4/7/2012 Barbecue seems to be coming up pretty often on alphageek talks food. That is kind of strange, given that we are not really barbecue experts here. However, there seems to be demand for barbecue reviews, so we are trying to fill that demand. This review will be one sandwich, and that is all, but what a great sandwich it was.
We drew some inspiration from reading a blog post on the subject. You can read Down Home Foodie's blog post on Smiley's Fuel City here. That is correct, for those of you paying attention. We are reviewing food at a place that is more or less a gas station. Good food? We are all over that. Heck, we did not even know that Smiley's served any food, until we read the previously mentioned blog post, so we owe them our thanks. Smiley's is located in Raphine, VA off of I-81.

I was going to eat this sandwich inside, where they have seating, but someone spilled gas on themselves. The smell of gas was not what I wanted with my brisket sandwich and potato salad, so I ate outside, in my car. Just looking at the sandwich, I noticed that the brisket had a great pink color, which means it had absorbed a lot of smoke flavor, and the essence of smoke greeted my nose. I also noticed some fat. The extra fat is not my thing, and it was easily removed from the sandwich. I took a bite through the white bread sandwich roll and said "wow". How the heck do they slice this stuff? It is so tender, it should just be falling apart. I quietly ate my sandwich, jealous of the great flavor the barbecue had imparted. I only dream of smoking brisket this well. I wrapped up, and took the trash out of the car. When I returned, I noticed that the smell of smoke still permeated the car, making the inside of the car smell like a great roadside stand. I left knowing I just had a great sandwich.

Brisket Sandwich

Oh, there was some potato salad too. You can just skip the potato salad, unless very average potato salad is your thing. Just get the sandwich, and you will leave happy.

Make sure you call first if you are using the map below. The map is just not correct, but google won't change the map.

Why not share some of your research with us? How about leaving a comment in the comment section below. Even better, why not use one of the links here on the page to follow us and all things food? The twitter feed gets everything at Follow @ageekfood , or you can try our facebook page.

View Larger Map