First visit in a couple years and my first since the new ownership. Short version: the new…read morepitmaster hasn't missed a beat. The recipes are a bit different now but the quality of the meats and sides is high (often stellar) across the board.
It's a trailer with smokers onsite. A few covered picnic tables allow comfortable eating, and there's even a supply of beach chairs for more relaxed eating.
-- St Louis Ribs: A half rack came out a little on the thin side compared to previously, densely bumpy on the surface with a potent rub and a light basting during the smoking process. Lightly crusty on top, very tender underneath, with moderate juiciness and great flavor in every bite. Excellent.
-- Ribs with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce: Same St Louis ribs, only glazed with a sweet but complex sauce with a little kick. It complements the spices on the rib surface very well and grows on you even if you're one of those no-sauce types. Excellent again.
-- Pulled Pork: About as perfect as you can get. Tons of delicious bark, lots of good color in the meat, a juiciness that doesn't even require sauce, and a pronounced flavor from the spices used before and probably also after smoking. No dryness or steaminess anywhere; just perfect contrast of tender and barky throughout. Only possible improvements would be a little more smoke and the availability of a vinegar sauce, but there's not a single pulled pork in New England that can touch this. An absolute pleasure. Elite.
-- Brisket: A thick slab had little ripples of fat, a sturdy outer bark, good flavor, and meat that was mostly closer to very moist and fairly tender than the previous regime's reliable floodgates of juices and extremely tender, but still a top 10% brisket. Hoping for a return to top 1% next time.
-- Brisket Bacon (a frequent special): They take slabs of pork belly, prepare them like brisket, smoke them, and slice them thin for delectable finger food. It's not cured, but the strong rub, the wobbly tenderness, and the succulence of the meat are more than enough to more than satisfy. What's almost as remarkable as the deliciousness and texture is the lack of intrusive fat-- you can bite into these slices without any trimming necessary. One of the best barbecue items I've had this year.
-- Sides: Coleslaw was a crunchy, vinegary rendition. Mac and cheese was sharp and extra thick-- more of a sludge than liquid. Baked beans were sweet, spicy, tangly, and meaty. Overall, very good to excellent.
Water: Free bottled water in an ice chest is a very nice touch.
Not a perfect day, but a very, very good one that very few barbecue joints in New England can come close to duplicating. With two wow-worthy items, two excellent ones and one very good one, plus quality sides and service, this gets an unquestioned upgrade to a 5. (The previous regime was a 5 on my last several visits too but I never got around to an update until now.) Looking forward to more great visits before the season ends.
