In St. Louis recently, I was in the mood for some barbecue and I decided to seek out a place that I'd read about a couple years ago that was getting a bit of a following in the area. I ended up heading over to Smoking Barrels BBQ which was located in the Princeton Heights neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis.
Usually, the back story of a barbecue restaurant usually centers around a team of weekend competitive barbecue aficionados who are convinced to open their own place. Or maybe the guy behind the restaurant learned how to barbecue from his grandfather who had an old smoker in his backyard. Well, the story behind Smoking Barrels is far from that.
Dennis Machado grew up in poverty in his native country of Honduras. His father passed away when Machado was a young boy and he was forced to find work to help his widowed mother raise his seven other siblings. As a teenager, Machado literally walked into the United States to find work north of the border.
He ended up in St. Louis and opened a short lived Mexican restaurant along Cherokee Street. After that closed down in the mid-90's, Machado found work in the kitchen of a new barbecue place on the far south side of St. Louis - Bandana's. He found that working in a barbecue joint was much more to his liking. He worked at Bandana's for 17 years getting enough money saved up to send for some of his brothers to join him in the U.S. and to build a house for his mother in Honduras.
17 years on the job at Bandana's taught Dennis Machado the art of smoking meats. Along with his friend Fernando Ordonez, they decided to open their own barbecue place in St. Louis' South City. They found a place on the corner of S. Kingshighway and Milentz Ave. in Princeton Heights that had been a number of restaurants, most recently - and somewhat ironically - a Mexican restaurant. They opened Smoking Barrels BBQ in late March of 2013.
It was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel to Smoking Barrels BBQ. I found a parking spot on Milentz Ave. next to the restaurant. (see map) Behind the restaurant was a large smoker and up front near the street was a smaller smoker on a trailer with a wood-covered top and a family of pig statues peering out to the cars traveling along S. Kingshighway.
Inside the restaurant, I found a chair at a four-seater table in the middle of the restaurant. The place wasn't all that big, but the tables were spread out enough that you didn't feel like someone was sitting in your lap at the next table. There was a small bar area toward the back of the restaurant. Smoking Barrels BBQ was well lit with industrial lights hanging from the ceiling.
I was greeted by my server - Dylan - who dropped off a menu for me to look through. I ordered up a beer - a Budweiser, of course - to have while I looked to see what I was going to get that evening. Smoking Barrels has ribs, pulled pork, brisket, smoked chicken, smoked turkey, and smoked sausage for their barbecue items. They feature many of their meats in sandwiches and they also have a number of "barrel" specials on the menu for family or group dining, or for those with a ravenous appetite.
I ended up getting the three meat combo plate - chopped pork, sliced brisket, and ribs. For my sides I got baked beans and battered French fries. Grilled garlic bread also came with the meal. There was a lot of food on my plate.
The chopped pork was moist and tender, but sort of bland in taste. The sauces - a Midwest sweet and smoky sauce and their Texas spicy sauce that wasn't all that spicy and was rather thin and runny - helped the taste of the pulled pork a bit. The brisket, on the other hand, was very good. The beef was tender and had a nice smoky taste to the meat. The ribs were probably the best part of the meal - they were meaty with a sweet glaze on the outer bark of the meat. The pork pulled away easily from the bone and it was moist and far from overcooked.
I sort of liked the battered fries - they had a crispy outer shell and a nice flaky inside. I enjoyed dipping them in a combination of the sweet and spicy sauces. The baked beans I would call "church lady" beans - they were sort of sweet and runny, the kind that I remember getting at church pot lucks when I was a kid. I did add some spicy sauce to zip them up a bit, but they were still sort of what I call unoffensive.
Smoking Barrels BBQ was good - maybe not the best I've had in St. Louis - but still good enough to be put into the conversation about the better place in the city. The ribs were meaty and cooked perfectly with the meat easily falling away from the bone. The brisket was also very good with a great smoky taste to the meat. The pulled pork was a little bland, but the sauces Smoking Barrels provides helped with the overall taste. The service I received that evening was prompt and efficient, and my server also had a good sense of humor. I'd have to say the barbecue I had at Smoking Barrels BBQ was enjoyable and satisfying.
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