Bone Daddy's

There are certain foods that people have very strong opinions about. Pizza is one, with opinions about thick or thin, stuffed, how much stuff goes on it, how it's cooked, and even how it's cut. While there is a wide variety of styles of pizza, I would say that barbecues have a much wider array of styles (and meats). There are four major styles of American Barbecue: Carolina style uses vinegar or mustard on pork (although there are some areas that use a tomato based sauce), Memphis style does pork ribs wet or dry with a tomato based sauce, Kansas City style uses a variety of meats which are cooked with a dry rub. The sauce is served on the side and Texas style uses beef and a thick tomato based sauce. Other regional styles are basically variations on these styles. When I was in Midland last week, I went to Bone Daddy's BBQ Restaurant. The propieter of Bone Daddy's travels to regional barbecue competitions and has had some luck. They claim to serve either St. Louis style or Northern Style Barbecue. They do a variety of meats including beef (brisket), pulled pork, ribs, and chicken. The sauce is a sweet and spicy tomato based sauce which is pretty good. When I go to a barbecue joint, I generally don't order ribs because ribs are phenomenally messy. I am safe in this respect with Bone Daddy's because both their brisket and their pulled pork are great. I decided when I went this time that if I was honestly going to be able to talk to this place, I would need to try their ribs so that's what I had this time around. With the ribs, I also got blue cheese coleslaw, baked beans and corn bread. The corn bread and the coleslaw were good (especially with the blue cheese) but the beans were a little too smoky. I remember thinking in the past that the sauce didn't quite match with one of the meats although I don't remember which one. With the ribs, it went perfectly. The meat was also smoked and had a nice smoke ring. and had just the right amount of tooth pull (It was neither mushy as parboiled ribs would be or dry as an overcooked rib would be). I enjoy coming to Bone Daddy's when I am in Midland and will be happy when I come back. All of their bbq is good and while I might not again have the ribs if I eat there, at least I know that they are worth the mess I would get from eating them.