Somewhere Over The Rainbow

On a recent trek thru the back roads and byways of the beautiful state of New Hampshire, I came across a road side emerald in the rough. As I am sure you can tell by the title and the use of emerald instead of diamond, that this weeks story has something to do with the Wizard of Oz.  Well my carnivorous friends, you would be right.

While I was traveling along RT 101A thru the quaint town of Milford, NH, doing my day job and minding my own business, a cloud of smoke appeared on the horizon and it beckoned me as if Glenda the Good herself had sent this fragrant wisp of white in thru my cabin filter and directly into my olfactory.  As a trained professional eater, I knew at once that I needed to follow said smoke for there certainly would be something special at the roads end.  This being spring in New Hampshire, there were no yellow bricks to follow but there were plenty of pot holes to slow down my travel just enough to spot my version of the emerald castle.

Okay... So truth be told, when the smoke cleared, my castle turned into the funkiest road side BBQ Joint I have ever seen.  Sitting on the front end of a flat trailer was a log cabin.  On the back was a screened in porch with a huge cast iron rotary smoker and the front had a sign that read "Nobody gets in to see the wizard, not nobody, not no how".  Above this sign was a window (a little larger than the one the guards used in OZ) so I walked right up, summoned all of my courage and shunning the part of my brain that seems to always want to warn me about my heart, I ordered lunch.  Come on! you didn't think I was just gonna ask for the wizard without sampling his wears first?

And sample I did, as it was lunch and I was technically on the clock with that damn day job, I went
straight for the meat.  2 Ribs and a side of brisket and oh my, am I glad I did.  You see, this crazy joint on the side of RT 101A is non other than Phil's Old-Fashioned BBQ and when they serve you a rib, you get one that would make Fred Flintstone drool.  These were not your average ribs, these were center cut pork ribs that rivaled the size of a typical beef rib.  Thankfully I only ordered 2, these were huge, and coupled with a pile of perfectly smoked, tender brisket- this lunch stop will keep me full for many many more miles. No wonder they call this place "A Little Piece of Hog Heaven".

After filling my ample gut, I ventured back to the window and demanded to see the Wizard!  I was ready to let loose the flying monkeys if need be, but I think the guard took one look at me and thought, "this guy may have eaten the entire lollipop guild, I better do as he says."

The wizard, as in the one from Oz, turned out to be just a normal everyday person with some special talents.  In this case, the Wizard turned out to be Phil Bouchard who, along with his wife Kristen (the guard at the window), have been serving travelers along this stretch of New Hampshire for 9 years.

The rig is a Southern Yankee made for Phil and Kristen at a shop in Indiana, and it really is a site to see.  Half log cabin, half smoke shack and all parts fantastic.  Phil is the pit master and his smoker is a custom made rotary style that will smoke more than 350lbs of meat.  He fires her up every day that the weather permits sometime between 5 and 6 am to get ready for the lunch rush and the two of them serve platters of food to hungry travelers until they run out. Using only oak hardwood, the bark on the meat has a wonderful flavor and the smoke ring is deep into the meat.  It does not get any fresher or tastier than that my friends.

This is a walk up window, no frills with the dining experience.  They have a condiment table set up with homemade, as well as store bought, sauces.  Do yourself a favor and ignore any bottle you have seen before and head directly to any one of the Phil's 4 homemade styles.  My favorite was Phils Five Point Zero Mustard Sauce, but you can also choose from the tangy 7.5, the vinegar based Carolina sauce or the North Carolina Red Pepper Flake.  Load up your dish with a little of each and head over to one of the picnic tables set up for dining alfresco. 

While my stop did not include sides, based on the amount of meat they served me, I'm glad I held back.  Beans, Potato Salad, Coleslaw, 4 Bean Salad and Cornbread round up the available sides.  As I wondered if these were as good as the meat, a young lady came up and purchased just a bowl of Potato salad. She told me it's the best around. Welp, I guess that answers that!

As Judy Garland once sang, "somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high, there's a place you should go to and bring a large appetite"  So what are you waiting for? Click your heels together and repeat after me, there's no place like Phil's, there's no place like Phil's, there's no place like Phil's.

The Smokey Side of Jersey

Someone once told me the best thing to come out of New Jersey was I95, but I know differently.
Once you leave the I95 corridor you will find some beautiful country side, quaint little hamlets and some smoking good BBQ.  If you think Jersey is oil tanks, airports and traffic, you need to get off the highway and explore.

Since we live in the age of technology, as I drive thru new areas I simply ask my good friend Siri, "Hey Siri, find me a BBQ joint" and like magic, she tells me where to go.  I have spent much of my adult life having a woman tell me where to go, so I took to this technology like a squirrel takes to your car tire, wham I was in.

Like all technology, there can be set backs.  This trip my friend Siri sent me to the beautiful town of Clinton NJ to visit a BBQ place that sounded wonderful.  I even checked yelp for additional information about this stop and they agreed, I should try this place,  So off I went around back roads and over a one lane bridge into historic downtown Clinton NJ only to find this highly recommended place is now a private residence.  As charming as I think I am, the home owner was not sold on letting me join them for dinner.  So it was back to the drawing board, and I decided to give Siri one more chance at redemption.

She told me to check out the Oink and Moo BBQ in Hampton  NJ.

