drsmoke

beans or no beans. Please know I am asking this with neutrality in mind; I know the correct answer but must prove a point to some heathens

No beans!

Thanks for this, Tom. When I first saw your post I thought you were from the place about which I'd written (your handle is similar to their name). If okay to ask, since you raised the local sourcing/SYSCO aversion point, where do you get your meats from? Maybe a meat-specific wholesaler? Can totally understand the challenge of trying to source from small, local producers with high volume needs.

I really need to get up your way soon to try out your 'Q. Sounds pretty awesome.

Either Food Pro in Frederick or PFG Foods out of Westminister Md. Both VERY good, dependable, high quality Meats and Dry goods. James Avery Clark for Produce, small byt top of the line Company!

When the weather gets warmer, come on up, call Rocks, he makes the trek, from time to time!

Then, as I was almost finished, the door from the street opened and, behind a fully loaded push cart heading to the back, was the Sysco guy. Three trollies came in loaded with boxes; some had canned or jarred or boxed proteins and produce. They seem to be set up on a twice weekly delivery schedule.

So, I'm not sure what I'll do next time. Of course true that many places buy from Sysco and not everything Sysco sells is bad. Also of course true that many spots use the big food distribution companies because they're cost effective. It's very hard to maintain positive cash flow in this business as we all know. Further, I'd guess that many (most? all?) BBQ joints use some corn syrup and pre-made sides and the like. Maybe it's not realistic to expect a BBQ place to be making its sauces, sides and other menu items from scratch?

This is another transparency thing. I don't know of any BBQ places that promote their sources like Dean at Dino does. I wish they would. I wish all restaurants would. I asked who owned the place and was told it was a "guy who loves BBQ." So not sure about the background or philosophy around food, ingredients, etc.

All I know is I did enjoy the half rack. And I was bummed when those hand trucks came rolling in. Sigh....what to do.

We make everything from scratch here, no corn syrup, make all our sauces, sides, here. My Hickory and White Oak come off my property. As far as buying from local sources, impossible to find someone who raises enough Hogs or Beef for Brisket, Ribs, Pork Butt, Pork Belly, etc, to keep us supplied. I would close my doors before using SYSCO, their product is shit.

Black Hog BBQ in Frederick and Urbana is quite good. A little too much reliance on dried spices that come through as raw*. good texture and complexity however. the portion was okay, unlike their side portions which tend toward laughably small. I think they should charge more for their sides and give me enough to eat, instead of just taste. But the chili had a heat that really mounted on me until the end of the bowl until it was very spicy.

The chili at The Dogfish Head brewpub in Gaithersburg was a pedestrian bowl of slightly seasoned ground beef. Not much to go for it, except it is served with the really good sausages Don mentioned , somewhere. Burton Baton is a great beer.

* for anyone who adjust their spice seasoning at the end of the chili cooking process, you will end up with a very raw taste. The essential oils in most of the spices dissolves much more readily in fats, so you would be better served to add all of your spices at the beginning of the cooking process. If spices are needed at the end bloom your spices in oil and add the aromatic/cooked result to your pot. much better

Jeff, would you add the spices to the meat while it's frying in the pot? Did your guys give you the special delivery from me, at Grapeseed?

Don, I LOVE Shrimp Toast, avarage Shrimp Toast is fine by me. Oh that Taste of Vietnam was closer to me, my dinner would be many orders of Shrimp Toast!

Tom

If this is their first place, good for them, I'd take that review my first week open, Sides can be changed in a day. I'm looking foeward to eating either there.

Where in relation to Grapeseed is Smoke?

Dutch's Daughter has the best Brunch in Frederick. Scrambeled Eggs with Crab and cheese mixed in, outrageously good. Best bacon anywhere, lots of great choices, $25.00 a head, includes a glass of Champagne,

Costco makes chicken noodle soup with their rotisserie chicken. I haven't tried the soup per se, but their chicken is the best.

The Chicken and broth are good, the noodles not good, IMHO!

Since the old adage is "if you don't have anything nice to say..." let me just say that the chili at Carterque in Mt. Airy has corn in it.

So Jeff, how was the corn? Corn in Chili, lol!

The chili at Urban BBQ is really heading in the right direction. Nice sauciness, good heat that grows as you work through the bowl, good, well developed flavor with a fair amount of layers. Some tomato, well integrated into the sauce. No over reliance on dried spices. Very nice and heading toward the competition type chili I seek. It does have a lot of beans and I understand how that might be a necessity from a business perspective. Good bowl to get if you are in that part of Rockville, as I don't know if the recipe applies to the other locations.

Jeff, did your guys at Grapeseed give you the chili and pork butt I dropped off last Thursday, I ate lunch at Freddy's, great Lobster Roll!

Tom

You can always try my place, in the healthy, low calorie category we feature, um, ah, lets see, well, ah, gosh,.... never mind!

I love Family Meal, the fried chicken is magical. That said, they also make the best Milkshakes I've ever had!

I'll put the Chili here at Chubby's, all beef no beans, up against any in the Country.

Does anyone remember the O'Brian's Pit Barbecue Washingtonian ads from 25 years ago that said, "barbecue, not BBQ?"

