Friday, November 4, 2011

Saucy’s Walkup BBQ

Bollingbrook St & 5th St
Petersburg, VA 23803

About a month ago Groupon offered 2 deals for Saucy’s, one was 2 sandwiches, 2 drinks and 2 sides for $8 and the other was $10 for $20 worth of food. I bought one of each because I knew that I could never go wrong with a BBQ Groupon. I was right! There are numerous good BBQ restaurants in the area but Saucy’s has hands down the best BBQ in the Tri-Cities; the only other place close is Alamo BBQ on Church Hill in Richmond.  Saucy’s is not really a restaurant; it is a converted storage container painted yellow with two large smokers behind it and two picnic tables in front and a large circular order window. What it lacks in ambiance it more than makes up for in character, service and flavor.
This last Tuesday, I met Amanda, her sister Andrea, her Grandmother and our 3 dogs to pick up Saucy’s and then go for a walk down by the river in Petersburg. I decided to use my $20 Groupon. Unlike the last time I used one, there were no gimmick this time. I could use it for anything that I wished and if it happened to go over $20.00 all I had to do was pay the difference. I decided to go for the “Container” $18.95, which came with a BBQ chicken quarter, 1/3 rack of ribs, ½ lb of pulled BBQ (I chose pork), 2 buns, 2 sides (I chose potatoes salad and baked beans) and 2 drinks. I added a side of cole slaw. With taxes and an extra side I paid $2.60 on top of my Groupon. For all of the food I received this was a really great deal.
After a rather adventurous trip by the river we headed back to Amanda’s Grandma’s house to dig into our great smelling BBQ. The first thing I dug into was the ribs. The ribs were slathered in their rib BBQ sauce which started out sweet but finished with a little bit of a kick. While the ribs were perfectly cooked with a nice smoky flavor and a great crust they were a little on the skimpy side. There was not a whole lotta meat on the bones but the meat that was there was delicious and full of flavor. I moved onto the BBQ chicken. Although, I’m not the biggest fan of BBQ chicken it was extremely moist and fell off the bone.  While it did not have the same smoky flavor as the ribs the sauce provided the perfect flavor and was some of the best BBQ chicken I’ve ever had.   I then moved onto the pulled pork BBQ. There is nothing else in the world like pulled pork, most places in the tri-cities cheat and only offer minced or sliced very few go the extra mile and take the time to hand pull the BBQ. The pulled pork was fleshly smoked and chock full of flavor. It came coated in a sweet BBQ sauce that went well with its smoky flavor.  I topped the pulled pork with cole slaw and it was amazing. The cole slaw is of the thick cut variety with large crunch piece of cabbage and carrots with the right amount of mayo and seasoning. This was some of the best cole slaw I’ve ever had on top of some of the best pulled pork I’ve ever had. Awesome!
As sides I ordered potato salad and their three bean trio. The potato salad was the low point of the meal, very plain and lack luster. It was the only thing that tasted like it could have been bought at a grocery store.  The three bean trio on the other hand was a definite highlight. I was expecting some sort of baked bean trio but what it was was completely different and better than any baked beans I’ve ever had.  It consisted of cut green beans, pinto beans and navy beans in a scrumptious sauce that blew me away.  Saucy’s serves three different types of BBQ sauces their zesty chicken sauce, their regular tomato bases sauce and a jalapeño mustard based sauce.  They used to have an extremely amazing sweet coffee based sauce that was my absolute favorite but have since stopped making it because it took a lot of time and not very many people asked for it. Every time I go I still ask if they have it just to see because I keep hoping they will bring it back.
Saucy’s walkup BBQ container has the best BBQ in the Tri-cities. It is one of the few places around that serves Ribs, brisket, BBQ chicken, pulled pork, chick and beef. Not only does it do it all, it does it all really well. My one complaint about Saucy’s is that it does not have sweet tea only canned sodas because everyone knows that nothing goes better with BBQ than sweet tea. I would recommend that if you like BBQ you need to go and try out Saucy’s I guarantee that you will love it.

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