Arnold's Barbecue

Since the neighbor- hood where I work isn't in the classiest part of town, a lot of the more "authentic" barbecue places use the collapsed commercial real-estate market to set up shop. Google Maps lists no fewer than four barbecue places within a ten-minute drive of my workplace that have appeared within the past six months. I thought today would be a good day to give Arnold's on Elvis Presley a try.

Arnold's may have been there for longer than the past six months, mind you--I rarely pass its location. Still, I doubt it's been there long, if only based on the fact that the ubiquitous television in the corner is a flatscreen model. It did seem pretty busy, however, so it's been there long enough to generate a clientele. And for good reason.

The sandwich at Arnold's is powerfully smoky; the meat's 75% pink from smoke exposure, but not dried out. It's chopped a little fine for my tastes--it looks like it would do well just being pulled, which would be a little less labor intensive. It's not doused in sauce, and looks to be assembled with some care. The slaw's made somewhere else, I'm pretty sure, and adds only a little to the sandwich. Still, a good-to-great lunch, depending on how your tastes run.

Ribs, rib tips, and burgers are all available on the menu. Definitely worth a visit.

Arnold's BBQ
4560 Elvis Presley Blvd
Memphis, TN 38116
(901) 345-5992

(If you check the map, you can see that Arnold's is yellow--if my tastes ran just a little differently, it would easily be green--the finely chopped meat and the Sysco slaw really are the only caveats.)

Scooter's Barbecue

Scooter's Barbecue was once located at Poplar and Kirby, in the location that's presently occupied by Mosa, and which was formerly a KFC. They didn't last long in that location, though based on memories of my one visit years ago it wasn't due to lack of quality in the food as much as the fact that you couldn't see them from the road.

They've rectified the "seeing them from the road" problem in their new location in Southaven, by slapping their sign on a Greyhound bus that they keep parked out front. I assume that's for their catering business, and probably how they manage to get around any sign ordinances.

The food isn't as good as I remembered it--when I visited them in their old home, I'd had the rip tips, which were pretty good. The sandwich I had on this visit was overflowing with meat that had been nicely smoked, perhaps a little dry, but it was difficult to determine that because it was drenched in a cloyingly sweet sauce that pretty much overwhelmed anything else on the sandwich. The slaw and sides (potato salad and baked beans) were similarly unremarkable; they could have easily come straight outta Sysco.

All things being equal, it's probably worth checking out the ribs, chicken, or other items on the menu, or asking them to go easy on the sauce, because it looks like there's a decent sandwich hiding in there somewhere, but at the default settings it needs a little help to rank with some of the other places around town. That said, if you have no great love for Interstate (which has a location one exit up or down, depending on how you're coming) or Tops (same exit as Interstate, but closer to the highway), or if you're in the mood for ribs or chicken, Scooter's may be the way to go.

Scooter's Barbecue
7065 Airways Blvd
Southaven, MS
662-349-4920

Barbecue Factory

Hey! Someplace new!

My visit the The Barbecue Factory was notable for the fact that they locked the door behind me, because they didn't have enough money in the register to make change. Fortunately, I had correct change available, but they'll have to work out those kinks if they're gonna be successful. Also, having to repeat my order (hot regular sandwich--not particularly complicated) four times could use work, but I understand the manager (I guess) was distracted by the lack of change. The place was clean, well-lit, but a little chaotic--don't know how long they've been open.

The sandwich itself was tender and flavorful, although not particularly smoky (there was a small bit of visible pink in the meat). The hot sauce was milder than several others in town, but had a bit of a bite to it. Their wall menu has ribs, rib tips, etc, which appear to be cooked in a cast iron pit behind the counter, but they didn't have a visible carry-out menu.

All in all, a well-done assembly of pork, slaw, and bread, but when you have to have someone come let you out, you have second thoughts about a second visit. I'll give it another go soon, however, hopefully they'll have the kinks worked out.

Barbecue Factory
3711 Lamar Ave
Memphis, TN 38118
(901) 797-8195

Closings!

