LTH,

Glowing column about Robert Adams and Honey 1 by John Kass in today's Chicago Tribune. Accompanying video by noted filmmaker Wings.

Nail on the head Mr. Kass, nail on the head.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bravo the "maestro of ribs" and bravo the "maestro of ice" as well. Spring in Chi.

I'm at Honey 1 all of the tables are full and there's a line out the door. It's nice to see them finally get the recognition they deserve.

stevez wrote:I'm at Honey 1 all of the tables are full and there's a line out the door. It's nice to see them finally get the recognition they deserve.

I'm guessing that Kass's column in the Trib yesterday (also cited above) really had a nice impact on business.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm guessing that Kass's column in the Trib yesterday (also cited above) really had a nice impact on business.

=R=

And how! The nice thing is that Robert Adams is up for the task and is positively beaming at the sight of so many people in the place. The BBQ itself was completely on tonight. As good or better than I've ever had it there (which is saying something). I think pumping out that kind of volume keeps everything at the peak of freshness plus, Robert is in the zone.

Felt like a proud parent last nite watching Robert and co rise to the occasion and handle the bump brought on by the latest in a long line of great press. The "Q" was smokin and we couldn't stop smiling. If justice exists, this will become an everyday scene and couldn't happen to nicer more deserving people.

Made it to Honey 1 this past Friday we got there around 7:30 pm.
Ordered up a half slab spares hot N mild on duh side and a order of gizzard'z. 30 min. wait no biggy.
I did'nt know it was a BYOB joint. Saw people drinking and I am like hummmm..where did you get the brew at. Someone at the next table told me across the street and down a bit...they were also LTH'erz. Scored two 24 oz cans of Miller High Life...NICE to pass the time with. There was a great and sweet smell of smoke in the air and that was getting me fired up...that and the brew!
The half slab oh spares were a work of art. They looked awesome, tasted GREAT and were hugh and meaty! I did like the way the oak wood hit the meat. I was thinking they use hickory for some reason but understand now its red and white oak.
The Gizzards were great to, breading on them was pretty light and they had a nice chew to them, done well.
Me and the wife split every thing and had a bit of a struggle to finish all this good food.
The fries were good also and the hot and mild sauce went well with the meat and gizzards.
Had a very good meal and a great night in the city eating GREAT BBQ and getting toasted! Will be back next time for brisket and tips! Edit cuz I cant spell LoL
THANKS HONEY 1!

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm guessing that Kass's column in the Trib yesterday (also cited above) really had a nice impact on business.

=R=

Ha! I was wondering what the "Smoque-esque" crowd was doing in there today. Some of my hockey teammates and I stopped in today, got the combo per usual.

I don't know if we're onto something here, but yeah...like SteveZ said, Robert is on his game...maybe it is the faster turnaround. It's not surprising that they can up the ante when keeping up with higher demand...these guys epitomize perfection.

Robert Adams is an artist and deserves as much press as anyone cooking food in Chicago as far as i'm concerned. His food is legitimately important.

A beer from across the street and a combo is among my favorite meals on this earth.

I'm taking a break from mastering 14th Amendment constitutional jurisprudence in 2 days to go to Honey 1. Will report back on the brisket, which I'm eager to try.

BTW is it raining, how long do I have to wait in line, how long does it take to get there at 18:44 from Streeterville? Which route is best? Is the SCOTUS standard of review for abortion legislation closer to strict scrutiny or rational basis?

Took two classmates to Honey 1 who had never been there and both were blown away. I don't have to explain why in great detail to LTH, so let's just leave it at tip and link; smoke, chew, bark, sauce. And white bread. Can't forget the white bread.

Honey 1 is putting out some damn fine barbecue. And despite recent media bumps, the place didn't seem busier than usual, which is not busy.

