As I've said in previous posts about the cuisine in Indianapolis, the area doesn't really have a culinary claim to fame like Kansas City barbecue, Omaha steaks or Chicago pizza. Actually, Indianapolis cuisine is a melting pot of good to above average restaurants where only a handful of places stick out. Barbecue isn't one of the things that immediately jumps into mind when I think of eating out in Indianapolis. But one of my dealers in Indy suggested I had to give Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q a try at some point.
Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q began 1999 when Rich Allen, a transplanted Texan, decided to start a catering company specializing in barbecue, much like the type of barbecue he was raised on in eastern Texas. The catering business went over tremendously and a couple years later Rich opened his first restaurant in Noblesville. He then opened a second location in Indianapolis (see map). Just recently, Allen moved Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q to a new location in Noblesville (see map). That was the location I went to on a rain swept Indiana night last fall.
The decor of Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q was reminiscent of an old style Texas roadhouse, lots of wood and a lot of pictures and memorabilia on the walls. The place was less than half full around 8:30 when I got in there. I was seated by a hostess who handed me a menu while I waited for my waitress to come over.
First - a side story to tell you...
Earlier this fall, a Texas-based chain of barbecue joints - Dickey's Barbecue - opened a location here in the Quad Cities (look for an upcoming entry on Dickey's in the future). My long-distant, yet local friend, Burt Gearhart, used to eat at Dickey's when he lived in Texas for a number of years. He called said of the opening that "heaven had come to the Quad Cities." I went to their web site to check the place out and I was appalled to see that they had no beer. How can you be a barbecue joint and not have beer? Or, at the very least, have a "Bring-Your-Own-Beer" policy. Burt told me that while they didn't show it on their on-line menu, rest assured that Dickey's did have beer.
Now, back to Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q. My waitress came around and asked if I'd like anything to drink while I looked at the menu. I said, "Boy, I'd love a cold beer. What do you have?"
She sort of stopped and said, "I'm sorry, but we don't have beer, sir."
I about came unglued. "No beer," I exclaimed in a retort. "What kind of barbecue place doesn't have beer?"
She explained that they hadn't secured their liquor license from the city of Noblesville as of yet. "We hope to get that sometime by the end of the month."
She then said, "Our Indianapolis location has beer."
I sort of looked at her and said, "But we aren't at the Indianapolis location." I can be such a penis-head sometimes.
I then asked, "How long you guys been open here?"
She said, "Well, we just opened last Thursday."
I said, "Thursday? Really?"
She said, "Yeah, but we moved from another location to this one. I guess the city council is dragging their feet on getting us our liquor license."
I said, "OK, that's fine. I'll just get a Coke."
It was obvious that she'd been asked about the beer situation.
Barbecue rules the menu at Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q. But they also offer burgers, steaks, appetizers and salads. I got to looking over some of the barbecue combinations. They had the Texas Two-Step and the Trio - you got four rib bones and your choice of either two (for the Two-Step) or three (for the Trio) different smoked meats. Dick's had pulled pork, brisket, sausage, chicken, turkey or ham to choose from. I took the Texas Two-Step with the ribs, pulled pork and brisket. Along with that, you got a choice of two of the 14 different side dishes Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q has to offer. I took the jalapeno ranch beans and the baked beans. I sort of wondered what the difference was between baked beans and the ranch beans.
I waited about 15 minutes before my food was brought out to me. The ribs were nice and meaty. And the portions of pulled pork and brisket were very generous. There was a difference between the baked beans and the ranch beans - the ranch beans are what I would call baked beans, while Dick's baked beans would be called "warmed up beans out of a can".
What I didn't care for, however, was Dick's chintzy nature when it comes to their barbecue sauce. She brought out two small containers of sauce - one their mild sauce and the other their spicy sauce. Now, I like a LOT of barbecue sauce on my meat. Plus I like to add it to my baked beans. And believe me, Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q's baked beans needed the help.
I asked for some more sauce and she brought out two more small containers. They were the size that some restaurants will give you for salad dressing. I wasn't happy with that at all. It's not fun when you have to be judicious with your barbecue sauce.
Still, the sauce wasn't bad. Their mild sauce was sort of a sweet-vinegar blend, while their spicy was - well, it was spicy! It was pretty good. It really zipped up the baked beans, which needed a lot of zippyness.
The jalapeno ranch beans were pretty good, as well. I added some of the mild sauce to the ranch beans and that helped them, too. I definitely liked the ranch beans more than the baked beans.
The brisket was very good. Nice big slices of smoked beef with a nice hickory flavor to them. And the pulled pork was also very good. It was very lean with little to no fat like you find in some other barbecue joint's pulled pork.
With tip, my bill came to a little over $24 bucks. I gave her an extra couple dollars above and beyond my normal tip for being such a dick to her when we were sparing over the beer issue. All in all, Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q was good, definitely not the best I've ever had, but it was above average. Even without the beer, Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q was worth the stop.
(Update February 2012 - The Noblesville location for Dick's Bodacious BBQ has closed and the only one that is still open is their downtown Indianapolis location.)
Comments