Smoke Daddy

While I had had several examples of their food, I had made a point of not actually going to Smoke Daddy until a certain friend was able to go with me.  Smoke Daddy is located relatively close to where I live so it wouldn't have been difficult to go to but there are enough other restaurants around that I felt that I was missing little.  I had had both the pulled pork and brisket elsewhere so I thought I had an idea of their style.  The restaurant has a small storefront near the heart of Wicker Park with a nice sized patio.  The interior is decidedly retro with colors and design that remind me of a 50s diner.  The place is bright and friendly looking inside but because it was a nice summer day, we decided to take advantage of that and sit in the patio area.  We all actually ordered the same thing, The Taste of the Daddy which came with a choice of ribs, two pulled meats, and two sides.  The rib choices we baby backs, spare ribs, and rib tips and the pulled meats offered a choice of brisket, chicken, or pork.  The sides were a collection of the standard sides found at barbecue joints.  With my sampler, I went with the Baby Back Ribs, Brisket, and Pulled Pork with Mac and Cheese and Corn Bread as sides.  As I said, I had already tried the pulled pork and brisket before and I knew that I liked those so in the unlikely event that I didn't like the ribs, I knew that I was going to like something.  The pulled pork and the brisket were served on top of slices of white bread and the ribs were served on top of that.  The mac and cheese and corned bread were also served on the same platter.  The mac and cheese was rich and cheesy and the cornbread was sweet.  There were three barbecue sauces available: sweet,  (Western) Carolina-style (tangy), and Smoke Daddy standard.  They were not really necessary though because the meats were pre-sauced.  I like sauce on my meat and the sauce used is very good but I generally prefer a dry rub and being able to add the sauce on my own.  The pulled pork used the Carolina-style sauce and the brisket and ribs used the standard sauce which was a ketchup based sauce that was slightly spicy with a slightly sweet finish.  Each of these sauces was really good with the meats they were served with.  Of the three meats, I preferred the pulled pork.  All of the meats were tender but the Carolina sauce worked best with the pulled pork.  The pulled pork was very good, shredded well, and the sauce went extremely well with it.  The brisket was good and it worked well with the sauce it was served with but I have had better.  The ribs also were tender and pulled apart fairly easily but I have had better sauces and better ribs.  What I will say is that there was definitely plenty of food and I ended up taking a box home.

I did enjoy my meal here.  There was plenty of food and it was all pretty good.  While all of the food was good, the pulled pork was something special and I will definitely enjoy it again.