BBQ tour of the US South – Part Nine – Gulf Coast

Here is the ninth installment of our BBQ tour of the US South. The first one covered Louisiana and Texas. The second post covered Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The third covered North Carolina and eastern Virginia. The fourth part covered western Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia (by way of Vermont). The fifth covered Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia. The sixth covered Alabama and Mississippi. The seventh one comes home to New Orleans. This is a very unscientific sampling taken from doing a search on the likely places we might stop for a meal. We consulted the Southern BBQ Trail and Our State Magazine (NC), as well as doing simple searches. The research is just beginning. The eight BBQ post covered our travels in June 2015 in North Carolina, Alabama, and goes north to Brooklyn, NY.

This post covers our recent drive from New Orleans to Key West and back.  Ths first stop was Dick Russell’s. It opened in 1954 and it will be included in a newly created hall of fame to honor Alabama's love of barbecue. The Alabama Barbecue Hall of Fame will include 29 restaurants in Alabama that have been open for at least 50 years. We had a combo platter with ribs, brisket, chicken and they were quite tasty. It is located at 5360 US-90, Mobile, AL 36619.

   

We next stopped at Jim's Bar-B-Que on our way to Miami.  It was part of a gas station but had gotten good reviews. We had some excellent ribs and brisket with corn and cole slaw. Highly recommended if you are in the area and looking for a good meal. It is located at 424 W Hwy 318, Reddick, FL 32686

   

On the way back we stooped in central Florida at one of many Sonny’s BBQ locations. We had a nice combo with ribs, chicken, and brisket. The fried okra was excellent and the fired onions rings we good but not great. It was a nice offering for a chain and certainly a big notch over the other chains along the interstate.

 

On our final leg we stopped at the Shed Barbeque & Blues Joint near Ocean Springs MS. We have been before and it has been consistently good. We had a multi-meat sampler that did not disappoint. It is located at 7501 Hwy 57 (228) 875-959. They have live blues music on the weekends. 

Comments

[Mal W]

Bill - You are doing us all a great service with your BBQ reviews. I looked back at #3, and was only sorry that you did not get further East into NC (Wilson - Parkers, Kinston - Kings) which are really the mark for Eastern NC pulled pork. I look forward to trying some of the places you mentioned in this post when I get a bid deeper into the South.

Now living in Durham, NC (pronounced Durm, thank you)during the winter. Hope NO is still good for you. Happy Holidays! Mal

[Bill Ives]

Mal - Nice to hear from you. Hope you are doing well. Look at number 8 as it covers a bit of Eastern NC at Greenville and Ayden, as well as some great ribs in SC.