Review: Home Team BBQ - Greenville, SC

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.

Review: Moe's Original BBQ, Greenville, SC

We were on our way to see the house and wanted to try something different for lunch. We were on our way to a new pizza restaurant, but when we pulled up and saw Moe's Original BBQ a few doors down, we changed course.

It looks like Moe's is a bit of a chain at this point, but it looks like they're doing it the right way. Obviously I don't know their business model, but it looks like they've grown organically through Alabama and are now expanding to other states.

We ordered and went out and sat on the patio while they prepared our trays, and on the way out Dawn says, "If it's half as good as it smells then I can't wait."

Well, it was all as good as it smelled.

She ordered the Smoked Turkey sandwich with Cheese Grits and Banana Pudding. Yes, they have Banana Pudding as a side. The Smoked Turkey was some of the best either of us have ever had (minus mine for Thanksgiving). I didn't try the sauce (they're Alabama based so they use white sauce too), but Dawn said it was really good. The cheese grits were great, but be honest, nobody cares about the cheese grits. The banana pudding ended up being dessert, and I can't confirm that it was good, but she licked the inside of the cup.

I did the Pulled Pork sandwich with baked beans and mac and cheese. I mean, if you're going to claim to be a legit BBQ restaurant you have to be able to make those 3 things pretty good.

Their red sauce is a vinegar base, and that for me can get dangerous. It's a hit or miss. Moe's red sauce is a hit. You get just enough to taste the vinegar, but it's not swimming in sauce so much your mouth dries out. Baked beans are the same for me. You can either have terrible beans, yeah ok these are baked beans, or some that make you keep going back. I'm not a huge bean fan, but I actually went back for more once I cleaned the rest of my tray and was borderline stuffed. The mac and cheese I could have eaten an entire meal of. It's one of the top mac and cheeses in the upstate I would say. There's really nothing "special" about it, but dang it's just good.

With it being in the location that it is, and they have outdoor seating so we can take Rhett, this may now be our go-to BBQ restaurant in Greenville.

Review: Monkey Wrench Smokehouse, Travelers Rest, SC

We finally made it out to the local Craft Axe Throwing (insanely fun) place for my birthday, and afterwards decided to head into TR (pronounced "Tee" "Arah") for dinner. I kept hearing mixed reviews from friends and family, but figured it was time to try out Monkey Wrench Smokehouse.

We went with some friends, so we decided to do this community style. The girls split the smoked BBQ potato, and both really liked it. I mean, what's not to like about a smoked potato with all of the fixings and BBQ inside?

The guys got The Smokehouse, which is their super combo plate. It comes with pulled pork, brisket, half rack of ribs, wings, sausage, cornbread, and chose to go with the mac 'n' cheese, hushpuppies, and potato salad for our 3 sides. 

The only way to really review this honking display of food is to go one by one, so starting bottom left and making our way around ... 

Brisket - The rub is really good, and the flavor on the outside with the smoke was good. It was cooked way over though, and even being cut nearly a 1/4 inch thick (maybe wider), it still just fell a part. The inside just tasted like roast beef. Brisket is supposed to be cut in slices, not slabs.

Pulled Pork - Flavor and texture on the pork was really good.

Ribs - These were actually cooked extremely close to accurate temp. They were a hair over. Still held together, but fell off a little more than "nailed it" (we're talking about 15 minutes). My biggest issue with them is they were just absolutely caked in sauce. Usually the sauce, if added, is added towards the end of the cook so it'll hold to the meat, but these were just dripping. 15 years ago, I would have rolled around in these.

Wings - The wings were delicious. They could add more of the seasoning/rub to them, but it's smoked wings and that's always a good thing.

Hot Link Sausage - If I said it was overcooked, it would be an extreme understatement. This thing looked and tasted like it'd been cooked about 5 times. I don't know if this isn't a big seller for them, so maybe it's stuck around for a while, but absolutely obliterated. It reminded me of the turkey from Christmas Vacation.

Cornbread - It wasn't complete opposite of the sausage, but it could have stayed in the oven another couple of minutes. There were pieces just a hair under.

Potato Salad - I don't eat it, so I don't have a clue. I believe the others liked it though.

