Establishment: Smoke BBQ
Location: Ft. Lauderdale
Meal: Dinner
Drink: Coca-Cola (in a can)
Appetizer: Sweet Cornbread Loaf
with cinnamon butter
Main: 2 Meat Combo Platter
Smoked chicken and 12 hour pulled pork
Side(s): Seasoned tots and steamed broccoli
Dessert: not applicable
Server: not applicable/counter style
Since regularly vacationing here before making the big move, bbq has been the southern Florida food of choice ... and there are at least nearly a dozen such establishments that have been sampled in the last few years. True to this concept, though, Smoke (with a 'k' ... not to be confused with Smoque with a 'qu', a quality bbq joint back home in Chicago) was a brand new place to try in 2016 ... and seeing as how it only recently opened near the beach as an extension of an established brand farther to the north, that makes a lot of sense. Here's the bottom line -- separating out the old school bbq places (where you just know that some black mama [African-American mama? mama of color?] had a role in making your food) for which Tom Jenkins bbq ranks the highest in that category -- Smoke is *the best* modern restaurant style bbq in the area. It's most deserving of my highest score to date in this series, as calculated below. And apologies in advance for the quality of the photos ... but I was so mesmerized by my meal that I didn't get as many good shots as usual ...
AMBIANCE: 10/10 (sure it's a small space, but it's well organized with the line toward the food station and checkout, followed by a few picnic tables with the perimeter taken up by separate sauce [red sweet and a yellow mustard] and "wrap up your leftover meat" stations ... and, like any bbq joint, a quality smoky smell fills up the room)
FOOD: 10/10 (yep, that's a perfect score ... from cornbread to meats to tater tots, everything was fresh and hot and tasty ... rubbed just right and cooked to perfection with straightforward sides that didn't try too hard to be something they weren't ... and the best part may have been the chicken, which had the extra taste of being quickly deep fried and was chopped up in just the right pieces ... plus, while walking to the car afterwards, I realized that I had a pleasant tingle on my lips from all the flavor)
SERVICE: 10/10 (one point lost since so much of the experience is self-service BUT that same point comes back because it makes complete sense for the space as this is NOT their full service restaurant a few beaches to the north ... and especially because of all three individuals behind the counter who were friendly, personable and conveyed a confidence in their craft)
BACON: 8/10 (there may not have been any bacon on the menu per se [although it might have been available to add to sandwiches], but they did sell shirts that said "I like pork butts and I cannot lie" ... and if that's not worth almost all the points in this category on its own ... I don't know what is)
BONUS: 10/10 (+3 for being the best of the "restaurant" style bbq eateries in the area, +3 for letting me sample a hunk of meat whilst waiting in line [I said, "thanks for the meat hunk", and then turned red and explained that there was no comma and that I was thankful for the hunk of meat and not calling the guy who gave me the meat a hunk], +3 for falling on the decidedly unpretentious barely hipster side of the modern bbq continuum and +1 for being a place to which we will most certainly return)
TroyScore: 48 out of 50 -- aka 96, a high A (the highest score given to date)
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