Hank's Smoked Brisket - Indianapolis, IN

There once was a man from Texas.........who moved for a job in Indianapolis.........He stayed for decades and when he retired........He shared his love of BBQ brisket.

Smoked Spareribs All Sauced Up

Okay, so no one ever said I was a poet, but a limerick seems fitting when you talk about Hank's Smoked Brisket.  After growing up in Texas, Hank moved to Indianapolis over three decades ago to work as a supervisor in manufacturing.  After spending his entire career with the same company, he retired and began to think of his next adventure.  Hank had a passion for slow-smoked barbecue.  His friends and coworkers always looked forward to being invited to dine whenever he made it.  After some encouragement from said family and friends, Hank decided to share his barbecue with others.

Just across from the Crown Hill Cemetary on the northwest side of Indianapolis, you will find Hank's Smoked Brisket.  Sitting on the end of a commercial strip building on Martin Luther King Junior Drive, Hank serves up Texas-style brisket and other barbecue on a daily basis.  It was designed to be more than a part-time job originally, but Hank said he couldn't keep up with the demand on a part-time basis so he expanded to full-time.  You can sample Hank's barbecue for yourself Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 9pm and on Sunday from noon to 5pm. 

When I said Hank cooks Texas-style barbecue, I wasn't kidding.  Several times a year, Hank drives down to Texas and loads up on mesquite wood, which he hauls back to Indy to fuel his smoker.  As a barbecue competitor myself, I am always interested in trying new places.  And so on one Tuesday recently, I found myself up in the area around lunchtime and decided to drop in.

Just stepping out of the car, I could smell the intoxicating aroma of sweet smoke in the air.  I was drawn to the building to explore what flavors would compliment the smells.  Hank was positioned behind the window, working alone as he helped each customer.  A row of four or five chairs sit in front of the glass windows across from the order window, however there are no tables.  Hank's is designed to be a carryout location.

The menu is simple, yet offers a full range of slow-smoked meats.  Chicken, ribs, pulled pork, brisket, pork loin, smoked sausage and corned beef are all offered after been smoked in mesquite on Hank's seasoned pit.  Meals can be ordered as sandwiches, as meals including sides, and by the pound as well.  For my first time at Hank's I wanted to sample several meats, and my only disappointment was that the menu is structured in an easy way to do that.  The menu would be truly complete with a sampler dinner that would combine more than one meat option to allow people to try multiple options.

While I was mulling over the many options, Hank made some small talk and offered up a sample slice of smoked corned beef.  It was reminiscent of a pastrami without the juniper and other specific spices that combine to transform corned beef into pastrami.  The meat was hot, smoky, tender and juicy.  The smoke note wasn't overpowering and the corned beef flavor was able to shine through.

Without an option to sample more than one meat in one meal, I skipped any sides and just ordered a sliced brisket sandwich and a half slab of spare ribs.  I opted to allow Hank to apply the sauce on the ribs for me and sauce on the side for the brisket before heading off to the car to dine.  The ribs set me back $10.75 for a half slab and the brisket sandwich was $9.  With a soda, it was just over $20 total.  The prices are fair individually and I think if Hank would add a combo meal to the menu so people can affordably sample several meats, it would be a welcome addition.

I first nestled in to sample the brisket sandwich, knowing it should be Hank's speciality since it's the namesake and what Texas barbecue is known for.  The brisket did not disappoint.  I was able to try a bit without sauce on it and found it to be simply spiced and thoroughly tender.  The brisket still had a slight tug to it when you went to pull it apart, showing that it was tender, but not overcooked.  The sauce complimented it well, with just enough savory complexity to make it work with the meat.

Smoked Brisket

The ribs were next on the agenda and they are three napkins to the bone kind of ribs when sauced.  They are full spares as well so there is plenty of meat to be had.  The flavor of the ribs and the sauce were very good and I enjoyed them.  The particular set of ribs I had on that were perhaps just a tad undercooked as they didn't pull cleanly from the bone, but I had no complaints with the flavor profile.

Hank's is a must try if you appreciate barbecue in Indianapolis.  It's not a big flashy place in a high rent area.  It's one man, taking his passion for barbecue and plying his trade in retirement to do something he truly loves.  His passion for serving others great food is evident from the moment you set foot in the door all the way through the last sauce, soaked napkin you wad up.  If you head there for lunch, you may want to plan a little nap time after your meal because you will be fully satisfied when you are through.  Here's to hoping Hank will continue to serve quality Texas barbecue in Indianapolis for many years to come.  I have plenty more to try on the menu on my future visits.

