Wednesday, June 2, 2010

James Brown Backroom BBQ


DALLAS: James Brown Backroom BBQ at the Dallasite
4822 Bryan Street

Dallas, TX 75204

214-826-3670

Open M-Sat 10-2am, Sun 12-2am

www.dallasiteclub.com


Update: This joint is CLOSED. The Dallasite is still there, but no BBQ is coming out of the back room.

2010: Potential is so fleeting. On my first trip to the Dallasite, the 'cue showed so much promise, but on this follow-up visit, the meat was dull, and covered in a thick, sweet sauce.



You'll notice in the photo that the three meats are visibly indistinguishable, and they were about the same on the palate. The pulled pork was the best meat, and went well with the sauce. It's flavor barely stood up to the sauce, but it was tender and moist. The ribs were simply mush. They fell from the bone, and had very little flavor on their own. Brisket was the worst with a chewy texture, and absolutely no flavor that could stand up to that sweet sauce. Potato salad tasted like it was straight from the Sysco truck, and the beans were plain and flavorless. So much for potential.

Rating **

02/2009: I just heard about this joint from a few sources (thanks Nancy and Reid) and was so excited to try it, I headed over after having lunch with my wife. When I told her about the place she reminded me that I had announced a month-long BBQ hiatus to her only a few days before. As I parked the car next to the fuming barrel smoker in the parking lot, I heard a voice from the street. She had followed me just to humorously chastise me, but I had to try it.



The Dallasite took over this former Asian pool hall caddy corner from Jimmy's after their former building on Ross was leveled. This is primarily a bar and their food offerings include a number of bar food favorites, but the back of the paper menu is full of their new BBQ offerings. I went with the rib sandwich and the sliced beef sandwich.



Both sandwiches were packed with meat. There were six good sized ribs on two slices of white bread. Although a thick bark had not developed, the ribs were smokey. They were lacking some flavor due to very little seasoning, but the ribs were well cooked, and needed just a tug to release from the bone. Brisket slices were piled high on a grilled bun, but all fat had been trimmed away. What remained was a well formed crust and a nice smoke ring. Bites away from the crust lacked the intense smokiness, and the slices were a bit dry, but the overall flavor was good. These boys have just set things up here, and they're off to a good start. I'll stop by again after they've been around for a few weeks.

Dallasite on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tried this place tonight. It was great, with a lot of BBQ for the dollar. The brisket was excellent; the pulled pork a bit less flavorful than I would like. The sausage (not hot link) was great. I'm willing to go back.

Rich Fueller said...

My girlfriend and I went after reading your initial review and it was probably the best bbq we'd ever had. We went back again the other day, and no more bbq. Your second experience may have been so bad because no one was buying the bbq. Since you can't really make just a little bbq at a time, I'm sure a lot of that stuff was sitting around in coolers for way too long. Such a shame. Please email me if you get a chance, we really want to find THE best place in Dallas for bbq. richfueller@gmail.com. i'll dig around your blog for the answer to that question.

DISCLAIMER:

Each joint is judged on the essence of Texas 'cue...sliced brisket and pork ribs. Sausage is only considered if house made. Sauce is good, but good meat needs no adornment to satisfy. Each review can only be based on specific cuts of meat on that particular day. Finally, if the place fries up catfish or serves a caesar salad, then chances are they aren't paying enough attention to the pits, so we mostly steered clear.

-THE PROPHETS OF SMOKED MEAT