Thursday, October 29, 2009

Whitner's Pit Cooked BBQ

Recently on a lunch break from my daily grind I stopped into Whitner's Pit Cooked BBQ, 869 lynnhaven prkwy suite 106 VA Beach 757-689-8215.

Like I said I was on my lunch break so I got a togo order, when I first walked in and looked around, the spot was clean, inviting, and for anyone that's lived in the area for a while, kinda took me back to Po' Folks(southern decor). Yeah i just went straight 1989 on that ass with a reference to Po' Folks. But I digress, so the place is chill and the guy behind the counter was friendly and didn't mind my questions. The soup of the day was gumbo with rice and corn bread. After scanning the menu for a few minutes one thing kept calling out to me. What they proudly call the "Whit's combo sandwich", I call one big ass meaty good sammy. I can only describe it as the BBQ version of a dagwood, they describe it as burnt ends & sausage(that had a nice little kick to it) topped with cole slaw and pickles on a warm bun. Without question there was at least 3/4's of a pound of burnt ends and a whole sausage topped with a very tasty not too saucy cole slaw and thinly sliced pickles. One of the best damn sammy's i've ever had.

That sammy was a quality messy goodness, and as for the gumbo, that jammy was pretty damn good too. However I'm not totally convinced that it is homemade, if it is then the force is strong in that one. If it isn't homemade, then they found a good premade soup. It a had a nice little bite, a dark brown base, and full of chicken, veggies, and flava. The corn bread was a quality corn bread, nothing super spectacular, but not bad at all.

I will definitely be back to try some of their other tasty looking nuggets of goodness. The menu offers up: ribs (wet or dry) full racks all the way to the broke sucka special(my name for it, not there's), the lone bone (1 rib)
Chicken leg and thigh: Jamaican jerk or BBQ, 2-10 pcs.
Bulk meat sold by the poundage: NC pulled pork, KC burnt ends, pulled chicken, beef brisket, and sausage. They also have you covered on the Sammy's, wraps, and catering.

All in all quality food and I will definitely be back fo sho to try ribs and jerk chicken, just a little kickin to your ear, the burnt ends are worth a drive from anywhere in VA Beach. Thanks for reading and hope you have the same experience I did.


4 "Damn mickey fickey that shizz was the cats pajamas"
$$-Get plenty of food for what you pay and it's good, and don't forget they even have the lone bone!!
family friendly
No smoking

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Boars Nest BBQ Bar

Good day world! Recently my pops and I made a stop at The Boars Nest BBQ Bar on the way to a show at The Ted and the experience was average. Understand that this visit was the nite before i thought about doing this blog, so I tried to find a website or an online menu to kinda get a feel for the place. All I could find were reviews from customers and all were pretty much the same, "best BBQ in town" "blues music playing on the stereo" & "college scene". Quite the variety, but none the less i liked the sound of best BBQ in town and blues music.

So My pops and I get there around 5:30 and there are 4 people at the bar enjoying some cold adult beverages, and we seat ourselves and are greeted right away by a guy who drops off the menus and come back right away to get our drink orders. We got our drinks right away while we're looking over the menu. The "college scene" comment from the previous reviews applies in the appetizers which included; mac n cheese, spinach dip, BBQ sliders, BBQ sundae, BBQ nachos, and chips & cheese. They also had pork and chicken BBQ sammy's and a BBQ beef brisket sammy, along with ribs and BBQ by the poundage. We got spme chips & cheese to start while we continued to shoot the shit and look over the menu, what we got was nothing more than cheese from a can corn chips. Honestly, you could the same or maybe a little better from Slev(7-11, and again "college scene).

I opted for the sliced beef brisket sammy & my pops grabbed a pork BBQ sammy, super bonus here, not sure what the hours are but at 5:30 the sammy's are $5. While shooting the shit for about 30 minutes the place filled up to standing room only and people still coming in the door. Obviously most of them were first timers looking for somewhere to go before a show or an event, but none the less the place filled up and we noticed that some of the people that had ordered after us had already got their sammy's. I took it as a mix up or something & just kept drinking and yapping. after another 10 minutes I got the bartender/waiters attention and asked about our order. He thought that since we still wanted to look over the menu that we hadn't decided on the sammy's and were still looking. In his defense he was the only person waiting and serving the bar, and there was only 1 person in the kitchen. When the food got to the table my pops got a pork BBQ sammy on a cool hard bun and I got a sliced BBQ beef brisket on a cool hard bun.

Now when the reviews I read prior to coming said "best BBQ in town" I wasn't sure if they meant "town" as in odu village, norfolk, or 7 cities. I know for a fact it's not the best in the 7 cities, and i'm sure they are not the best in norfolk however it wasn't the worst i've ever had. The sliced meat had a decent sauce on it but, it kinda tasted like it came out of a bottle or the meat & sauce came already premade together. Just by not smelling any smokeyness(not sure if that's a real word, but it is now) in the place at all I will go out on a limb by saying it isn't smoked in house. Again it wasn't bad, but when you see reviews say "best in town" you kinda expect a little more than prepackaged.

