"Have you been to a BBQ?" was the words I heard inside Gravity Beer Mart in downtown Olympia. I turned to see the owner of the store standing next to me. "Yes" I replied; "Why, am I wearing any?" As I said this I was combing my beard and moustache with my fingers. She said; "Nope, I can smell it on you, you smell smokey in a good way!" As a matter of fact, I had just left Southbay Dickersons BBQ less than 5 minutes ago.
Now that the Ranch House is back in operation at their original location, I was in the "market" for another BBQ joint in downtown Olympia. A buddy of mine had said that he heard of a new place in downtown somewhere in the vicinity of the Fish Tail Brewery. Not being sure of the exact location, I cruised the streets of downtown Oly looking for this "new" place. Eureka!! I had found it, but alas, this trip which happened a couple of weeks ago found them closed. Today was a great day for a ride, so I saddled up DiDi and off I went to see what I would find. As I approached them on Legion way, there wasn't a parking spot in sight. Just in the nick of time a truck pulls out and I hang a quick U-turn straight into the vacated spot. Still had 30 minutes left on the meter, but I fed it another quarter just to make sure. I entered the establishment and was hit right across the face with the succulent smells of a pit in operation. Right behind the order counter was a huge steel door, which I assumed was the BBQ pit. I made my order, left a tip and a card in the jar, took a seat and 5 minutes later was eatin' some pretty darn good grub.
Taste: This was my first visit, so after perusing a well stocked menu I ordered the pulled pork combo with beans and slaw. The beer selection was nice and I asked for a Hefeweizen to round out the fare. Ladies and gents, make sure you are HUNGRY when you get the combo. A massive amount of just right smoked pork with a kiss of sweet & tangy sauce, sitting upon a bun, awaited my first bite. Wow.....very good and oh so very tender. Just ever so slightly dry. The beans were spicy and went great with the BBQ. Big chunks of onions graced them too. The slaw was a big mound of crunchy vegetables with not much dressing. Could have used just a bit more. All in all it was really quite good. Hefe is usually my beer of choice, but next time I'll choose something with a little more bite to counteract the sweet BBQ. 8 stars
Value: Nothing wrong here. A veritable mountain of food and a beer for a tad under 15 bucks. I could have easily made 2 sandwiches from the pork included in this lunch. 9 stars
Staff: Very friendly. They made sure I was greeted and promptly answered any questions I had with a smile. The place was hopping with a lunch crowd and as I waited for my food I noticed that the staff make all the rounds filling drink orders, delivering food and checking back in a efficient matter. They never seemed to be in too much of a hurry and radiated cheerfulness. Another 9 stars
Ambiance: What a cool place. During my lunch I found myself wondering what sort of history this location had. It appeared to been a garage (as in service station) or maybe the loading dock of a long closed store sometime in the past. The front wall was mostly made up of 2 huge roll up doors. The ceiling was solid wood and the beams were enormous. It definitely had the feel of a building that was built a very long time ago. The walls were covered in a mish mash of things that celebrated old Olympia, logging and up in the rafters I even spotted some Rainer Beer stuff. Behind the counter was located the pit. It was faced with a giant steel door that you could have driven a small car into. I got a peek once and although I could not guess the depth of the pit, every rack had something big and meaty sitting on it. 9 stars
Friends: I might hesitate to take suits and ties into here as you could get messy eating this BBQ. So its not quite the place for a business lunch (that is not a deduction BTW), but I would highly recommend Southbay Dickersons BBQ as the joint in downtown Oly to get some great food. I will be back here and hopefully next time I'll have a friend or two along. 9 stars
Overall I award 9 stars out of 10. Very well done! Its sometimes said that first impressions are the lasting ones and believe me when I say that I am very impressed. Keep up the good work.
On a side note, Its my understanding that this restaurant used to be located in the Safeway building. I have no idea of actually how long they have been in operation in the downtown Olympia area and their website offers no insight on this matter. So, they may not be a new BBQ joint after all, just new to me.
Later...
Now that the Ranch House is back in operation at their original location, I was in the "market" for another BBQ joint in downtown Olympia. A buddy of mine had said that he heard of a new place in downtown somewhere in the vicinity of the Fish Tail Brewery. Not being sure of the exact location, I cruised the streets of downtown Oly looking for this "new" place. Eureka!! I had found it, but alas, this trip which happened a couple of weeks ago found them closed. Today was a great day for a ride, so I saddled up DiDi and off I went to see what I would find. As I approached them on Legion way, there wasn't a parking spot in sight. Just in the nick of time a truck pulls out and I hang a quick U-turn straight into the vacated spot. Still had 30 minutes left on the meter, but I fed it another quarter just to make sure. I entered the establishment and was hit right across the face with the succulent smells of a pit in operation. Right behind the order counter was a huge steel door, which I assumed was the BBQ pit. I made my order, left a tip and a card in the jar, took a seat and 5 minutes later was eatin' some pretty darn good grub.
Taste: This was my first visit, so after perusing a well stocked menu I ordered the pulled pork combo with beans and slaw. The beer selection was nice and I asked for a Hefeweizen to round out the fare. Ladies and gents, make sure you are HUNGRY when you get the combo. A massive amount of just right smoked pork with a kiss of sweet & tangy sauce, sitting upon a bun, awaited my first bite. Wow.....very good and oh so very tender. Just ever so slightly dry. The beans were spicy and went great with the BBQ. Big chunks of onions graced them too. The slaw was a big mound of crunchy vegetables with not much dressing. Could have used just a bit more. All in all it was really quite good. Hefe is usually my beer of choice, but next time I'll choose something with a little more bite to counteract the sweet BBQ. 8 stars
Value: Nothing wrong here. A veritable mountain of food and a beer for a tad under 15 bucks. I could have easily made 2 sandwiches from the pork included in this lunch. 9 stars
Staff: Very friendly. They made sure I was greeted and promptly answered any questions I had with a smile. The place was hopping with a lunch crowd and as I waited for my food I noticed that the staff make all the rounds filling drink orders, delivering food and checking back in a efficient matter. They never seemed to be in too much of a hurry and radiated cheerfulness. Another 9 stars
Ambiance: What a cool place. During my lunch I found myself wondering what sort of history this location had. It appeared to been a garage (as in service station) or maybe the loading dock of a long closed store sometime in the past. The front wall was mostly made up of 2 huge roll up doors. The ceiling was solid wood and the beams were enormous. It definitely had the feel of a building that was built a very long time ago. The walls were covered in a mish mash of things that celebrated old Olympia, logging and up in the rafters I even spotted some Rainer Beer stuff. Behind the counter was located the pit. It was faced with a giant steel door that you could have driven a small car into. I got a peek once and although I could not guess the depth of the pit, every rack had something big and meaty sitting on it. 9 stars
Friends: I might hesitate to take suits and ties into here as you could get messy eating this BBQ. So its not quite the place for a business lunch (that is not a deduction BTW), but I would highly recommend Southbay Dickersons BBQ as the joint in downtown Oly to get some great food. I will be back here and hopefully next time I'll have a friend or two along. 9 stars
Overall I award 9 stars out of 10. Very well done! Its sometimes said that first impressions are the lasting ones and believe me when I say that I am very impressed. Keep up the good work.
On a side note, Its my understanding that this restaurant used to be located in the Safeway building. I have no idea of actually how long they have been in operation in the downtown Olympia area and their website offers no insight on this matter. So, they may not be a new BBQ joint after all, just new to me.
Later...
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