Smoke Daddy

Going to Smoke Daddy tomorrow evening for dinner for the first time. Wondering if anyone can give me a brief heads up on the place and what to absolutely order or stay clear of - if anything...

Thanks for any info!


Smoke Daddy
1804 W. Division Street
Chicago, IL 60622
773-772-6656
http://www.thesmokedaddy.com/

The ribs are probably the thing to get. I enjoy the spare ribs quite a bit, but the baby back are OK too. The brisket is also not bad. I would avoid the chicken.

I agree, the spare ribs are very good, though not the best in the city by far. If you're going for a sandwich, my usual fare there, I'd go for the pulled pork over the brisket, as I find the brisket to be a bit dry. They also offer BBQ chicken and turkey; the (pulled, it seems) turkey is kind of reminiscent in flavor of one of those massive BBQ turkey legs you can get at various summertime festivals.

As for other stuff, their corn on the cob has been overcooked every time I've tried it, but the collard greens, when on special, are done just right. If you can save room for dessert, the chocolate souffle is well executed.

I usually get their bbq sampler, since I can never decide what I like.. It is a medley of spareribs, backback and tips... Also ask if you can substitute sweet potato fries instead of regular... if you like sweet potato fries, it's pretty good...

If they have the collard greens as a special, get them - they were quite good the last time I was there.

Well, we went and here are a few observations...

The collard greens were fantastic! Unlike any greens Ive had before - these werent boiled in stock until they become an unattractive brownish green glob but rather an almost blanched collard green - vibrant green in color with mega garlic on them - they were awesome.

Fries - ok. Decent serving size though...

Baby Short Ribs - Average - nothing groundbreaking here. Lacked a smokey flavor I was hoping for... Also we thought the ribs may have been overcooked. Barbecue sauce was really plain - needed a little zip we thought.

Service was pretty bad - though we sat at the bar.

The other thing that bugged me (non food related) was their jukebox and sound system. $1 for 2 songs and you could barely decipher your songs...I asked the bartender if she would mind turning the volume up so that we may hear the music and she said that she was unable to...

I visited Smoke Daddy with some friends last night after a relatively long hiatus (approx. 8 months). Since my last visit the menu has undergone somewhat of an overhaul, but most of the signatures remain: spare ribs, baby back ribs, pulled pork/chicken, smoked beef brisket, and the cheeseburger. I tried the new "Daddy-style" cheeseburger, which meant that, for an extra $1.50, my 1/2 lb. freshly-ground beef burger came topped with a few ounces of chopped smoked beef brisket.

Pretty tasty.


E.M.

I took 6 friends to a late lunch/early dinner at Smoke Daddy yesterday as a small reward for helping me move, and we had a great meal. Maybe it was the relief at being finally done hauling furniture up and down stairs, not to mention the hefty appetite that bad been built thereby, but we were all extremely happy with the food. Most of us got pulled pork sandwiches, and we all really liked them. I experimented with the different bbq sauces that were out on the table, and decided that the combination of the mustard-based sauce with the sauce that was already on the pork was delicious. We had several orders of the sweet potato fries, which they serve sliced relatively thin. Everyone else at the table loved them; I found them to be too sweet and cinnamony. Good but not great. The baked beans and mac-n-cheese sides were great, however, really nicely spiced. Of the desserts, the apple fritter with ice cream was the best.

All of this was eaten while drinking Berghoff beer and having great conversations about air bands, olympic ice-dancing, furniture-related injuries, etc., and at the end of the lunch we were full, happy, and ready for naps. I hadn't been to Smoke Daddy in years, and I was surprised at how much better it was than I had remembered. Again, that may be the post-moving euphoria talking, but it was a wonderful meal nonetheless.

The tab with tax and tip came out to be about $20 per person, so it was also pretty inexpensive.

I used to live around the corner from Smoke Daddy and was not overwhelmed by it. Service was iffy and I thought the ribs were a bit tough. Sauce was also pretty average.

My favorite rib joints are:
Gale Street Inn
4914 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago

Twin Anchors
1655 N. Sedgwick St.
Chicago

I prefer Gale Street because I think their sides are a bit better than Twin Anchors and I like the atmosphere a bit better. Twin Anchors has great ribs (go w/ the zesty sauce) but seating area is small and it gets really crowded at times.

