Stone Mill BBQ

[Conan71]

Anyone else eat there before?  I've passed by the location on 145th in BA several times and figured I'd try it last night.  I've usually found the best BBQ is in a road-side dive and generally try to avoid something that looks corporate which is why I hadn't tried it before.

Cool building, cool landscape, not impressed with the 'que.  Anyone can do passable sausage, hot links, or bologna.  So I use ribs and chopped beef for my barometer on how good a place does with smoked meats.  Ribs were like wood, splintery, dry, and not much flavor.  When the bones are more tender than the meat, it's overdone.  Chopped beef was almost like the stuff you buy out of a bucket at the market with the sauce already mixed in.

For all the production and price, I was really disappointed.

[rwarn17588]

That will not do.

I ain't saying that Tulsa is like Memphis, where barbecue is darned near a religion. But I think Tulsans' opinions of BBQ are pretty spot-on.

It ain't local, but here's the finest ribs I've ever had:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/restaurant/story/9158E9D1ACC204E78625706700329659?OpenDocument

[Conan71]

I'll have to ask my friend Jim, who lives in Belleville about that BBQ joint.  

Around here, Papa Tom's in Bixby had pretty good ribs last time I was there.  I'm seldom disappointed with Knotty Pine or Albert G's.  Rib Crib was great when they had only one or two stores.  They've kind of re-enforced my thinking on corporate BBQ.

The Best BBQ is usually the result of one person or family's passion for it.  You can't franchise passion and know-how.

If you are directly from that area, maybe you might remember Viviano's Italian restaurant in Belleville.  They were there from '77 until '01 or '02.  Jim's family owned it.  He said basically the Olive Garden's, etc. made their place irrelevant.  I think it was a nice way of saying his younger brother ran the family business into the ground. [V]

[AMP]

Billy Sims Boomer Q is spot on for pork ribs.   All you can eat on Tuesday nights.  Is that tonight?  Ummmmm

Farm Shopping Center and on East 71st Street by Rhema.

http://billysimsbbq.com/index.php

[T Badd]

I live pretty close to this one, so I've visited 4 or 5 times now. I've never had any problem with the ribs, so far. We usually do the drive through thing to save on gratuity. In fact, we've only eaten inside once. The atmosphere is a bit too open for a bbq joint, but it's very clean. I still prefer Wrangler's at 71st and Memorial, but Stone Mill's brisket and baby backs are acceptable around my house.

[Porky]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Anyone else eat there before?  

Yep...all the time. I think the place is really good but I have had a few bad meals there like you have stated.

The other Bar BQ places in BA that I have ate at are Runts, which I found over priced and won't be going back. And Big Daddy's Bar BQ which is my favorite. I haven't been to Billy Sims yet but I've heard it is very good.

[iplaw]

Billy Sims sucks.  They are the only BBQ place in town that measures their portions of meat out to two decimal places on a NASA-issued scale.

Legends is excellent, and they have all you can eat pork ribs on Tuesday I think.  Wilsons is good, and so is Albert G's.

[Conan71]

I've eaten at the new Wilson's on 11th St. several times.  Dinner seems to be better than lunch.  

I quit going for lunch because the last few times the beef was really dry.  All I can figure is they are recycling yesterday's brisket for lunch.  It's one thing if I take left-overs out of a container at home, quite another if a restaurant serves them.

I took a client to lunch at the one on Apache a few months ago and had no complaints that day.

[iplaw]

The one on Apache is the best and before papa Wilson died the prices for his Q were outrageously low, unfortunately not the case anymore.

[AMP]

Stuts House of Bar B Q down the street from Wilson's on Apache is another great one.  

And Carl's at Yale and Pine where George's Grill was before.

Carl has some good Q there.

[Conan71]

I went ahead and tried Billy Simms out in BA tonight even though IP said it sucked.  I had an hour to kill while my daughter was at cheer practice.

I'd give it a B-.  Chopped beef was good, somewhat greasy.  Ribs- they gave me the short end which usually I usually don't like because it is burned up, and the meat fell off the bone and was done just about right.  They don't seem to use a rub though, or if they do, it's pretty innocuous.  Polish sausage was so-so, I like the big Ekrich's, they use the smaller link type.  Price was reasonible.  I paid $3 or $4 less for a three meat combo than I paid for a two meat at Stone Mill.

BTW, IP- I left there full, even though I think the little scale is pretty cheesy.

[Rowdy]

Looks like Papa Tom's closed down seeing how some stuff was torn down.  Anyone know if this is true?

[Rowdy]

Went by there again and looked and it looks like no more Papa Tom's.

[Conan71]

Bummer.  Someone had bought it a few years ago from "Papa Tom".  Wonder if there's new construction or if they frittered it away.

[Breadburner]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

Stuts House of Bar B Q down the street from Wilson's on Apache is another great one.  

And Carl's at Yale and Pine where George's Grill was before.

Carl has some good Q there.

No beer at Stuts though.....Oklahoma Style is good too....