Greenville is trying to get into the BBQ game, and Home Team BBQ is the latest to come to town. Opening up just down the street from Moe's Original BBQ, Stone Ave/Laurens Rd is going to need to be repaved from all of the traffic from me alone.
Home Team started down in Charleston and has quickly expanded throughout the state, so it's a name I am very familiar with ... and that name is linked to good BBQ.
The Greenville location opened up about 2 weeks ago and I've already been twice (once without my wife to her displeasure, but she's paying me back by going without me tonight).
It looks like this is going to be a cool area with Home Team and a local brewery next door. The parking lot is already too small for the amount of people that's going to be here. I don't know if there's plans to expand it, but it gets completely packed with the current crowd just for Home Team, it'll be an even bigger nightmare once the brewery opens up.
We walked in and were told that there was an hour wait, but we were committed. We went up to the bar to grab a drink and a couple stood up, so we swooped in and sat down. Immediately we noticed everybody ordering these frozen slushy looking drinks but had no clue what they were. We ended up asking one of the bartenders and she said it was their "Gamechanger" and brought us two samples. I wasn't a huge fan of the coffee one, not a big surprise since I hate coffee, but D loved it and the orange one was amazing. It would be awesome to have while sitting out by the pool on one of these upcoming hot Southern Summer days.
D ordered the pulled chicken sandwich, and said it was one of the best she's ever had. She even said it was better than my pulled pork. Honestly, it was pretty dang good.
We both got the baked beans, because they were out of mac n cheese, and right now, I can't think of better baked beans in Greenville. They're about 50/50 beans to meat. They should be called "BBQ soup".
Obviously since I just said it, I had the pulled pork, and thought it was a home run. I added the spicy and red sauce. The spicy is a mustard base, I know, I know "but that's what South Carolina BBQ is known for." Yeah, and I still don't like it. It really isn't an over powering mustard, but every now and then you just get that mustard hint and, I'm just not a fan. The red sauce is really good, and don't worry, I cleaned the plate.
I couldn't leave my first visit to just one single thing, so I also ordered one of the jalapeno cheddar sausage links. We were fighting over who got how much of it. This thing is good.
With our first visit a success, I was meeting a coworker a few days later to prospect around town, so I told him to meet me for lunch. He's originally from NY and said he only gets good BBQ when he goes with me.
I got there a little early and ordered the tater tots, because I was absolutely starving. Greenville has an unspoken tot battle going on, and Home Team definitely has a place in that fight. Most BBQ restaurants will put their rub on them, which is delicious, but Home Team has some type of herb mix that they use.
For round 2 I had to try their ribs, and they had mac n cheese this time so that was a must.
I'm just going to rip the bandaid off ... the ribs fell short. The first issue was, they didn't remove the membrane. Some restaurants do, some don't because it takes some time to pull it off. It's just a pain trying to eat around it. Then they were tough. I'm not really sure if they were cooked at a higher temp or what. They were a little more "fall off the bone" in some areas, which usually means over-cooked, but tough in others, which is typical for under-cooked. Maybe the different cuts came from different racks. I'm not sure, but they just weren't a hit. I'll try them again. It could have been a bad rack or bad cook. Sometimes that happens.
Now the mac n cheese. My only complaint is that all I get is that little bitty container of it. I need a Thanksgiving at Grandma's portion where it's 50% of my plate, and then I go back for seconds and it's just another plate of mac n cheese. Yes, it's that good.
The location is awesome, the environment is awesome, the people are awesome, the drinks are awesome, and the food, for the most part, is awesome. We're definitely going to have a debate in the future when we're out and want some BBQ.
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