Pappy's Smokehouse - St. Louis, MO

Have you ever walked into a restaurant and immediately fallen in love?  I mean like the kind of place that you would agree to give up your first-born son for one more meal.  The place that you dream about when you are sleeping and the place that you rearrange your entire life to go grab a meal there.  Whenever I go to St. Louis,  I have such a place.  A place that makes my mouth water, just at the thought of a meal there.  For me that place is Pappy's Smokehouse and this is what makes me drool.

I've said before that barbecue is close to my heart.  I have a professional barbecue team that competes throughout the country and I work hard to perfect my own barbecue.  So usually when I travel, I like to find barbecue restaurants.  Admittedly, I often find that my expectations aren't met because restaurants tend to overcook barbecue thinking that things falling off the bone is the way to go.  In fact, that means that the meat is mushy and overcooked.

After seeing Pappy's Smokehouse featured on several TV shows, I thought it was time to make the trip and check it out.  I had been told that lunchtime is the time to go eat at Pappy's because, unlike most restaurants, Pappy's only cooks a certain amount of food each day and when they sell out of an item it gets pulled off the menu.  So if you want ribs, which are excellent at Pappy's, then you have to be there for lunch.  I arrived at 12:30 and saw a line out the door and wrapped around the building.  A good sign, yet a scary sign.  I kept my fingers crossed that they wouldn't run out of ribs all the way until I made it up to the front of the line to place my order.  To my excitement, they still had ribs.  I ordered a half rack of ribs and sides of deep fried corn and potato salad..

Then I was off to find my seat.  At Pappy's you order your meal at the front counter and then find a seat and they deliver the food to you.  The decor is an eclectic mix of St. Louis sports and music memorabilia and the majority of the seating is family style at long counters or at huge picnic tables.  One wall is covered with menus autographed by celebrities who have dined at Pappy's while they were in town and near the front counter Pappy's displays the barbecue credentials that prove his stock.  While he hasn't competed in years, back when he did Pappy competed well.  In 2000, he became a world champion when he captured first place in the whole hog category at Memphis in May.

My food arrived almost as quickly as I found my seat and I was ready to dig in.  I always try barbecue without sauce first because I like to see how the meat is by itself.  I can honestly say that after my first bite of ribs, I didn't stop eating until the rack of ribs was nothing but a pile of bones.  I never touched a sauce and I never touched my sides.  The rub Pappy's puts on their ribs is tangy and savory and the smoke flavor courtesy of the mix of apple and cherry woods they use was great.  I licked every bit of it off my fingers.  The ribs were cooked correctly.  They were moist, tender and most importantly they didn't fall right off the bone. 

The sides were impressive as well.  I enjoyed the potato salad.  It was cold and not laden with mayo.  The potatoes were firm and it was delicious.  The corn was interesting, but not my favorite.  I have been to other restaurants with deep-fried corn on the cob and I have learned that you have to use a specific hybrid variety of corn to prevent it from being soggy.  I am not sure that Pappy's uses that and so the corn was a bit soggy to me.

Every single time I go to St. Louis I go to Pappy's.  I tell everyone I know to go there.  And now I am telling you to go there.  I guarantee you won't be disappointed.  Hands down, Pappy's provided me the best barbecue meal ever and it is the only barbecue restaurant that I have truly had competition-quality food at every time I set foot in the door.