On a good note a decent draft beer selection, at the time of my visit there was sam adams ocktoberfest, yeungling, magic hat #9, PBR, miller lite, coors light, bud, and bud light. They also have a small but good little bourbon section on the menu. Also to his credit the bartender/waiter that was in the weeds did handle getting everyone their drinks so no one seemed to be mad at all. All in all if in the area again I will stop by for a drink or two, and if inebriated enough i'll grab a scooby snack too. I will go back for sure to try the ribs, heard they were good. Oh yeah and right before i wrote this blog i was informed that the ODU MONARCHS football games are televised there, that alone is a good reason to stop by & give it a try.

No pictures available/not child friendly/indoor smoking/
To anyone familiar to the area I would have to say it is the BBQ version of a chicho's with the exception that chicho's pie is the shizz!!!. (again just my opinion, i could be wrong)

2.5 "Damn mickey fickey that shizz was the cats pajamas"

Hope everyone enjoys this, and gets a lot of use from this.

recent feedback

I was recently advised of some possible things to try with my blogs, so here are a few things you will be seeing with up coming post.

1) A rating system on a "Damn mickey fickey that shizz was the cats pajamas" rating system, with 5 being the best and 1, well you don't wanna be there cause the blog will be a straight bitch slap.

2) I will try to compare to other restaurants in the area, to give an idea of what to expect.

3) I am going to start putting pictures of the locations, food, menu, and decor up to give an idea of what to expect.

4) Trying to put price ranges as well as if it is child friendly or not. ( As a person that doesn't like screaming kids and kids running around when i'm eating most places will not be child friendly, however there will be some)

5)After a few blogs i will start posting sets of 5 restaurants (5 first date restaurants, 5 places to take your mom, 5 places for brunch, etc.)

Hopefully these additions will be helpful and useful as well as an improvement. Thanks for reading and keep checking in.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

El Taco Loco

This is my first local restaurant blog, so here we go. El Taco Loco is 3333 Va Beach Blvd. between fishbone and sams club. I have been there a few times and the chicken fajita nachos are where it's at! Yeah i know you can find them at any mexican restaurant, but these are the best i've had. The chicken is so moist and tender and there is plenty of it, the nachos aren't smothered in cheese and super soggy. They come fully equipped with onions, peppers, & tomatoes. You can also opt for lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and guac. Go for it, it's worth it. The super loaded nachos have the perfect texture with the crispy chips, cheesy cheese, spicy seasoning, moist chicken, and the coolness of the lettuce, sour cream, guac, and tomato. Damn just typing this shiz is making me want those jammy's right now. The restaurant it's self is good size with a small bar. The staff is friendly, the owner is always going around talking to the customers making sure everything was perfect for them. From the time you walk in the front door to the time you walk out, the staff is making sure your experience is great and are very polite. Of course like every mexican restaurant you have the chips, salsa, and white sauce(or as i like to call it mexi-honkey sauce) and El Taco Loco's is just as good as any other mexican restaurant. Nothing bad to say about the place, and will continue to go back regularly and i promise i will try more things on the menu and will let you know the skimmie on the dimmie. Till next time, thanks for taking the time to read this and keep checking back for more blogs and please post your feedback and/or comments about the locations i'm blogging about.

http://www.eltacolocova.com/

The 1st of hopefully many more....

Hello world, this is my first ever blog and have no idea what the shit i am doing. So most of my first few blogs are probably gonna be semi intoxicated to moderately intoxicated ramblings. I have worked in the restaurant business since i was 14 years old and have had a passion for cooking for about 15 years, which has led to or maybe has run laterally to a love for good food and independently owned establishments. It doesn't matter if it's a failed greasy spoon that has 1 item on the menu that you just gotta have or a 1 of a kind restaurant that there will never be another of, with employees that even if they haven't seen each other in years are still a family or its a group of local guys that not only successfully opened multiple restaurants but at the same time have helped to preserve and restore local history. Like i said before ramblings, so let me get to the point of the matter of this blog, i want to share my experiences of local independent restaurants in the 757 (mostly VA Beach & Norfolk). Yeah there will be the ones everyone knows that have been around forever, but there will also be the dirt ball joints, open for now but you know it ain't gonna last spots, the little secrets of the cities, and the international restaurants won't be left out either. I will occasionally post my opinions on micro brews too, something that i was around a lot when i was younger but kinda got away from for a while and have recently found a new love for again. So with all this being said it is about time to bring this first blog to a wrap. Be on the look out for future post coming soon, and i haven't figured all this blog shit out yet, but hopefully people can make comments or leave feed back for me or better yet leave some of their own blogs about the local spots in the 757. If you like what you read please pass this blogspot on to others and thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Oh yeah and to all my friends and family, i need your honest feed back. Don't be bullshitting me either.