It has been well documented that I’m no lady. And neither are my friends. We’re girlie in the sense we still cry at The Notebook and some times only chocolate will do. But when it comes to good BBQ and food in general all bets are off that we won’t end up with BBQ sauce all over our faces.
Last year, I attended Grillstock with friends, a local weekend BBQ festival with live music, eating competitions and most importantly MEAT!!! Casing point the picture below, maybe I should make this my dating profile picture?!? We ate BBQ from around the UK and some international competition cooks too. So I was very happy when I heard Grillstock would be opening a stall at St Nick’s Market in Bristol. 18hr smoked pulled pork called to me, it’s a weakness of mine, I love me some pulled pork.
Then the even better news came through. Grillstock was opening a restaurant in Clifton, say what?!? An American smokehouse right here in Bristol- bring it on. Armed with two trusty meaty lover friends we set off to eat a lot of meat. Vegetarians look away now. Sat on one long wooden bench with blues and the sounds of The Deep South of America oozing out, we set to the important task of ordering. I love my friends, we’re sharers, greedy sharers that don’t want to just try one dish but three. Ordering three different plates and some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale’s, we waited for our feasts.
Tash went for the Beef Brisket plate. All plates came with ‘slaw, cornbread, fries and some hot link sausages. That’s right your meat plate comes with more meat. The brisket was meltingly tender and just fell apart, with a deep smokey note from the BBQ. Transported me straight back to Texas and a rodeo I went to with mountains of dry rub brisket and where there was a Cowboy Monkey rounding up sheep, but that’s another random story for another day. …
Nick went for the Pulled Pork. I love love LOVE pulled pork. And this beauty didn’t disappoint. Juicy, tender, flavoursome pork which was helped along with us putting lashings of the oaky and smokey sauce on top. The fries weren’t any plain kind of fries you just get anywhere, oh no they weren’t. They weren’t just a last passing thought to be chucked on to the plate with the marvellous meat but had this sexy seasoning of a touch of garlic and herbs making them highly addictive and reducing the pile to mere rumble in a few short minutes.
And for me personally I picked the best plate, the full Baby Back Ribs. Wow. Sticky, juicy, tender, gnaw every scrap of flesh off the bones and plough on to the next one goodness. The brilliant sides didn’t get a look in until all the ribs had been tackled and licked clean. To say I had well over my fair share is an understatement. I might of got a little overwhelmed at one stage and was found just staring at the meat.
The crunchy, cream ‘slaw was a welcomed break which they allowed me to attack the ribs with a renewed vim and vigour. The hot sausage links, were a nice little spicy nuggets to the plates. For me the weakness part was the cornbread, a tad sweet, could of done with a kick of chilli and some sharp cheddar but nice none the less. All the food is really reasonable for the amount you get. In fact I’m heading back there tomorrow for round two.
As we were leaving three women were researching American food for a theatre group and had ordered one of everything to try out. My new heroes. They had the one and only Lockjaw Burger – two burger patties, pulled pork, brisket and burnt ends with fries and slaw for the grand price of £14.50! Insane. They were working through it like a true champion. I think Bro FoodNerd needs to step up to the plate literally for this beast burger.
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