A couple of years ago I was trying to set up a lunch meeting with someone. When I asked them, they said they really didn't "eat lunch" - for them food was just fuel. I was shocked.

For me, food is an experience. A journey. And a quest. So here are my thoughts. If you eat to live, you may not be interested. If you live to eat, you may find some ideas for places here. I went back to the first of this year, as opposed to diving back multiple years and started there. These are my thoughts on everything except for burgers. They deserve their own page and it is here.


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Southern Soul Barbecue, St. Simons Island, GA (May 2011)

 So, over Memorial Day weekend, I had to be in Jessup on the Friday morning before, so we went down for the weekend.  It gave us a chance to visit with Colleen and a weekend at the beach (Jekyll).   After I finished up with my meeting, we were wandering through an Antique shop in Brunswick and I was finished browsing ahead of Jo.  

Chatting with the shop-keeper, I asked the important questions, about food:

"Where's the best burger around here?"
The burger answer was Five Guys, so that crossed that one off the list. Fine, but we've got those at home.

"Where the best [insert_local_food_here, this time] seafood around here?"
The seafood was a place on St Simons called the Frederica House.  We marked that one down for a later visit.

"Where's the best barbecue around here?"
The barbecue place was the one that caught my attention- Southern Soul.  It had recently been in Garden & Gun, according to the shop-keeper and I found the article when I got back home.    After asking some folks about it from the island, they told me that the place had been immensely popular, had burned down and their neighbors had helped them re-open next door to their original location.  They're in the traffic circle right by the airport on SSI.  

Right next to the giant pile of wood out front of the restaurant is the smoker.   This thing's is eight foot long and putting out some mighty fine 'que.   We arrived early (5:30-ish) on a Saturday night and the place was already starting to fill up.  By the time we left, it was packed.   I ordered the #7 - Southern Soul sampler, with ribs and pulled pork.  These burnt ends were very good, as was the pork.
And to top it all off, choices of three sauces, one to everybody's liking.   In my classic way of thinking, I'd refer to this as "fifty-mile" barbecue.  That means I'd drive fifty miles to get it.  There is only one classification higher ("one-hundred mile" barbecue.)   That designation is not given lightly <g>.

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