March 30, 2012 This is another of those legendary restaurants, the kind that you hear about many times before seeking it out. Since we had some time, we sought out a nearly legendary restaurant: Pierce's Pitt Bar-B-Que.
When we arrived, we were greeted by a nearly empty parking lot and restaurant. Everyone must go out to eat at the same time in Williamsburg, because the place went from empty to full in about 15 minutes. There are some tables outside, but when we were there is was too cold to think about eating outside. When we ordered, we found the usual array of meats that one can find smoked in a restaurant. We won't go into that here, because you can look that kind of stuff up on google. We took a look at the menu, and settled on a Smoked Chicken Combo, and a salad, with some smoked chicken added.

We settled into our seats, and waited for our number to be called. That's right, you walk up, order, pay, and receive a number that you use to pick up your order. I hope you can follow that algorithm there. See how the alphageek decodes that for you? While we waited, we sipped our iced tea, and noticed that it tasted fresh brewed.

First, we have the salad. It was a simple salad made more interesting with the addition of some pulled chicken. The salad was very fresh and the chicken made for a great topping.

Salad, with Chicken BBQ (click to enlarge)

We moved on to try our Smoked Chicken Combo, pictured below. Before commenting, here is the alphageek barbecue disclaimer. I like many type of barbecue, and am okay with different types. I will try to stick to describing what we received, rather than inject too much of my own opinion. I am going to just run through what is on the plate. First off are the french fries you see. These are some good fries that are nice and crisp. The hush puppies you see are much the same. The pulled pork is fairly finely chopped, with the generous addition of some sauce. We will get to the sauce at the end. There were some ribs, that were well smoked, tender and covered in sauce. Finally, the pulled chicken is the same as you see above in the salad, finely chopped with a good balance of smoke and other flavors. The sauce is a vinegar tomato based sauce, with the addition of some cinnamon. It provided a little kick of heat at the end, but nothing outrageous. After all, everyone who came in was getting some of that sauce, if they ordered any meat.

Smoked Chicken Combo (click to enlarge)

After we ate our meal, we found out that Mrs. alphageek does not really like heavily sauced bbq. The alphageek likes to let the smoking do the flavor too, but does like some sauce. That is where this review ends up too. Sauce? You will enjoy Pierce's. Limited on the sauce? You might think this is a little bit too much sauce.

All in all, we enjoyed our meal, and left knowing that we had sampled another legend. The large crowds that arrived were a testimony to the popularity of Pierce's Pitt Bar-B-Que.

What do you think? 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.

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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.

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