I sampled some brisket. They don't serve it as a plate, so you have to get a sandwich, which really isn't that different than a plate of bbq - meat, cheap white bread (this time shaped into "buns"), fries, sauce. Next time I'll ask for the sandwich on plain CWB. The brisket was good. I don't have much experience with brisket, though I ate a decent share on a recent trip to Texas and was consistently disappointed (due to time constraints I couldn't make to all the great places y'all recommended). This was better than anything I had there, but I still got the sense that it's a work in progress. The meat was redolent of smoke and nicely beefy, but the texture was a tad stringy and could have used a little more moisture, and of course, bark. The edges were simply too soft.

But the flavor - it was damn fine, and jammed into some CWB with a squirt of sauce, it really hit the spot. I'd order it again even if it didn't get better; would sing a song of joy if it did get better.

Well, looks like any bump from the Trib article has worn off. I was there about 1PM today and it was pretty dead. As always, the combo was great. My wife tried the brisket sandwich. She complained that it was a little fatty. But the little piece I tried was very smokey with a nice char on it. She'll probably return to her normal pulled pork the next time.

midas wrote: My wife tried the brisket sandwich. She complained that it was a little fatty. But the little piece I tried was very smokey with a nice char on it. She'll probably return to her normal pulled pork the next time.

Good to know. Usually brisket isn't fatty enough for me. Was it more melty or chewy?

going to honey 1 today probley around 3pm
kicking off the memphis tour with honey 1

Sweetbread wrote:Good to know. Usually brisket isn't fatty enough for me. Was it more melty or chewy?

The little piece I had I would say was melty. Of course, the piece was so small it's hard to really say.

midas wrote:

Sweetbread wrote:Good to know. Usually brisket isn't fatty enough for me. Was it more melty or chewy?

The little piece I had I would say was melty. Of course, the piece was so small it's hard to really say.

I wouldn't call Honey 1's brisket fatty by any means. In fact, it tends to be a bit on the dry side compared to Smoque, for example.

Assuming someone knew how to cook a brisket correctly, wouldn't the fat content vary from day to day?

seebee wrote:Assuming someone knew how to cook a brisket correctly, wouldn't the fat content vary from day to day?

I cook a lot of brisket, and in my professional opinion, Honey1's brisket tends to the dry side compared to the brisket that I cook or the brisket served at Smoque. Given day to day variations, it is sure to be less dry on some days than others. I'm not saying that they serve dry brisket. I'm saying that their brisket tends to the dry side of what I would consider acceptable.

I was there about 6:30 last night, not busy at all. Got a half slab and small order of tips to bring home, just fabulous. And the dog got some bones to chew on.

trpt2345 wrote:I was there about 6:30 last night, not busy at all. Got a half slab and small order of tips to bring home, just fabulous. And the dog got some bones to chew on.

Be careful giving those pork bones to the pups trpt2345...raw is good but cooked can splinter and choke...and since they're small to begin with, they can be pretty dangerous. Sorry for the fido buzzkill

I've eaten Honey 1's food at least a bizillion times, and I've never deviated from the same two things I always order. Does that make me a coward, an eccentric or an idiot? I love their pulled pork sandwich, and I love their rib tip/hot links combo. I know this will give me anti-kudos, but I love soaking everything in their BBQ sauce, too. I don't care how sacrilegious BBQ sauce is, I'm an addict and I'm happy dammit.

garcho I'm a tip/link combo guy too (though I haven't been there since they started doing brisket and I'd probably give that a shot). I don't think it makes us unadventurous, it just means we know what's good I don't get there all that often but when I do it's the thought of a tip/link combo that's driving me.

Also Honey-1's sauce is very good, no shame there. I like to get some of that and some hot sauce on the side and I alternate dipping between the two.

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:Also Honey-1's sauce is very good, no shame there. I like to get some of that and some hot sauce on the side and I alternate dipping between the two.

I mix 'em and dip the links in it. Fantastic!

=R=

boudreaulicious wrote:

trpt2345 wrote:I was there about 6:30 last night, not busy at all. Got a half slab and small order of tips to bring home, just fabulous. And the dog got some bones to chew on.