Anyone else have a favorite rib joint? I must say, having sampled Kansas City ribs over the course of my lifetime, there is nothing in Chicago that even comes close, from what I've found so far.

rdstoll wrote:I must say, having sampled Kansas City ribs over the course of my lifetime, there is nothing in Chicago that even comes close, from what I've found so far.

Honey 1

rdstoll wrote:Anyone else have a favorite rib joint? I must say, having sampled Kansas City ribs over the course of my lifetime, there is nothing in Chicago that even comes close, from what I've found so far.

Honey 1, Barbara Ann's and Lem's are my favorites. I really can't say I've had Kansas City ribs, so I can't compare. All I can say is all three of these places make slow-cooked ribs over hardwood coals and gently smoked with a combination of oak and hickory (sometimes applewood or cherrywood--I'm not sure what all woods they use in each of my named places). Twin Anchor really isn't a good example of barbecue in Chicago. Lots of people like their ribs, and their style of ribs is typical for a lot of people in Chicago, but I wouldn't call it BBQ.

Thanks. I'm going to give Honey1 a try. Seems to get a lot of positive pub on here.

Anyone know what happened to the old NN Smokehouse that used to be near Wrigley Field? They had a phenominal pulled pork sandwich.

rdstoll wrote:Anyone know what happened to the old NN Smokehouse that used to be near Wrigley Field? They had a phenominal pulled pork sandwich.

The owner moved his operation to:

L.T.'s Grill
1800 W. Grand Ave.
Chicago
(312) 997-2400

Not sure it's still open, though.

nr706 wrote:

rdstoll wrote:Anyone know what happened to the old NN Smokehouse that used to be near Wrigley Field? They had a phenominal pulled pork sandwich.

The owner moved his operation to:

L.T.'s Grill
1800 W. Grand Ave.
Chicago
(312) 997-2400

Sorry, L.T.'s is closed now. There's something else in the space, though I can't remember what I read on the sign. I haven't been. I would love to hear that the new place is great, but my hopes are not too high.

I was in what used to be LT's last week. It looks like his former partner is running the place these days. The brunch menu looks like it has not changed much since Larry was there but I did not sample much. I had the Mexican hash which was much the same as I remember it and I believe they still serve Intelligensia coffee. I asked for Larry but nobody knew or would say where he might be. I would be interested in hearing abot any LT sightings. He is a very nice guy and I would llike to see him do well.

The old NN Smokehouse turned into LT's? I had been to LT's a few times when I moved to East Village but was never impressed with their ribs. Collard greens were some of the best I've ever had but that's about it. I heard LT's met an untimely demise not too long ago.

Larry Tucker was the NN Smokehouse guy, then the LT's guy, yes.

Did anyone else catch the segment with Some Daddy chef doing ribs on the WGN noon news today? He recommended boiling the ribs for 30 minutes, then steaming them for 4 - 5 hours. To his credit, he didn't call the finished product "barbeque," but I would have expected any ribs from a place named Smoke Daddy would have been exposed to smoke at some point.

http://wgntv.trb.com/news/
click on News at Noon, then click on lunchbreak 1/1 underneath the video

nr706 wrote:Did anyone else catch the segment with Some Daddy chef doing ribs on the WGN noon news today? He recommended boiling the ribs for 30 minutes, then steaming them for 4 - 5 hours. To his credit, he didn't call the finished product "barbeque," but I would have expected any ribs from a place named Smoke Daddy would have been exposed to smoke at some point.

http://wgntv.trb.com/news/
click on News at Noon, then click on lunchbreak 1/1 underneath the video

I watched it with glee! It was astoundingly honest without any hint of smoke in the process.

Regards,

While I'm not a proponent of Smoke Daddy, the ribs are tasty - they are just a totally different animal (figuratively, I hope) from what Gary, and most of us, really appreciate, since it takes talent, attention, equipment, and honest, fresh ingredients to do low-and-slow smoked barbecue. In their appropriate niche, I at least find the Smoke Daddy ribs more enjoyable than Gale Street's rib-candy-mush.

One place Smoke Daddy excels (or excelled, haven't been there since discovering Uncle John's and Honky Tonk) is the beans, with both bacon and pulled pork crispy bits.

