StormKing Barbecue

[lsanderson]

StormKing Barbecue

If'n you Google Texas BBQ near me, StormKing Barbecue displays first in the list. It opened a bit ago just west of Eat Street on 26th Street. It's attached to the Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza (same owner, obviously), which is on Eat Street at the corner of Nicollet and 26th Street. I tried Black Sheep Pizza once quite some time ago at their ultra trendy North Loop location where I decided that unless I was completely done up in Steam Punk costuming, I probably didn't need more Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza. Anyway, I wanted to try the BBQ, not that I'm a great fan, but that I wanted to try the BBQ because it's close, and I read an article talking about how the owner was a Texas BBQ nut. Of course, I always think about it at lunch, but it ain't open until four o'clock in the goddamned afternoon. I like a late lunch as much as the next person, but four o'clock in the goddamned afternoon is just too goddamned late for lunch and too goddamned early for dinner.

Anyway, yesterday after an emergency cedar board run to a local big box store for my elaborate and expensive attempt to feed squirrels, I thought to myself, that Texas BBQ joint near me is open and I'm hungry. So off I went. Unlike when I usually drive past dithering about stopping, I found parking too. They have signs that look like they're written on butcher paper (or probably signs written on butcher paper, I was too busy reading to check) and I got the three-meat sample for $25, which was complicated when I got up to the counter which was entirely operated by cute youngins, two of which would be required to equal or exceed half my age, when I found out that they were out of (for an indeterminate amount of time) three types of meat, oh, and the beef ribs are sold separately, not in the three-meat deal, which left exactly two meats available. The guy at the counter said he had more coming if i wanted to wait. Well, how long I asked? I'll check he said, and off he went to check. When he returned it was with chicken. So, I ordered fat brisket (lean is also available), chicken (front or back quarter), and pulled-pork. He weighed everything out, and placed the meats in separate food boxes and the whole nest of boxes went in a white paper bag. You get one side with the three-meat deal, so I ordered potato salad.

Let me first say that I loves me some potato salad that's got enough flavor to kinda sorta hide the bland taste of taters. Now let me tell you, that ain't the kind of potato salad StormKing Barbecue sells. Their potato salad is the kind of potato salad that has thinly sliced red radishes in it because they're afraid to put onion in it(despite the fact that they throw raw onion, pickles and jalapeños on the brisket). Their potato salad is the bland yellow that comes from mixing the barest hint of mild mustard into something trying to pretend it was once distantly related to mayonnaise. Then there's the big chunks of potatoes, not huge, but big enough that you know it's potato, cooked enough so most people are not going to faint because they're eating a potato with texture. With a hot dressing or a spicy one, big chunks of taters are just fine because your mouth needs a break, but with a bland, bland, bland dressing your mouth ain't never gonna need a break unless you're sucking down the jalapeños they put in with the brisket.

Of the meats they have:

Sausage
Pulled Pork
Beef Ribs (sold only by the piece)
Spare Ribs
Brisket
Chicken

I could only get the (fat or lean) brisket, (white or dark meat) chicken, and pulled pork on account of because I wasn't willing to wait for the sausage and spare ribs to finish cooking.

The pulled pork was pulled pork. Good, but I can't see a whole line of people rushing to get it. I like a little citrus and some more spice in mine.

The chicken was dry rubbed with a salt mixture. The dark meat was just fine.

The (fat) brisket had a wonderful smoke flavor to it, deliciously tender, definitely the star of my three meats.

You also get a small, pale, white bun (or several if you want -- at least they asked me how many I wanted) for some unknown purpose. They do look as if they'd seen better days. I got one BBQ sauce to go, but it was just a traditional sweet American sauce with not much to recommend it other than the sweet taste. They do have more sauces in the restaurant area. It's a tip free restaurant, and the staff seems to be trying to be awfully polite. The brisket is right nice. The pulled pork and chicken are just fine. I didn't try the sausage, beef ribs, or spare ribs, but for ghod's sake, don't get the potato salad.

Comments

[carbonel]

Scot Jamama's is on the way between my house and somewhere I go quite often, but I'm not a huge fan of the meat-falling-off-the-bones style of ribs, so it's not as tempting as it might be.

Ted Cook's 19th Hole is where I go when I want BBQ. No idea what sort it is, other than tasty. I generally order a beef ribs dinner, but the rib tips are also quite fine.

There's a new place that opened at 60th and Nicollet, though I can't remember the name. Seems popular, but the one time I went there, I was barely whelmed.

And yours is just about the only potato salad in the world that I can remember enjoying. Om nom nom.

Sweet

[lsanderson]

Thanks!

[calimac]

My biggest complaint with too many barbecue places is that the sides are limited to potato salad and cole slaw, neither of which I like. Or, if the choice also includes baked beans, they're not very good baked beans.

[pameladean]

I love pretty much any kind of potato salad, but yours is light-years ahead of the standard don't-offend-the-stereotypical-Midwestern-mouth variety. I always eat too much of yours and always wish later I'd had more.

P.

[lsanderson]

Thanks!