Hushpuppies - You can see from the picture, they were overdone as well. They weren't loaded down with onions like some places do, so they were still good.

Mac 'n' Cheese - A little on the greasy side, but good. Mac 'n' cheese is one of those, it's hard to make bad, but it's hard to blow your mind (unless you make mine).

So that was our experience. Some good, some bad, a whole lot of inconsistencies with cook times. I think the flavor of the food over all was pretty good, but take brisket off the menu if you're going to cut it that thick (before someone from Texas comes in and laughs at SC), and just tweak everything else.

I feel like I'm being a little more critical and harsh here than I usually am, but my home town has been a small town my whole life and is trying to turn into a "foody" spot with numerous new modern restaurants opening the last few years. Even before this recent development took place, it desperately needed and deserved a good BBQ restaurant. Monkey Wrench is going to be successful because of their location, it's a fun little area, you can enjoy a cold beer and entertainment outside, and the food is good enough. Is it the BBQ joint to bring people to and remember TR for? I don't believe so.

Went To See The Show Me State - KC, COMO, & St. Louis

The wife and I have talked about going to at least one away South Carolina Football game a season, but when the season rolls around we ended up not. This season I looked at the schedule early and thought the Missouri game could be interesting. I flipped over to the Cardinals site and saw that they had a home series that same weekend. I presented it as we could go to KC for a couple of BBQ filled days, then check out the Carolina game, and then over to St. Louis. Surprisingly enough she said, "Ok, look to see how much flights were." The more I looked and researched for the trip I thought, "hhmmm, I wonder if the Royals have a home series." Sure enough, they did and the wife was still game.

We flew out of our home airport and connected in Chicago where when the pilot says, "they'll be 10-15 minutes of traffic." Then you realize it car traffic because you get to drive, not fly, over the interstate.

After about 4 hours of total travel time, we touched down in KC.

We got up our first day and as we walked out of the hotel on our way to breakfast we were hit by a smell. It wasn't trash. It wasn't sewage. It was a different smell. Something that I knew well. It was the smell of smokers rolling all across town, and it was a wonderful way to start the day.

Our first breakfast was at The Big Biscuit.

She ordered the Del Rio. Which came with chorizo, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, and cheddar and jack cheese. As small of a thing as it was, she was just excited mostly that the ingredients were distributed evenly, and not here's a bunch of goodies and now here's a bunch of plain egg. When she wasn't going on about that. She was just singing, "I love chorizo."

The biscuit was perfectly flaky and everything you'd imagine a biscuit to be from a place called "The Big Biscuit." Well, I guess theoretically, it could have been bigger.

I decided to go for the heart attack on a plate and order the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.

I'm really not a big sugar sweet guy, but dang this was absolutely amazing. The caramelized brown sugar gave it a little bit of a crunch which made me think, "You know what would make this better? Pecans!"

The pecans added even more crunch and just took it to another level. I wish they were also covered in brown sugar, but oh well, it was just one dish in my life.

After breakfast we went to the National World War I Monument and Museum, aka Liberty Memorial. The story behind the memorial is actually really neat. Apparently, a local group got together and decided that they wanted to raise money and build a monument in honor of the soldiers from Missouri that fought in the war. Next thing they knew, they raised $2.5 million, the opening ceremony was honored with the President and the presidents of our allies, and it turned into the national museum. Talk about over shooting your target just a bit.

The museum is awesome. It's slap full goodies including medals, posters, information, uniforms, guns, cannons, planes, trucks, and motorcycles. You name is, this place has it. We were also fortunate enough that some lady also taking the tour was a huge WWI buff and knew everything about every piece in the place. I'm talking she knew the guns, cannons, and walked up to a hat and knew exactly which country the hat belong to and why they wore it versus a helmet. Ok, so we creeped around her and her friends so we could learn more.

Outside of the memorial is just as amazing as inside. From the back, you get a great view of Union Station and downtown.

I went up the monument, and from there you can see to the end of the Earth. I'm not sure if it was designed that way or not, but the front lawn resembles the National Mall in Washington D.C. but with grass instead of the pool.

At first it may seem odd that there would be Baseball fields in an area like this, but I swear Kansas City has 400 million Baseball fields. Seriously, I counted every single one. It's like everywhere you look, there's a group of Baseball fields. I would expect no less than some being in a sacred area such as this.