While Smoke Daddy is no longer one of my favorites (not since original owner Max Frombaugh sold the place some years back), the implication by the chef on Lunchbreak was that what he made for the show was something the typical home cook could make as a reasonable substitute for real Barbecued ribs and not what was actually served at the restaurant.

I don't necessarily advocate that method, but for the uninformed home cook who has no connection to true smoked ribs, I suppose it is acceptable. I myself have been known to do a low temp, slow dry roast (no water involved at any time) on a slab or two when the weather was too cold to fire up the smoker. As long as you use a good dry rub you will get some very good oven cooked ribs. Just don't call it Barbecue and all is forgiven.

As far as Smoke Daddy is concerned, It has been at least a year since my last meal at there and I was unimpressed then.

Buddy

I really liked Smoke Daddy when Max was around . I liked the food, the music and even the decor (Max was a keyboard player who accompanied O.V. Wright at one time and actually knew who everybody in those pictures was, which endeared him to me greatly). Since he left the place has just floundered. I tried it again a few months ago, we thought the ribs were pretty awful. Most of the two slabs I got went unfinished. Second chance dinner.... large tip link combo from Leon's ...and it was a BIG step up.

Smoke Daddy is now owned by the guys who run Dunlays LP and Dunlays Logan Square. Not sure they are really known for quality food.

WahooWilly wrote:Smoke Daddy is now owned by the guys who run Dunlays LP and Dunlays Logan Square. Not sure they are really known for quality food.

I don't know, Dunlay's on Clark has better food than the vast majority of bars in the neighborhood.

LTH,

Smoke Daddy has never been high on my Chicago BBQ list, even when the previous owner was at the helm. Been twice since the new owners took over, they of Dunlay's, Frasca and D.O.C Wine Bar, and found the spare ribs overly tender, baby back ribs dry and the brisket machine sliced with a slight creosote taste. Sides outshine the BBQ, really like the sweet potato fries and beans.

Bar, if not too crowded, can be fun and I've stopped in a few times in passing drawn in by the music, but what I really liked about Smoke Daddy was the smoker, a Little Red Smokehouse by J.R. Mfg in Mesquite Tx, a classic old school wood burner. You may notice I used past tense, as Smoke Daddy has replaced the Little Red smokehouse with an Ole Hickory Pit.

Little Red Smokehouse




Switching to an Ole Hickory is not necessarily a bad thing, but they are more automated, have options for gas with wood smoke accent and generally take less skill to operate. I'll visit soon, high hopes, reasonable expectations as the order of the day.

Enjoy,
Gary

I wouldn't suggest going to smoke daddy for the bbq, but it's a great place to sit and have a simple meal and a beer outside when the weather is good. I generally go for the brisket sandwich - Ive found the ribs to be over sauced but the brisket too can be dry occasionally.

Smoke Daddy used to fry their french fries in peanut oil and they were delicious. I haven't been there in a few years so I'm not sure if they've changed their recipe.

Just my 2 cents here. Since I've lived in the area for about 12 years, Smoke Daddy was one of the few bbq places around. Obviously, things have changed. I would say that the food is better than it was a few years ago, with the management change but the credit goes mostly to the sides. The pulled pork sandwich is good as are the fries, beans, and mac-n-cheese. This is more of a middle of the road, decent bbq place with a great environment.

My wife and I recently went to Smoque and thought the food was great, especially the brisket. Although the food at Smoque outshines Smoke Daddy, the atmosphere is not even comparable. I found Smoque almost depressing and wanted to eat and get out of there.

Have yet to try Honey1 but looking forward to it. My wife and I actually went there before Smoque but she wasn't thrilled with the menu options or the atmosphere. Looks like a solo lunch trip for me.

tyrus wrote: Although the food at Smoque outshines Smoke Daddy, the atmosphere is not even comparable. I found Smoque almost depressing and wanted to eat and get out of there.

[...]

Have yet to try Honey1 but looking forward to it. My wife and I actually went there before Smoque but she wasn't thrilled with the menu options or the atmosphere. Looks like a solo lunch trip for me.

If you thought Smoque lacked atmosphere, be prepared for Honey 1. The dining room is pretty much an afterthought, although most of the top tier BBQ places in Chicago are carry-out only, so be thankful that there's even a place to sit and eat.