Don, 25 years ago, BBQ, was so unusual to find, nobody knew any difference!

Come on up!

I realize I'm very late to this topic, but I stayed open during Sandy, I did $54.00 in biz, LOL, but hey Emmitsburg ain't Ballston/Clarendon!

Dr. Nealon's office is at 5530 wiscinsin Ave. Chevy Chase.

Dr. Nealon follows in his fathers footsteps, the late Dr. Steve Nealon, our family Doctor for my entire family, and legions of long time Chevy Chase and Northwest Washington famalies. I continue to see Dr. Nealon even though it's an hours ride from Emmitsburg, where I live, to Chevy Chase, where I grew up. It's not friendship, although we are certainly friendly with one another. The bottom line is Dr. Kevin Nealon, is a gifted Physician who listens to you, has tremendous compassion and knows the answeres to your medical questions/ problems. He puts your fears at ease and immediately assuages your doubts. Dr. Nealon is a healer of body and when needed mind, especially when one like myself tends to panic and think the worst over any health issue. His phone at home isn't off the hook after he leaves his office, and this good man is interested in healing, not Medicine as a business!

Tom Caulfield

Emmitsburg, Md.

You've obviously never had Royal Farms fried chicken.

Never even heard of it, where is it?

My first review on Yelp was very positive, I got a call from them wanting to know if I was interested in advertizing with them, I said no I wasn't, immediate ridiculous negative ads, started showing up. Yelp can KMA!

I searched high and low, but found no thread or other post regarding 7-11. I'm surprised because, though I am known among my friends as someone to consult regarding all things culinary, I must confess a love of 7-11 hot dogs, particularly the 1/4 pound spicy bite. But this post is not about that. It's about the other things they serve, which have seemingly been shoe-horned into tube shape so they can be cooked on the hot dog grills. I speak, specifically, about the "taquito."

My girlfriend has a dog. This dog loves me, and usually won't leave me alone, so I walk him often. I also am frequently the one that feeds him. In short, there is a bond, so hopefully it doesn't seem cruel when I reveal that my nickname for him is "dumb-dumb." He's a sweet guy, and terribly inquisitive, but basically a simpleton. Notwithstanding, or perhaps because of this, he will eat anything. When I lived in DC, he found chicken bones and other detritus that no one could have -- and consumed it. And he still does this now that he lives in the 'burbs, though to a lesser extent. But, honestly, he did something the other day that surprised me. On a normal walk, I saw a whole, seemingly fresh, taquito in our path and decided not to avoid it. The dog came to it while smelling the ground incessantly, presumably looking for things to eat. But when he encountered the taquito, he passed right by, not even recognizing it as food.

So, if you're tempted, don't be. My--de facto--dog has decided that a taquito is not food. Clearly you should not eat one.

I hate to admit it but I think Sheetz has pretty good food, far better than Mickey D's or BK when it comes to breakfast sandwiches, pretty decent Subs too. What think ye?

Hijacked from the 7-11 thread!

I haven't been there yet, but for a Bethesda location, their prices seem unusually low. If the food is indeed good, as most replies seem to agree, the food is a steal.IMHO!

Dutch's Daughter in Frederick has a really good Sunday Brunch buffet, $24.00 a head, includes a glass of Champagne, many entrees, cream of Crab and Maryland crab soup, Crab dip, the usual breakfast stations, great Roast Beef, Chicken dishes, salads, many other good eats, excellent desserts...damn good deal, great service also.

My wife and daughter are going to see Mamma Mia, July 2nd at Wolf Trap, they are getting catered food from Wolf Trap. Any opinions on wether the grub is any good?

My daughter lives nearby on Washington Blvd. She and some friends ate there about a month ago, She called me to tell me it was the worst restaurant she's ever been in, a designation formally held by General Pickett's Buffet in Gettysburg!

Can someone explain why the brisket with fat is more expensive than the defatted choice?

As an owner of a Barbeque, I guess I'm missing something, as I would save a ton of $, if I charged for the fatty part of the brisket. Why is their lean, less expensive than the cut with fat?

This was by far the worst food I've had since I began actively writing reviews last December. As critical as my reviews might be, they're almost always about restaurants worth criticizing, and I rarely have a meal that could be considered "terrible." There have been a couple of clunkers - Kora and Lost Dog Cafe come to mind - but using the Kangchenjunga solo climb as my litmus test, this meal stands alone as being - not just bad, but malevolent. Essentially, if you were trying to summit Kangchenjunga alone, without a guide, and there was a flash blizzard resulting in a whiteout, and you were stumbling around, freezing and blinded, and night was setting in, and you happened upon an abandoned, makeshift yurt, and this meal was sitting inside it, and the sustenance from the calories was the only thing that was going to prevent this shelter from becoming your icy tomb, your final resting place, would you eat this food? It would be a perfectly legitimate choice, an honorable choice, and perhaps even the thinking man's choice, to opt out and die rather than suffer this chicken dinner from Roy Rogers.

So, I'm thinking maybe you didn't especially care for it!

Don, you need to give Roy's the benefit of a doubt, I promise if you try it again, it will be just as bad, maybe worse.