Hank's Smoked Brisket Menu

Bon Appetit BBQ Ribs - July 2012 Grilling Issue

The other day I saw something horrific.  Something so disgusting and so vulgar that it should be removed from society.  Neither children nor adults should be subjected to such brutality.  It was so horrible in fact that it has taken me several days to come to grips with it and even begin to put it into words.  I will attempt to do so now.

On a recent trip to the grocery store for a few items, I made a stroll down the magazine aisle.  I am a magazine reader from time to time and thought I'd see if anything looked to be worthy of a read.  While I am not a regular subscriber or a monthly reader, I do grab an issue of Bon Appetit every now and again if something in it catches my eye.  While I can mind my manners and enjoy gustationally snobby meals at uber fancy restaurants with overpriced food, I am more at home with simple yet tasty creations.  I have four kids in my house for crying out loud.  So I am not in Bon Appetit's target market, but I do add new recipes to the repertoire from time to time and I like seeing how the other side thinks food should be at every meal I suppose.

However, on this particular day, I saw that the July 2012 issue of Bon Appetit was paying homage to the lower class.  To the street urchins who generally satiate themselves with fast food or ingredients in their home cooked meals that are not organic or farm-to-table.  Instead, it was the annual grilling issue and the cover shot was a plate full of sticky, sweet ribs.  As the pitmaster of a professional BBQ team, I scooped it up and headed to the checkout.  No need to pre-read anything as this issue was certainly for me.

When I got home and got things put away, I flipped straight to the ribs article.  After all it was the cover story and was billed as "Amazing Ribs!"  The subtitle below read, "Simpler and Tastier Than You've Ever Made."  So how could I go wrong?  I certainly didn't think it would change my competition recipe or somehow be a life altering experience, but as I flipped to page 50 there was a bit of anticipation.  A bit of excitement that perhaps a new tip or technique would be found.

Right then, my heart sank.  I began to read in earnest and my stomach started to turn.  I will not subject you to the article as I feel strongly that every copy of this issue should be burned to save all of humanity.  When schools talk of banning books like The Catcher In The Rye, this issue of Bon Appetit should be with it.  An ole fashioned book burning is in order.  Why?  What has me so alarmed and upset about a rib recipe?

Tell me how, Bon Appetit magazine, a trusted source for recipes, culinary news, and cutting edge cuisine that caters to the rich and famous (or at least those who view themselves as rich and famous), could possibly publish a rib recipe that calls for you to BAKE the ribs in the oven for 2-3 hours, let them cool completely and then just throw them on the grill at the last minute to char them up.  Just like any good sleazy infomercial though, the article says, "but wait, there's more."  As if they haven't done enough damage by telling people to take the lazy way out of cooking and not actually smoke the ribs, they go on to double your offer on laziness and tell you to brush on some store bought sauce as you put them on the grill to char them.  And what sauce do they believe is the perfect combination of flavor for the ribs?  Not a homemade sauce.  Not a locally sourced sauce crafted by a barbecuer.  Nope.  Their sauce choice is Kraft!  Kraft?!  Are you kidding me?

I put down the magazine then and was done.  What more is there to read?  Instead of teaching people the value of spending some time to slow smoke ribs or at least cook them completely on charcoal outside to impart some smoky flavor, they tell you to bake the ribs and to put Kraft BBQ sauce on them.  This is epicurean cuisine?  This exemplifies a truly American dish?  Sadly, I think it does exemplify American cuisine a bit since we are all getting a little older and more than a little lazy.

Do me one favor please.  At some point in your lifetime get access to a smoker or a Weber grill.  Fill a chimney with hardwood lump charcoal and light it.  Let the coals get hot and spread them evenly on the grill.  Make an actual dry rub with spices like paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper and others.  Slather a little yellow mustard on the trimmed rack of ribs, spread the rub on generously and smoke those ribs.  Cook them for 4-5 hours at 225-235.  Wrap the ribs up for an hour in the middle of the cook with some honey drizzled over them and a nice handful of brown sugar spread around.  Put them back on the grill and finish them off by glazing them with a homemade sauce or a BBQ sauce made by someone other than a multi-national conglomerate.  Have a couple of libations during the process.  Tell me which ribs are better.  Ones you spent hours slow cooking to have a smoky flavor beneath the savory heat of the rub and the sticky, sweet finish of the sauce.  Or the ribs, Bon Appetit would have you bake in the damn oven and then slap some crappy sauce on.

While they don't say it in the article, I am sure Bon Appetit would be more than happy to advocate that you go ahead and lie to your dinner guests too and let them think you smoked them on the grill.  After all you did char them out on the grill at the end.  That magazine and all of their pate eating, wine tasting editors should feel shame, but they won't.  I am beneath them.  My clothes smell like smoke and I stand over a hot fire to cook something that takes patience.  I guess I am just not meant to read their articles anymore.  I'll let you decide what the magazine does for you.

