side of cheesy potatoes (that I was assured were "particularly good today").

Now, 3 ribs didn't sound like much to me, this is coming from the kid who used to down full slabs back in the (fat) days. Granted those were baby back ribs, the ribs presented to me on this day were big suckers, at least 6 inches long, and they gave me a 4th just for kicks. The smell was pleasing and they certainly looked good. The sauce was sweet, like most BBQ sauce in these parts, not vinegary and tart like you get in KC, and had a little kick to it. Visible flecks of spices could be seen in the sauce which I consider to be a good thing, makes it appear homemade (and it probably is) but I would have liked it hotter. The ribs were probably the best true ribs I've had in town, a nice smoked taste to them and super tender, not Houston's tender, but tender nonetheless. My only complaint is that they lacked very much of a porky flavor it was just kind of like nondescript meat with sauce. Still, a far cry from the shit they shovel at Famous Daves, it boggles my mind how many people love that place.

Fairly pleased with myself for supporting both a local cause and a local restaurant I happily went about my week, until today. For whatever reason I got to thinking about it and got it in my mind that what I had eaten Tuesday was not the BBQ I had set out for but something else entirely. Of course I couldn't remember the name of the establishment that I actually entered but upon viewing the website for Billy Mac's I determined that I had, in fact, not eaten there. A quick Google later and the address for Billy Mac's was showing up smack dab where the Valentino's is, and I continued to tell myself that there couldn't possibly be 2 local BBQ places within a block of each other. So at lunch today I set out on a mission: to find Billy Mac's.

Well sure enough the real Billy Mac's is in the same plaza deal that Valentino's is in, about 2 store fronts to the right of it. As I stood in the modest dining room I grabbed a menu and was greeted by Billy Mac himself. I ordered their brisket sandwich and headed home to devour it. What I saw when I opened the box was considerably different than what I had imagined. Instead of brisket slathered in sauce on a type of bun there were 7 long slices of brisket, folded once, on two slices of thick cut homemade tasting white bread with sauce on the side, and my 2 cornbread squares. Oh man, the brisket. If you mess up brisket you have tough, bland crap. Tough or bland this was not. This is super super tender meat (from there alleged 10 hour smoking) with a great smokiness that you can taste for hours after you eat. The sauce again was on the sweet side but still pretty tasty. The jalepeno corn bread was cold and pretty dry, and since I'm out of honey had to be eaten with butter and thus was not my favorite, but I'm not here to pass judgment on cornbread, the meat is what will get me to come back. I can't wait to try their ribs at some point.

In some other restaurant opening news there is a new chain burger joint called Smashburger that has been getting some early rave reviews. To me it sounds like Steak N Shake which if you know me, is one of the restaurants I've wanted here for ages if only for the late night options, which brings me to my second new restaurant, Eat the Worm. Eat the Worm is the new venture by the people who own O Dining and Lounge, (which I've always had terrific food at) opening in the former Zio's Old Market location. This new place is some sort of Mexican joint, that is going to have late night hours. I hope that this succeeds because it addresses another thing that I have often complained about the dining scene in this town; if you want something to eat even remotely past normal dinner time you get relegated to some terrible chain or the casinos. I especially don't get why places don't open around the music venues and cater to the after concert crowd (Clean Plate did this marvelously, shame I didn't get a chance to get down there during it's month residency in the Empty Room). Last but not least I just read that the guy who originally opened Godfather's Pizza is planing a new pizza place in Benson that is going to have a coal-fired pizza oven. Despite my dislike of Godfather's I remain hopeful that this guy actually does know what he's doing and that this place will offer kick ass pizza, I'll certainly try it and who knows maybe they'll be open after concerts.