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Barbecue

Teresa Taylor

Tyrone Walker
The Post and Courier

A deep, smoky flavor permeates the ribs and pulled pork at Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ.

The Lowcountry and the South are blessed with good barbecue restaurants, and a variety of them. There's a barbecue "style" to suit everybody and, as with religion, you should be able to worship at the house of your choice. Barbecue is said to be divisive, but in the end, nobody is really "right" or "wrong." Just be thankful that heaven is such a large place.

Music Man's Bar-B-Que

112 E. Railroad Ave., Moncks Corner

843-899-PORK (7675)

www.musicmansbbq.com

Less than $

The old saying, "It's cheaper in the country," is only one of many good reasons to visit Music Man's Bar-B-Que in Moncks Corner.

Bring your appetite. For $7.95, an all-you-can-eat "Rock & Roll" buffet awaits you, and that price includes tea and dessert. Other combination plates are offered if you don't want the spread. But all of this made-from-scratch food is truly about quality, not quantity, anyway.

Delectable chopped barbecue and meaty ribs come from slow-cooked whole hogs. The house sauces — vinegar-pepper, mustard and hot — blow the caps off most bottled varieties. Celebrate the savory smokiness of the hash.

By all means, pick up a piece of the smoked chicken. Lots of folks whispered in our ears about it, and they aren't fibbing. It is moist and delicious.

Fluffy white rice, old-fashioned macaroni-and-cheese, green beans, coleslaw and a red-skin potato salad are good-to-great dishes. Our only quibble is the limited choice of nonstarchy items — and the fact we missed the award-winning catfish stew, which is not always available.

Desserts are a warm, gooey, cinnamon-spiced bread pudding, a chocolate Oreo pudding and a banana pudding to die for. The hand of a real cook is evident in all three.

This family-run restaurant with a beach music theme — the owner is a drummer with a beach music band — makes us want to dance.

Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ

1205 Ashley River Road, West Ashley

225-7427

www.hometeambbq.com

$-$$

A new generation of pitmasters is reinventing the old barbecue joint. The trick is balancing authenticity with innovation. Home Team BBQ is batting out of the park on both counts.

Chef-owner Aaron Siegel left Blossom restaurant as executive chef to open Home Team in late 2006. The building was renovated and now sports a sort of funky country look that incorporates galvanized metal, bright neon signs and outdoor seating. It's good transitional decor, since the lunch and dinner crowd gives way to a bar scene at night with live blues music.

But the food remains the primary draw, for good reason. Revel in the deep smokiness of the dry-rubbed pulled pork and ribs (beef brisket also is available on weekends). Designate a few "pinch hitters" (sides) to round out your plate, such as creamy mac-'n-cheese, mashed potatoes with skins, or grits. Relish the collards spiked with ham and a pinch of sweetness.

Home Team likes to bend the rules as well. Salads include a BBQ Caesar with corn nuts and black beans and there are pork, chicken and grilled steak tacos. A selection of wraps and sandwiches is headed by the BBQ Wrap, a grand slam of smoked pork or chicken, with creamed corn, slaw, mashed potatoes and sauce.

Jim 'N Nick's

288 King St., downtown

577-0406

$-$$

The pulled pork at Jim 'N Nick's bears the mark of barbecue done right, a faint pink ring just below the surface that shows where smoke penetrated the meat. That is a good indicator for the rest of the meal at a barbecue house.

Jim 'N Nick's is an Alabama-based regional barbecue chain with 18 locations, all but one in the South. There's been one on King Street in downtown Charleston since 2004, busy with diners grateful to have their 'cue in an urban setting.

Dishes sampled from the menu all bore a house-made touch in some small, but powerful way. Indeed, the restaurant boasts that it takes no shortcuts, ever, and we're convinced. We were impressed as much by the pork's moistness as its imbedded hickory flavor. We appreciated the tiny crunch of celery seeds in the slaw, the smoky-sweetness of the barbecued baked beans, the plump elbows of macaroni oozing with cheese, and the mustardy zing of the potato salad.

The baby back ribs might have been having a bad day — they were on the dry side. The beef brisket was tender to the point of being crumbly.

The menu is extensive, with something to satisfy every Southerner's barbecue soul and take care of others' needs, too. Seven salads are offered and the dressings are made from scratch. There's catfish and pimiento cheese, turkey club sandwiches, burgers, steaks and loaded potatoes. But Jim 'N Nick's never forgets where it came from.