On our trip to St Louis this past weekend, we went across the river to the OFallon, IL branch of the 17th St. Bar and Grill, famous for award winning BBQ - especially the ribs which have been called the best in the country.

Must have been an off day - not very impressive. Our friends who have been a couple of times before, agreed. Usually the ribs are served dry. Ours arrived sauced. Suspicious. However they were dry. I've had much better at comps and occasionally from my WSM. THe brisket was what I would call a bit undercooked. Too firm. Edible and not rare, just not that probe test tender we go by here.

Oh well - once again, I think we're spoiled!

yea, i woulda complained like crazy !

some thoughts:

quote:

I've had much better at comps and occasionally from my WSM.

at our first comp ever, we had no problem taking down a local bbq restaurant that we considered good.

comp bbq should ALWAYS beat restaurant bbq. a big time operation cannot invest the same time commitment to each piece of meat.

bbq has got to be one of the most difficult things to serve in a restaurant. All places I've tried are hit and miss.

The better joints are usually extremely small, with weird hours and run by the pitmaster that started the joint and you know has personally pull each piece of meat off the cooker. I doubt Mike Mills had much to do with your dry ribs.

Thanks for the review, after reading peace love and bbq, I've been curious to try the place.

I've been tempted to cross the Big Muddy to try 17th St, but have read some not so good reviews.

Joel, did you ever give Bandanas a try?
Pretty good, at least the local one here is.

This was our friends 4th visit and they said this was the first time the ribs came sauced and the other times they tried them they were really good. I didn't mention that one of our party had pulled pork and it was really tasty. I'd rate it very good for a restaurant.

I can imagine that consistency must be very difficult in a real BBQ place.

I haven't been to Bandanas yet. Recently we've a had minor explosion of BBQ in Des Moines. In addition to the new Bandanas, there are at least 4 others that have been open or are just opening that I haven't tried. I'm going to have to go on a BBQ tour!

We did go to Fast Eddy's too - fun place and you can't beat the food at their prices!

That's a pity. 17th Street was my first experience with real BBQ. I was in Murphysboro aobut 12 years ago with my dad (visiting family. Dad grew up in Murphysboro). What an awakening! I've been hooked ever since, but just got my own WSM this past summer.
Let's hope the folks at 17th St. just had a bad day...

What? No sushi and martini bars this time?

Dang Joel, wish I had known you were coming to town! Fast Eddy's is only ten minutes from my house. We could've had a beer and some shrimp! How long was your wait?

Mike Mills Murphysboro restaurant seems to get better reviews than the O'Fallon restaurant. Maybe it's because Mike is there more often. I've yet to hear a "great" review for the O'Fallon location.

Have y'all been to Pappy's yet? Out of all the Q joints I've been to in the area, they seem to be the best.

Rick

"What? No sushi and martini bars this time? Big Grin"

Man - you've got a good memory! Nope kinda low key this time around. No wait at Fast Eddy's - we went late Saturday afternoon, not at night.

Our friends mentioned Pappy's, but since I hadn't been to 17th St. yet, we went there.

I promise to get in touch next time around!