Back Alley Blues & BBQ

[Conan71]

Blake is known to read this site, perhaps he will see this and have a little re-training session with this less-than-enthusiastic bartender.

[Gaspar]

Service is always a tough thing to manage. 

I have eaten at Back Alley and made it a point to make my concerns known to the ownership.  They have hurdles, but they also have an awesome advantage being the first on the scene downtown.  Blake is experienced at the restaurant game.  The BBQ game take a bit longer.

[Ibanez]

Had dinner there for the first time last night. Was not impressed. Our server was excellent, wish I could remember her name, but the food was mediocre at best.

I had a two meat combo, ribs and hot links. The hot links has very little spice to them and no smoke flavor that I could taste. The ribs were a bit better and had a touch of smoke, but still not what I was expecting and were also a bit dry. I had their slaw and baked beans as sides. The beans were passable, though to me they were a bit too sweet. The slaw was nothing special at all. I like vinegar based slaw and of the ones I have had Back Alley's version were near the bottom. On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give the ribs a 2.5, the hot links a 1, the beans a 3 and the slaw a 2.

My wife had the Back Alley Beatdown and was disappointed as well. The brisket that was part of the sandwich was more like pot roast than a smoked brisket. In fact there was no smoke taste at all. The pulled pork was slightly better, but still nothing to write home about. As with my hot links the ones on her sandwich had no spice and no smoke flavor. Her homemade chips were just this side of granite and after the 3rd one she gave up trying to eat them. She rated the sandwich an F.

The best part of our meal? The candied bacon. I wouldn't want to eat it every day, but it was good.

As I said before, our service was excellent. The food however was very poor and we will not be returning. I had high hopes for Back Alley since we love Joe Mama's. Different style of food I know, but I was hoping the excellence in food would cross restaurants since they have the same ownership.

[Townsend]

Back AlleyBlues BBQ
10/31/2011
4 of us sat at bar at 845pm....not very busy at all so we opted for the bar seating...bartender was messing with some ratty speakers with pawn shop price tags on bar for several minutes before he greeted us...if he was really the bartender...couldnt tell at this point. We tried to order...
They were out of ribs....(bummer). We asked if they were out of anything else "nope, just the ribs; and I ate them all" he said without apology for being out.
We ordered other things than ribs; which we enjoyed. But the service was HORRIBLE from this bartender/server! He couldnt even get silverware in front of us. Time for desert.... bartender was doing his third shot with friends at end of bar...Buttermilk pie???...."Nope were out"....refill a water glass? Impossible.
Will not happen again.
Last time I was in also sat at bar for OU/Florida State game....they had doubled booked bands...so we got to see and hear all the lack of management crap from both bands and bartender argueing over what had happened. Nice....not.

This popped up on my feed.

Now hiring experienced bartenders and servers. If interested, please apply in person at 116 S. Elgin Avenue.

Maybe you could go back in a while and give it another shot.

[jacobi]

My wife and I finally checked out BBB this weekend.  I had the pick two hot link and ribs.  The hotlink was plenty spicy.  It could have been hotter for me, but for the regular crowd, I liked it.  The ribs were really good, melty tender.  I was really impressed.

The sauce, oh the sauce.  I've heard widespread complaints about the sauce that they offer as having "some weird spice in it" et al.  It was rosemary and maybe another italian seasoning or two that make it different.  The wise discision to put both kinds of sauce on the table had already been made, so I just went for the okie sauce instead.

The candied bacon, while very good, was not the novelty for me that it is for most.  I have done more things with bacon in heaven and on earth than are contained in your philosophy, horatio.  I just wanted it sprinkled on top of a sundae.

The service wasn't great, but wasn't terrible.  The waitress forgot my second beer.  by the time it got to me it was half warm.  That said, I am not one to leave a soldier behind enemy lines.

My wife had the chicken sandwich which she (and our daughter) seemed to deeply enjoy.

All in all, an 8/10.

P.S. this place would be perfect to go to after getting liqoured up elsewhere.  I would demolish a rack of ribs in that case.