Thankfully a very short drive from the location of my recent failure in Clinton was the site of the former Perryville Inn.  Like my last stop, the inn no longer exists, but this place has been replaced my a true BBQ joint!  My day had been saved and my now growling stomach was about to be fed.  The former inn was a beautiful old brick building by architectural standards but what did I see....I saw the big brown BBQ truck parked along side and the guy stepping out cleaning the smoke off his hands,

I asked if they smoked the meat inside the truck and he explained that they had a small smoker in the truck for road trips and two "Big Ass Smokers" inside the inn.  How great is that, they take the smoke on the road and serve it at not just one but two NJ locations.  On each table is a sign that states "We will not serve yesterday's meat"   The companies goal is to run out of meat each day and they want you to understand if they are out of something it is because they only smoke enough each day to serve the needs of todays

 customers.  No old left over food here, tell me this is not an awesome attitude to have!  It's fresh or its not sold here.


I am going to tell you about a few items that I was blown away by in my order.  First off, smoked sweet potatoes.  Oh my, I honestly can say I have never had a smoked sweet potato.  If you have a smoker, do it, do it now do not wait.  The smoke permeates the skin of the potato and into the flesh.  I was halfway thru this amazing dish before I realized that they served a side of cinnamon butter to add to this.  Was it needed, no, did I use it, hell yes!

The next item was a black cherry brisket slider.  Have you ever had a kings Hawaiian roll, if you have you know how great they are, this roll was one par with that.  Sweet soft savory and oh oh oh so damn good.  On the roll was a pile of perfectly smoked brisket with an amazing black cherry sauce that did not hide the flavor of the meat, it enhanced it to a level far above standard brisket.  The only sad part of this was it was a slider.  I know good things come in small packages and this was no exception.

Next time your headed to North Jersey, you owe it to yourself to stop at the Oink and Moo.  14 Hour smoked pork and brisket as well as same day smoked ribs and chicken.  Fresh is the word at this joint.  My server Laura was wonderful and made the whole experience even better.  If you still think Jersey is not a place to visit, I say "Forgetaboutit", yoos guys will love it here.

The Bone Bag travels continue south as we head to the town made famous by Billy Joel line "They are closing all the factory's down".  I found a meat company that you have got to hear about and I promise you after the next edition of the Bone Bag, you will make a pilgrimage to this small town near Allentown PA.

A Sunday Drive - Welcome to Willie Jewell's

It was raining pretty hard and it was one of those spring Sundays in New England.  My wife made that crucial mistake of answering a question with a question of her own, "I don't know, where do you want to go?"  So it was off to the Budweiser Brewery in Merrimack NH.  Touring and tasting is hard work, there is a lot of walking involved, not to mention the samples of fresh brew; beer is truly a gateway drug leading almost always to a gnawing craving for smoked meat, what can I say? I'm weak. But I'm not a quitter, and off we went  to Willie Jewell's in Nashua NH for a late lunch.

Willie Jewell's  is, as its name states, "Old School Bar-B-Q" and has locations spread out throughout the smoke loving  south  with restaurants in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  Clearly the people in charge of building new locations answered a question with a question too, (I don't know where do you want to build one?),  how else can you explain one location in Nashua NH? I checked, this location is exactly 1093.1 miles from their Atlanta location, not exactly next door by any means, but we can thank the gods of smoke for bringing a true Southern Jewel to the wild north of Nashua.

Remember that first turkey you tried to cook to impress the in-laws? You know, the one that when you carved it, the shavings on the counter looked like saw dust?  Yeah... That one. Well you're not going to get that at Willie Jewell's.  In fact, when my cardiologist suggested I eat more Turkey, I am certain that he had Willie Jewell's in mind.  The smoked turkey is so moist and flavorful that it is hands down my favorite part of the 3 meat combo!  Combined with St Louis Dry Rubbed Ribs and Smoked Brisket for a slim $13.99 and that includes 2 sides as well, can you say Baked Beans and Collard Greens? 

Willie Jewell's truly does it old school, none of the meat is carved until it is ordered and the ribs are dry rubbed and slow cooked to perfection.  Most importantly, to me anyway, is they are served dry rubbed the way the grill master intended, not smothered in BBQ sauce.  The rub is what it's about, the sauce is an added bonus that you should add as you see fit.

What Willie Jewell's does regarding sauce is oh-so-special.....Sorry I get teary eyed just thinking about it.  They have a spot called the pumping station, and it is exactly as it sounds.  This is where you pump your choice, or choices, of BBQ sauce into little cups to take back to your table.  You may be thinking, big whoop, most places have the sauce on the table so you don't have to get up, right?  Well my carnivorous friends you could not be more wrong because the pumping station serves the sauce heated!  Gone are the days of pouring cold sauce on your hot meat (oh this could lead off in places we should not go), just trust me, once you try this, you will never ever want cold BBQ sauce AGAIN.

The choices are Hickory Heaven (very properly named), Sweet and Sassy (obviously better hot), Low Country Gold (Mustard based and definitely my favorite) and Hot Momma (there you go again, wrong blog).   Trust me on this one, Willie Jewell's is worth the trip of 1,093.1 miles to Atlanta, but for us up north, it's just a short trip up 101A in Nashua.

Don't forget to look for my next installment, a little hint for y'all....in the words of the great American song writer John Hiatt: "Just keep those pretty legs showing, it gets hot down were we going."