Brother's Barbeque and Grill - Central City, KY

Have you ever been in a love-hate relationship with a restaurant?  A restaurant that behaves like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?  The type of place that reminds you of Seinfeld's girlfriend.  The girlfriend that looks like a supermodel in that certain booth at Monk's Diner, yet closely resembles the bride of Frankenstein in the back of the cab on the way home.  For me that place is Brother's Barbeque and Grill in Central City, Kentucky.

I found Brother's over a year ago when I was in Central City for work over a lunch hour.  I drove by the restaurant and saw some smoke rising gently into the air and I knew I had to stop in and give it a try.  As the leader of a professional competition barbecue team, I am always up for trying a new spot.  So in we went.

The decor at Brother's is decidedly eclectic.  The place is part restaurant and part "antique" store.  Of course you have to use the term, antique loosely.  Matchbox cars and other kitschy items are all priced to sell.  Albeit, the prices are a little steep.  Maybe it's just me, but $15 a framed, unsigned photograph of Jeff Gordon's DuPont Chevrolet seems a bit steep.

As for the food, I enjoyed it on my first experience.  The ribs were full spareribs with a good smoky flavor and were served sans sauce.  That is the way barbecue meat should be served.  Let the customer decide the sauce they want and the amount of sauce that's right for them.  Brother's has two sauces to offer.  One is spicy with plenty of black pepper and one is sweet with notes of mustard and brown sugar.  The sides were traditional barbecue sides like coleslaw, baked beans, chips, potato salad, and more.  The sides weren't exceptional, but the barbecue was good.  In addition to the ribs, I also got some pulled pork, which is different down in Kentucky.  My pulled pork was chopped fine and had an mustard-like color to it, leading me to believe that it was lightly sauced before plating.  Overall, I found my first trip to Brother's to be a good one.  A subsequent work trip a month or so after the first trip was also a pleasurable experience.

Fast forward to two days ago and I had a carload full of my family barreling down the Western Kentucky Parkway.  We were headed out to a family farm for the Labor Day weekend.  It dawned on me that we wouldn't be far from Brother's on our journey and so the rest of my family reluctantly agreed to suffer through the four mile journey off of the Parkway in order to dine at Brother's.  After two successful meals, I was talking up the food to make it known that my family's suffering would be rewarded.

We arrived at Brother's just before 8 p.m. and about an hour before closing.  After seating ourselves, it seemed to all be downhill after that.  After not being greeted for some time, I poked my head around the corner and was told that someone would be with me soon.  The server seemed flustered as she was tending to an order at the drive-thru window.  Several minutes later she appeared and we attempted to order drinks and meals for the entire family.  When I travel at full capacity my family has seven members, most of which are young children.  So we order quickly in an attempt to prevent any flareups in the temperament department.  The server seemed put out that we were there in the last hour of the day.  In exchange she proceeded to let us know that they were out of sweet tea and chicken tenders, thus destroying the orders of our children.  Using some creativity we were able to place a full order.

When the food arrived, it looked less than inspired.  My ribs were full spareribs with the brisket still attached and the silver skin still on the back.  While they weren't dried out, it was apparent that they were some of the last ribs left for the day.  The potato salad was decent and had a nice mustard flavor with some large chunks of potatoes.  I also got the pulled pork.  Resembling a hockey puck in its shape, the pork tasted like a collection of sawdust mashed together to form something resembling pulled pork.  The sweet sauce was good as it had been in the past, but the hot sauce was too hot.  I enjoy heat and spice, but it was immediately evident that someone put far too much pepper in this batch.

The best part of the meal was the bun that came with each entree.  The roll was perfectly round with a nice salty crust and a sweet fluffy interior.  The problem, I suspect, is that the rolls are not made in-house, but rather sourced elsewhere and just heated.

Half Rack of Ribs and Pulled Pork Combo with Potato Salad and BBQ Chips

Given the service and the quality of the food, I spent the last hour of the drive to the family farm, apologizing to my own family for subjecting them to the detour.  A small town restaurant without a lot of customers should be excited at the opportunity to generate more sales and provide a positive dining experience.  Instead, the staff seemed more intent on getting the tables cleaned and the doors shut.  The prices aren't all that cheap either, but on previous visits I was happy to pay the $15.95 for the half rack of ribs and pulled pork combo.

If I happen to be passing through, I may give Brother's another chance, but I hope that they don't run out of the sweet tea, a southern barbecue staple.  I also hope that their service rebounds and makes it an enjoyable experience.  I always look for ways to support barbecue restaurants and locally owned establishments, but I also believe that customers deserve to be treated well and given a good experience.  Brother's didn't hit the mark recently, but hopefully it was just an odd night.

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.