BBQ in Knoxville, TN bbqsearch.com

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BBQ in Knoxville, TN

Howdy!

I was perusing your page, and was very gratified to see that you listed NO BBQ places in Knoxville. You see, I love my home town, but the fact is, there is virtually no BBQ here. This letter may appear to be facetious, but I am quite serious!

There is one place (actually a quickly growing chain) that "owns" the town where BBQ is concerned, and their food does not qualify as BBQ in any way, shape, or form. The meat is tender and steamed, but there is not the least little hint of smoke within a mile of their food. Funny, driving down the road you SMELL hickory smoke, but they must blow it all out to the road, because it sure doesn't get anywhere near the meat! Their sauce, well it's ketchup that's been watered down with vinegar! At least that's all I can taste.And this place is so popular that Knoxvillians brag and brag about it! They even had an exclusive concessions deal when the world's fair was here in '82! Doubly irritating, is that across the street from one location of this imitation BBQ joint, used to be a location of Bennett's BBQ, in my opinion, some of the very best 'Q I have EVER eaten.
Of course Bennett's didn't last long because it dared to open up too close to the (still nameless) Knoxville institution that pretends to serve BBQ.

There is another place that has a big name locally, who claims to serve the world's greatest ribs. They even catered a Presidential inauguration, and they won't let you forget it with signs posted all around their restaurant touting that fact. I hope the Prez got better ribs than I did! They taste like they could have come out of a garden variety restaurant steamer/smoker, again, with no hint of smoke. I have (literally) had better ribs out of a grocery store deli!

So now you know about BBQ in Knoxville. It's not as completely bad as I make it sound, since there are still two Bennett's locations reasonably near. (One in Pigeon Forge, one in Gatlinburg) There is also a plethora of mom&pop joints that pop up, serve some actual good 'Q for a while, then get put out of business by the big name BBQ pretenders. I get some enjoyment out of these as they come and go, but they inevitably get crushed under the steamroller of mediocrity. Again, I love my home town, but these folks damn sure don't know BBQ!

Thanks for listening, and for furthering the art of one of my two absolute favorite foods! (the other being steak-grilled-rare)

peace- Bill Powell