I haven't been to visit anything new in the past couple of months (lousy diet), but I wanted to update the map to indicate that Memphis Smokehouse on Stage has definitely closed, and Bynum's Barbecue on Airways (which I never got to visit) has been shuttered at lunchtime each time I've passed it in the past couple of weeks. Uncle Sam's Barbecue inside Rangemasters off of Kirby Whitten @ Summer (which was arguably the most entertaining barbecue in town) is listed as closed on its website, but mentions a catering business to be announced in the future.

The economy's taking its victims, although some of these are probably as much victims of poor location and poor marketing as a downturn in the stock market.

Barbecue was born out of poverty, taking the difficult cuts of the pig and--with the proper application of heat, time, smoke, and spice--turning it into something delicious. In theory, it ought to thrive during a recession, assuming you're not in the mood to charge $9 for a $3 sandwich.

In the hopes that better times might bring these places back (Dan's Barbecue on Austin Peay has re-opened as something else I can't recall at the moment Wild Wes'), I'm temporarily changing the colors for shuttered places to purple rather than immediately taking 'em off the map.

A&R Downtown

Based on news from Paul Ryburn, I've gone ahead and added A&R Barbecue downtown, in the former Roma Pizza location. Rumor has it that they'll sell beer, but no news about fried pies (the location in Bartlett told me they didn't carry them there the last time I visited, some two years ago. Which is why my last visit was two years ago.)

Barbecue Feed.

Occasionally I check out the map to see if I've had a sudden influx of new folks discover it, or if there's been another comment--today I discovered that my map entries now have an RSS feed (clicking that link will bring you to a page of goobledegook if you don't have any familiarity with RSS feeds, by the way. It's not broken). In theory, this means that you can subscribe to the feed, and when I add a new restaurant (probably) or new information about an old restaurant (possibly) you'll automatically get an item in your reader. I'll be running a couple of tests to see how it works, so if you subscribe to my map (which I encourage. Map subscribers = publicity = comments = better, more interesting map = book deal = groupies), you might get some strange items as I try things out.

Does anyone know how long the RSS feed has been available? Has it been there for eons, and I just missed it up until now?

Reese's Barbecue

I probably ought to apologize; I don't get to update this as often as I'd like to simply because of the logistics of visiting every barbecue restaurant in Memphis. One of the difficult parts of this undertaking is that my fifteen-minute lunch radius is a finite area, and lots of barbecue places in Memphis are only open for lunch owing to unprofitable dinner crowds and less-than-savory neighborhoods.

Not so with Reese's barbecue, which is open until 9 most days (not Sunday), but is fortunately right on the edge of my lunch amoeba--areas accessible by interstate form the pseudopods. Now that I've put "amoeba" and "lunch" in the same sentence (TWICE!) and ruined appetites in the process, let's talk about Reese's.

Reese's boasted a pretty good crowd when I walked into it; a lot of construction workers, a couple of cops. I entered the building with a group of similarly-dressed guys, who ordered the same thing as I did, so the lady behind the counter assumed we were together--which (coupled with a security guard coming in to chit-chat for a few minutes) meant that we all got our food simultaneously, a little slower than I would have liked, but not terrible.

The sandwich isn't smoky; I presume the shoulder is roasted as there was no telltale pinkness in the meat and no noticeable smoke flavor. The sauce is both sweeter and spicier (for a mild sauce) than most. The slaw is ordinary, the bun toasted. All in all it's a good sandwich, but indistinguishable from lots of other good sandwiches in town. Beans looked to be cooked in-house and were tasty, fries were nothing special. The menu boasted a wide variety of other barbecue and non-barbecue options--plate lunches, burgers (which looked very good, incidentally), a variety of other sides. Worth a visit if you're in the neighborhood, or if it's somewhere within the perimeter of your lunch amoeba.

Reese's Bar-BQ
4606 Winchester Rd
Memphis, TN 38118
(901) 366-1497