Famous Dave's

It's up in Hayward: Famous Dave's BBQ Shack.

FD's food isn't bad but the spare ribs at Fat Jack's (Monona Drive) are my favorite around here. When I was younger and bolder we'd go up there on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the all-you-can-eat special...

Brad

Great link! Thanks!
I used to like Fat Jack's all-you-can-eat BBQ chicken special on Sunday, but the quality has slipped. I'll have to go back & try the spareribs sometime, but with a new baby arriving soon, things are pretty busy

Here in northern Utah, I have only been to a few(2) BBQ joints, FD'S and a small place in West Vally City called Q-4-U. I am a but biased becouse after going to AL and FL then comming back to UT, I have realised that " Southern by the grace of GOD" is 100% true. Q-4-U was the closest to real Q for My taste. now I spend my days "low and slow" and maybe someday I will make a killer sauce or rub that the south would be proud of.

Welcome to the board utah_bbQ_lover!

Absolutley the favorite of my kids.
Not overly impressed with their sauces and like a previous poster has said the corn on the cob is always overly done.
(Really, the best corn on the cob I've ever had at a BBQ joint was at Tony Romas)
Famous dave's has good sausage and very tender, juicy brisquet.

Wife had a pork tenderloin about a month or so ago that was done in apples and cider. Probably the best piece of meat I've tasted from Famous Dave since he was just a ribber back in the '90's and wasn't so famous.

The Brisket is tender but dry also, bit like pot-roast. Never a smoke ring in the brisket but the ribs aren't too bad. The atmosphere seems really forced and seems more like a TGI-Fridays than a BBQ-Joint. Not too bad for a chain joint though.

One of the people that I converse with on a regular basis on another forum is the legendary rib cooker Billy Bones Wall - he and Dave are friends and have competed against and have cooked a lot of ribs together. Some things Billy always reminds us are restaraunts are not competition quality and that even though franchises exist - not all are created equal and quality can vary from location to location + there are some company run stores that usually are better than franchised locations because of control. Famous Dave's is what it is - a chain barbecue restaraunt that is not great but generally has decent barbecue for "the hungry hoards", but will never match what we can eat at a competition or cook ourselves in our own backyards. I still like Famous Dave's rib tips and usually have a supply of Famous Dave's Georgia Mustard Sauce on hand.

We ate the one in Snellville, GA, this weekend. The service was very good, and we were pleased with our meal overall.

I had the two meat combo with chopped pork and rib tips as my meats. My plate was packed. I really liked the rib tips. The pork was a bit dry, but it was okay. I liked the sweet and zesty sauce.

My wife had their stuffed potato with pulled chicked barbecue and said it was good. Our daughter seemed to like the pulled chicken as well.

This place is a fairly easy drive for us, but it is off our beaten path that enough that I don't know how often we'll get there, but I would eat there again as well as give other locations a try.