The museum also has 2 side exhibits up top, and in one was F. Earl Fowler. I have no clue if we're related, but we could be so here's his gun.

After the museum we got our first taste of Kansas City BBQ at Gates BBQ.

When you walk into Gates, you know you're in a BBQ restaurant. The aroma of smoked meat immediately hits you, and if you weren't hungry before, you are now.

I ordered the "Center Cut" ribs. They were good. Cooked very well, but wasn't mind blowing. The sauce did have a nice kick to it. Nothing crazy, but just enough so you knew some heat was there.

The real star of the show was her "Burnt Ends on a Bun". This sandwich was so good. There was so much meat that she couldn't finish it all. So, once I finished my ribs, I did. The burnt ends had a crunch on them that I could have kept eating all day long. The beans weren't anything to write home about, but your old school joints focus on the meat, not the sides.

The price was also a little stout at $33. It's nowhere close to way over priced that Blue Smoke in NYC was, but just seems a little on the higher side of things.

A new tradition of our trips has become to visit the Federal Reserves. The Federal Reserve of Kansas City also included The Money Museum.

If I could have just ... ok, all of that, please.

After the Federal Reserve we went over to Crown Center and did a little shopping and ended up going to Chips Chocolate Factory for some munchies.

I had a turtle and white fudge oreo with M&Ms on top, and both were very good.

She decided against the chocolate and instead wanted to go to Smallcakes. 

She got the "Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake". If you know my wife, then you know "peanut butter cups" are her weakness.

Our first sporting event of the trip was to see Kansas City Royals take on the Minnesota Twins.

The park was gorgeous and I really loved the openness of the stadium. There were food vendors all over the place, and it wasn't all the same options (I'm looking at you SunTrust Park).

Former Gamecock Whit Merrifield

The view from Craft & Draft up on the 3rd base line. There wasn't a bad view in the whole stadium.

Because, everybody has tacos at a Baseball game ...

While I did the BBQ Hotdog, and it was oh so good.

Leaving Kauffman Stadium was the smoothest I have ever seen of any sport venue that I've been to. Now, it was a Thursday night game, so it was far from sold out. But, the only time I wasn't moving was the few minutes it took to get out of the parking lot section that we were in. Once we got out of there, everything flowed.

Day 2 started off at Genessee Royale Bistro. While I was hungry, I was more interested in the building across the street. Just think of all of the yummy deliciousness that has past through there.

When you walk up and a place has a smoker on the side, it's always a good sign.

I ordered the biscuits and sausage gravy with a glass of orange juice. The OJ was super fresh. The gravy had an odd texture to it. It had a little grainy feel. After a few bites, I'm pretty sure it was parmesan cheese. Once I figured that out, it was actually really good.

She decided on the waffles, and said they were "very light and fluffy" and had a nice little crunch right on the outside.

From Breakfast we headed over to the KC Zoo.

Ok, I'm going to need everyone to look at the yellow white face gibbon here. He was actually sitting on the other side of the black one, and on the edge of the rock. He was kind of slouched down with his legs crossed and his arms crossed on top of them. D was going on about how "adorable" he was and blah blah blah. We turn to walk away, and as I turn back to say something to her, dude comes flying off the rock, swings across 2 vines, and then leaps through the air to attack her, but instead runs face first into the glass. I think she about peed her pants, but I almost fell in the floor laughing. Then after all that, he swings back up and acts like nothing ever happened.

Now this bobcat is just hanging out now, but just before this some little kids were bouncing all over the place and this fella came pacing through his cage and looked like he was ready for brunch.

Rock makes good pillow.

Later we get to the Cheetah exhibit. In the long open field, there was one cheetah just laying out and he looked up when some kids were walking around yelling. Well he looked right at us instead, so I waved and said hey. We continue walking and there ends up being a glass window viewing area just around the corner. We stop for a second and the next thing you know, he comes bebopping around the side and when he sees us looking he kind of picks his head up like, "Oh, hey. Um, I totally wasn't just trying to come eat you."

After the Zoo we headed over to McLain's Bakery.

We each got a cupcake and I may or may not have gotten a pecan twist and she may or may not have gotten a snickerdoodle cookie as well.

