Friday, April 22, 2016

Smokehouse on Shelby: Great 'Cue, Sides are Hit 'n Miss.

(D'oh!  I wrote this in February, forgot to publish it.)
Smokehouse on Shelby is in the Fountain Square Theatre Building in the heart of, you guessed it, Fountain Square.  It's a really neat space right on the northwest corner of the building (I think when the building opened in the 1920's it was a big drugstore) that is a little bit dark, but with huge windows through which you can watch the passing hipsters, BluIndy shared electric cars, and people on ungainly PACER rental bicycles.  The huge dining area has like 20-foot ceilings, giant old B-movie ad posters on the walls, and 60's-era booths and tables.

Some colleagues went there to celebrate one guy's birthday, and since he's even older'n me and soon to be retired and/or dead, I figured I'd better attend.  I ordered their signature Barbecued Brisket sandwich, which comes with a pickle and two sides, and I ordered a BLT to go for The Little Woman.  They have quite an array of side items, so I had mustard potato salad and coleslaw, and she got mac 'n cheese and sweet potato fries.

I'll cut to the chase:  the Brisket Sandwich was EXCELLENT, cooked just right and very smokey and on a delicious soft roll, while the BLT was very good, with really tasty Applewood bacon and fresh lettuce and tomato.  The accompanying sweet potato fries, too, were GREAT!   The coleslaw and mac 'n cheese , however, were lackluster, being rather bland and tasteless.  I'm not a big fan of Miracle Whip, but Good Lord, man, you simply MUST use it in coleslaw, 'cause if you don't, the result is basically just milky cabbage.  They at least TRIED to create flavor with two kinds of cheese food in the mac 'n cheese, but whatever variety of Kraft singles they melted to make the sauce was 'way too mild.  So, IMHO, I will go back there again, but will stick with the MEAT and SWEET POTATOES.

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