One evening when I was in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago last winter, I passed a barbecue place that I'd never known about, a place called JD's Q and Brew. I turned around and went back to get something to eat, but found that they had closed for the evening at 8 p.m. (winter hours). I made a mental note to go back there at some point and I had the chance to do so earlier this summer.
The two men behind JD's Q and Brew are cousins Peter Veremis and Thanos "Tom" Grigorio. Veremis and Grigorio both have extensive backgrounds in barbecue - Veremis has been in the restaurant business for over 25 years and ran a barbecue place in Calumet City on Chicago's far south side before opening JD's in the fall of 2012. He brought in Grigorio because of his extensive knowledge around a barbecue place - over 30 years of expertise.
Veremis wanted a place that also had an extensive selection of beers. A restaurant consultant told him to keep the beer menu to a minimum, but Veremis dismissed the advice and went with a large number of bottled beers from craft breweries around the Midwest and beyond. The beer menu at JD's features over 100 different beers to choose from.
JD's Q and Brew is located on Rand Rd. in Arlington Heights, just north and west of Palatine Rd. (see map) I had just come from a dealer in the area and decided to grab some lunch at JD's around 1:30 one afternoon. The dining area was spacious with a number of tables and chairs in the middle with comfy booths along two walls.
The menu is located on a board behind the front counter where you order. They serve all the regular barbecue items at JD's - ribs, pulled pork, brisket, chicken and turkey. Sandwiches include pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwiches, a smoked turkey breast sandwich, and smoked Cajun sausage. They also feature hamburgers, shrimp, grilled tilapia, and beer battered cod on the menu.
Having such a large selection of beers can be troublesome for a restaurant - just as the restaurant consultant told Peter Veremis when he opened for business about three years ago. I ordered a Lagunitas IPA that they had on tap, but the first taste told me that the keg had turned flat. I took it back to the counter and the young lady had a manager come over to try the beer. He poured some from the tap into a glass and took a swig. "Yep! That's gone flat," he pronounced.
From there, I had to pick another beer. I looked through the beer menu that they had and saw that they had the Three Floyd's Dreadnaught IPA in a bottle. Well, it's turned out that no, they didn't have that particular beer in stock. I was trying to find something else to have and I noticed in the glass doored cooler that they had the Lagunitas IPA in a bottle. After some confusion with the girl taking my order as to whether I could actually change from a Lagunitas draft to a Lagunitas bottle, I ended up getting one of those. It was a bit of a hassle, but at least I got a beer.
I ordered the brisket and burnt ends combo platter and got baked beans and onion straws for sides. I hadn't sat down for anymore than three minutes before they brought my plate out to me. The first thing I noticed was that the onion straws - plenty on my plate - were woefully burnt and I found them to be inedible. That was a bummer because I really like onion straws. Frankly, I'm surprised the person back in the kitchen even let these get put onto a plate with the other food. (Click on the picture to get a closer look. Some of the onion straws appear to be black from overcooking.)
I've never been big on burnt ends, but I've sort of grown to like them on a couple recent trips to a couple of my favorite barbecue places in Kansas City. The burnt ends at JD's Q and Brew were tender and tasty. I added some of their chipotle sauce to give it a little kick in taste. The chipotle sauce had a nice smoked pepper flavor to it, but it wasn't all that spicy in taste. The regular house sauce was actually sort of bland and lifeless.
The brisket was also moist and tender, easily cut with a fork. It had a nice smoke ring on the outer edge and was good without any sauce added. I'm a sauce guy with my barbecue and while the chipotle sauce was fine, it wasn't anything that jumped out and made me go "Wow!"
The baked beans had chunks of bacon and pork in them. They were all right - sort of bland in taste. I added some of the regular house sauce that did nothing to add to the bland taste. Adding some of the chipotle sauce only made them marginally better.
The confusion with the server on the beer choice after the draft beer I'd ordered turned out to be flat, the overcooked onion straws and the simple barbecue sauces sort of put a damper on the overall meal at JD's Q and Brew. The interior and exterior were very nice and inviting. The brisket was all right, as were the burnt ends. The barbecue at JD's was average - at best - and I don't think I'd go out of my way to go have barbecue there again.
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