Lunch was at Kansas City BBQ royalty. The place that started it all, Arthur Bryants. Before the trip I kept hearing people say, "Don't go to Arthur Bryants. It's not that good." And just on and on. The thing is, I'm a traditionalist, so if I have the chance to one of the holy grails of BBQ ... I'm going.

She had the brisket sandwich with fries. The fries were meh. The brisket was extremely tender. As far as I could tell, the rub was just salt and pepper, but dang was it good.

We split the beans which were better than Gates, but again, nothing amazing.

Surprise, I did a combo with the pulled pork and sausage. When they gave me the tray I wasn't sure what they gave me with the pork. I asked the guy like 5 times and he goes "that is the sausage. Here!" and sliced me another piece and handed it to me. I almost fell down in the line. The pork ok. I mean, you don't go to KC for pork. You come to the Carolinas for that.

I add the Sweet Heat to the sausage for just a little extra, but it didn't need anything. This sausage sandwich is hands down the best thing I had the entire trip. It may be the best thing I've had all year. I don't know what all you nah sayers are having other places, but I can't imagine too much is better than this sausage.

After I was miserably full, we headed over to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame with the College Basketball Experience.

You got to go to different stations to see how you stack up compared to past players. Wow, my height confirms that I could be a short white guy on the court. Got it.

"You know what they say about guys with big feet don't you? They spend more for shoes." - Shaq

They had a court you should shoot on, and a bunch of "situational" interactive shooting sections.

Showing off at the free throw line. Missed the record by 2.

Throwing it down, but apparently I'm so lightening fast, the camera can't keep up.

(Note: do not compare my height on the ground to that of the goal)

Next up we checked out Westport for some drinks and looking around.

While we were there, we stepped into Westport Ice Cream Bakery

If you look past the big lick spot at the front, she had the Blueberry Gram.

Hers was really good she said, but my Cookie Monster was AMAZING! I don't tend to venture out from chocolate, but this was too good to pass up with the 4 different kinds of cookies infused. The only bad part about any of it was that the cones were bought and not made fresh.

We may or may not have also stopped at Doughnut Lounge also for some snacks for the drive to COMO on Saturday. She actually said no to the S'mores and went for the Blueberry Cake instead. So I got the S'mores. These doughnuts are super fluffy and just so good.

We changed dinner plans last minute, so I allowed the wifey to search and find a new spot. She came across McCoy's Public House. We've been eating our way through KC, so we decided to go a little lighter. She got a ceasar salad and chili.

Oh, I said we were eating light ... well, I got the Mac Daddy with blackened chicken. Pasta with 4 cheeses is probably not considered light, but it was definitely good, and that's all I cared about. I probably should have gotten the regular grilled chicken instead of the blackened, but it was still good.

Saturday started with breakfast at eggtc where I had the Spicy Italian omelet and she had the Turkey Sausage and Egg biscuits.

Before we leave Kansas City, I feel like something needs to be addressed. While I appreciate the smoother roads than we have in South Carolina. I want to know who's idea it was to use sticky notes as lane indicators? Not sure what that means? Well, just imagine driving on a 3 lane road that you're not familiar with, with no white lines to show the end of the road and the "dotted lines" aren't there. It's just these little somewhat reflective markers that seriously look like someone painted sticky notes with reflective paint and stuck them on the road. Just a plain black road with some dots here and there.

Ok, lets get back to it.

Part of the reason I was wanting to go to the Royals game was to potentially get to Whit Merrifield and have him sign a Gamecock National Championship hat. I met Jackie Bradley Jr a few years ago and had him sign it, but thought it'd be really neat if I had the guy who had the walk off hit to win our first national title and the guy that made the catch to win the second title on the same hat.

Well Saturday after breakfast and the gym, we decided to run to one more store that had closed before we could get to it the day before. As we turn down one of the roads there was a group of people just standing on the sidewalk chatting, and it hit me ... "OH MY GAH, THAT'S WHIT MERRIFIELD!" D goes "well, do you want to pull over and see if he'll sign it now?" I said no and drove on down the road. About 2 blocks later there was a parking garage, so I whipped it in real quick, hopped out of the car and then went on the search. I felt like a creeper stalking him down, but it was successful.

