St. Louis BBQ suggestions

My house?  Seriously, after you've had BBQ out of your BGE, the restaurants are always disappointing.

Try one of the Sugarfire locations--have the brisket, it's pretty good as are the sides.  Other than that, I really haven't been to many others.  Pappy's and Bogart's are for tourists, they're not STL style anyway.  Next to Pappy's is Southern (fried chicken)--the owner/chef is a great guy and long time supporter of our brand.

So many more restaurants around STL that are worth the trip.  Spiro's for Greek food, Lona's if you're into Asian fusion (they use our charcoal to smoke briskets in a Humphrey's), Ya Ya's in Chesterfield for some really good upscale food or Sunday brunch.  Cork and Barrel in St. Peters just opened--they're using XXL BGE's (wife and I are going this weekend.)

The best restaurant in STL (and the LEAST publicized or known) is Al's downtown.  It hasn't changed since 1974 and it's never had a printed menu in the nearly 100yrs it's been there.  The bar looks like an old river boat (because it's made out of one.)  They bring out of a huge tray of all the cuts and you pick what you want, then they tell you all the different way's they can prepare it......completely customized to you (substitute, split, add, subtract, whatever, they'll make you whatever you want.)  This was one of Frank Sinatra's favorite restaurants--make sure you check out his reserved table for two (and the picture of him and his dog dining at it)  http://www.ninenet.org/blogs/living-st-louis/living-st-louis-als-restaurant/

BTW, warm up??  It was 26F this morning.  Maybe this weekend things will be better! 

@stlcharcoal not to hijack the thread but I'll be in Clayton the first week of April. Hope to check out Sugarfire. Planned to do some exploring walking downtown but I guess I need to rethink that idea. Appreciate all the suggestions and info above. 

bhedges1987 said:

I was JK about the uber thing. I forgot to say that earlier! Just stay out of east St. Louis if you value your life

I think it actually happened though.......there was something on the news about a uber robbery a while back, but maybe it was the other way around (rider robbed driver?)  Like he said, stay out of East St. Louis, but honestly downtown and North St. Louis is much worse.  Everybody knows East St. Louis from National Lampoon's Vacation, but there are areas far worse now on the other side of the river.  It's not like there are tourist or transient traffic hanging around on the East side.

BBQpilot said:

@stlcharcoal Thank you very much for taking all the time to give this advice! We will be down the weekend after next, and will just make the best of things. Do y'all have storefront? I should have plenty of room in the plane for a couple bags!

Are you flying into SUS or CPS?  We're about 30 minutes from Spirit or 45 from Parks.  Just a small showroom with BGE's, Smokeware, FlameBoss, Kick Ash Baskets, etc.  Will soon have Ceramic Grill Store rigs, DizzyPig, and a few other items.  You're more than welcome to come visit, not sure how bad a uber ride would be all the way out to Eureka though.  What are you flying?  I've hauled several 20# bags in the baggage compartment of a Bell 206L on more than one occasion!  There are several dealers around SUS, but none by CPS.  FYI, the north side of CPS borders East St. Louis.  Not much to worry about on the airport, but the drive between that and downtown is not pretty--but you'll be by all the strips clubs!!  SUS is [now] in the nice part of town--two premium outlet malls, one of the largest/longest contiguous shopping centers in the US, the Bentley/Lambo/etc dealer, and more is all right there in the old "Gumbo Flats" flood plain.  I've flown out of both airports since 1993--both private, then for three different 135 helicopter operators (tours, EMS, and news/traffic.)  Both have grown and see a lot of traffic, but SUS is the only one to have all the area around it grow like crazy.