Be careful giving those pork bones to the pups trpt2345...raw is good but cooked can splinter and choke...and since they're small to begin with, they can be pretty dangerous. Sorry for the fido buzzkill

He only got the half slab bones, not the tips.

All I ever order is the tip/link combo. It's what tempts me to make the long drive. I ordered the spares once. Good, but tips are just too good.

I felt like it would be appropriate to report back from the field about Honey 1 bbq. My wife, Chelsea, asked what my favorite birthday food from my childhood was and I told her bbq ribs, what else?! So she felt that Honey 1 would be a good choice for my birthday get together.



I thought the timing was also good because Mike Gebert's recent Sky Full of Bacon video about Chicago pit masters got me fired up for some smoky cue.

This is great bbq in my opinion. I thought about what bbq really is on the way home and came to this conclusion. Bbq is simple stuff. It's cooked meat. But you can compare 10 bbq places that cook meat and end up with cooked meat whose quality ranges from great to ok, to not so good. So what is it about Honey 1 that makes this seemingly simple thing so good? I think that it's the personal attention to the product throughout the entire cooking process.

With the aquarium style of cooking, the pitmaster him/herself has to cook the meat "by hand" from beginning to end. With the aquarium style, burning wood is the fuel that heats the cooker and flavors the meat, as opposed to a combination cooker that heats with a gas flame and generates smoke by burning wood in the form of logs, pellets or sawdust. An aquarium cooker doesn't have a computerized thermostat that controls the heat and cooking time. The pitmaster must shift meat around to various zones of the aquarium cooker throughout the cooking process. He will try to come up with a formula for how long the various cuts take to cook but it is not an exact science. The potential for human error and for things to go technically wrong are greater with an aquarium cooker.

Even though bbq is "simple" in form, the process is a lot of work. It's more work for someone who operates an aquarium cooker than it is for someone who is using a thermostatically controlled dual-fuel cooker. Can most people tell the difference between product that comes from one or the other? Probably not. But can you tell the difference? I remember saying to a teacher once, "that's a pain in the ass!" My teacher told me, "Junior, aren't the best things in life a pain in the ass?" I guess life is a lot like bbq. We choose our battle, we prioritize what's most important after weighing the good and the bad of the situation. We decide what it is we really want to get out of the situation and what our clientele wants out of the situation. This same teacher also told me that I can leave something out of a recipe to cut a corner. He said that most people may not even know the difference. But, he told me, I would know the difference, so if I'm cool with that, then go with it. Is bbq that is done with gas considered cutting corners? I'm not qualified to say and will say that all bbq has the potential to be great. I will say though that a place like Honey 1 should be celebrated for the way that they prepare bbq.

art - Your review of Honey 1 just made a grown man named Gary cry.

art wrote:With the aquarium style of cooking, the pitmaster him/herself has to cook the meat "by hand" from beginning to end. With the aquarium style, burning wood is the fuel that heats the cooker and flavors the meat, as opposed to a combination cooker that heats with a gas flame and generates smoke by burning wood in the form of logs, pellets or sawdust. An aquarium cooker doesn't have a computerized thermostat that controls the heat and cooking time. The pitmaster must shift meat around to various zones of the aquarium cooker throughout the cooking process. He will try to come up with a formula for how long the various cuts take to cook but it is not an exact science. The potential for human error and for things to go technically wrong are greater with an aquarium cooker.

aschie30 wrote:art - Your review of Honey 1 just made a grown man named Gary cry.

I rarely get weepy about barbecue, but your review, art, is indeed touching, especially since I very recently spent some time with Mr. Adams at his smoker. I'd met and chatted with him a handful of times before, but every time I get back there and listen to him talk about and watch him tend to his barbecue, I'm struck by how darn passionate and charming he is. He's a master, and that smile makes the tips and links taste only better.

art wrote:I guess life is a lot like bbq.

Pure wisdom.

=R=

Picked up my usual combo at Honey1 today. I could eat that every day for a year and not get tired of it.

aschie30 wrote:art - Your review of Honey 1 just made a grown man named Gary cry.

Just about.

A beautiful post Art, thank you.