If you've seen any of my cooks, then you know I'm a big fan of Plowboys Yardbird Rub. It's pretty much my #1 go-to rub to use. So, I couldn't go to KC and ignore my guys, so we stopped at Plowboys restaurant on our way out to Columbia, Missouri (COMO).

She got one of the most massive BBQ baked potatoes I've ever seen. She got about half way through and tapped out.

I went for the simple pulled pork sandwich with mac and cheese. It was good, but I think I do a better job with their product (that's a challenge if you ever see this).

This smokers just chilling outside.

We made it to COMO and headed downtown for Football and a few drinks and food before the game. I look up and D is reading a book on her phone. Her answer was, "Well, you're going to be watching all the games, and I don't care about any of them." I guess she makes a good point.

It's Game Time!

This is not to talk trash or throw any jabs across the way, but I can't express how shocked I was that the Missouri crowd vanished the way they did. I understand that at that point in the game it was pretty much in the bag, but the players deserve better than this with 4 minutes to play. Crazier things have happened in College Football.

The final bell rang, and the Gamecocks took the victory 31-13.

Heading back to the car and I spotted this bad boy. Luckily for the owner I didn't have my truck, or this may have been coming back to SC.

I will also add. The Missouri fans were all very nice that we met. We met a good number at the bar, and even on our way in and out of the stadium, everyone was very nice. Good luck the rest of the season.

After the game we headed to our hotel in Warrenton which was about the halfway point between COMO and St. Louis. Sunday we got up and finished the trip on to St. Louis.

After the Arch, we headed over to Anheuser-Bush for the free tour. We actually stepped out a little early so we'd be able to make it to the game on time.

The Clydesdales live a more lavish life than probably any of us do.

The dogs even have their own place.

Ok, so maybe we didn't go straight to the game when we cut out. I couldn't leave without having a Bud Light at it's home. She of course had the Wolf Pup IPA and said it was delicious too.

A sight that I have been waiting to see for a very long time. I love the game of Baseball, so I kind of "pull for" a number of teams. However, the St. Louis Cardinals have been my #1 most of my life. When Tommy Lasorta and Mark McGwire left Oakland and became Cardinals, I followed. Then Albert Pujols could be my all-time favorite player (from this era).

Just absolute beauty.

When I ordered the tickets to the games, I made one request. That I wanted as close to the game as absolutely possible. D being the amazing woman that she is, agreed.

Big Mac Land

Really cool that they had this scoreboard (although not accurate for the time) inside the corridor.

Everyone had these amazing looking nachos, so that's what she went with. She couldn't have been happier ... until the people sitting beside me came back with nachos and BBQ all over them.

Double cheeseburger with tots ... because, tots.

What better way to end an amazing trip that with a Yadier Molina led (Home Run with 5 RBI) victory for the Cards!

From the game we headed to the airport to start the journey home. Which is where my only knock on Busch Stadium comes. We weren't in a huge hurry, so we hung out a little while and checked out the shops. The traffic was an absolute nightmare. There was no directing traffic, it was just use the red lights and fend for yourself. Oh, 3 cars just blocked the intersection and now nobody anywhere can move? Sorry!

While at the airport we stopped at the Pizza Studio for their handmade pizzas. It may be airport food, but it was so good. Which, I guess it's hard to mess up meat and cheese on dough.

Overall, we had an absolute great time. Kansas City was like a Greenville/Asheville/Charlotte/Atlanta all mixed into one. It had sections of small town with a section of big city, but it was just that, sections. If you wanted to stay away from the big city feel, you very easily could. St. Louis had a bit of a Charleston feel to it in areas with the stone roads and ample spranged ankle opportunities mixed with the older buildings. We both agreed that we look forward to returning sometime in the future.

Kansas City 

The Big Biscuit

National World War I Museum

Gates BBQ

Federal Reserve of Kansas City "The Money Museum"

Chips Chocolate Factory

Smallcakes

Kauffman Stadium

Genessee Royale Bistrio

Kansas City Zoo

McLain's Bakery

Arthur Bryants

College Basketball Hall of Fame/Experience

Westport Ice Cream Bakery

Doughnut Lounge

McCoy's Public House

eggtc

Plowboys

Faurot Field

Busch Stadium