What really strikes me about this thread is that it shows the passion people have for barbeque. Usually the friendly arguments surrounding que are about which region is best, which method is best, is Eastern or Western North Carolina style better, is dry or wet better, or whatever.

Here the passion runs so deep that people can't even agree what criteria should be established to set up a local Google map about barbeque!

But ultimately, yes, it's Kseecs's map, so he can do whatever he darn well pleases.

And yes, Scottsol, I have also seen that many people who have posted here don't like Rendezvous or are neutral towards it. As a guy who has grown up for 43 years in the Chicagoland area, I confess that there's not much about Chicago style barbeque that I like. That's one of the reasons I love Smoque so much, as there's almost nothing from this region on the menu. Give me Texas hill country or Memphis barbeque any day, and you can keep the Kansas City barbeque. To really enjoy North Carolina barbeque, it has to be experienced sitting down with nice Southern folks sipping sweet tea at a counter in Lexington, because the food itself can be overrated.

Just put my house on the Google map, because when I get my Big Green Egg going at 225 degrees with natural hardwood charcoal and some hickory, I can make a mean rack that will hang with just about anyone. And if you have to put sauce on the ribs, you're cheating.

I'm not stricken at all by the passion folks here have about q. This thread is as tame as a 10 yr old golden retreiver compared to others threads on q I've seen here. What strikes me is how tame it is considering some of the suggestions that have been made. Lotta pointy haired boss talk. I'm surprised that nobody has asked how kseecs plans to handle any manufacturers of smoked oysters. OK - definitely a little snarky, I know, but well, I can't be the only one thinking this.

abevigoda wrote:
Just put my house on the Google map, because when I get my Big Green Egg going at 225 degrees with natural hardwood charcoal and some hickory, I can make a mean rack that will hang with just about anyone. And if you have to put sauce on the ribs, you're cheating.

We will not allow you to be listed until we can inspect your setup and evaluate the results.
This has absolutely nothing to do with any desire for free 'cue!

IMO: BBQ mapping is supposed to be somewhat independent of opinion, more for the purpose of informing the map readers of all the locations of a certain genre of pinpoints, the notes and reviews on each pin like this map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112833324541358499430.00044dfa8d6d58f8dad68&z=6

Lets face it, guys who use gas, electric, brick pits, offsets, etc. out there,MAYBE consist of a total 100-200 places in the entire Chicago metro area. And from the looks of it, at least 70-80% are already listed. That being said, places considered inferior Q like Russell's, Carson's & even Famous Dave's probably all belong on a map that proposes to list all of Chicagolands BBQ.

I think we can all agree that what doesn't belong here, and are the boilers, bakers & brasiers.

So as long as it's done with some type of smoke; i.e wood (chunks, chips or logs) and even charcoal (which is technically wood) or however else they arrive at that criteria, I think it merits mention, even if there is an asterisk next it. I'm not sure slow & low vs grilled on wood/charcoal source really should be separated. In other words; a place like Rendezvous in Memphis would certainly make my list of BBQ places if they had a location here.

That should pretty much rule out anyone who just slathers any kind of BBQ sauce on top of any meat, grills it and then foolishly calls it BBQ.

One other note on the existing map: Someone put Captn' Porky's in Zion on the map. It is a seafood fish place first & foremost, but yes they also do have a couple of BBQ items on the menu. They strictly use charcoal, and personally I found the Que there quite bad.

abf005 wrote:
That being said, places considered inferior Q like Russell's, Carson's & even Famous Dave's probably all belong on a map that proposes to list all of Chicagolands BBQ.

The original post makes it clear that the list was never intended to be comprehensive. It was intended for places that used "real wood smoke". There was never any explicit mention of quality, but as far as I know there is no wood smoke at Russell's so it doesn't belong in any case. Carson's is an interesting case because while they do use wood smoke it is extremely unlikely that you will ever get a taste of it in the final product.

scottsol wrote:

abf005 wrote:
That being said, places considered inferior Q like Russell's, Carson's & even Famous Dave's probably all belong on a map that proposes to list all of Chicagolands BBQ.

The original post makes it clear that the list was never intended to be comprehensive. It was intended for places that used "real wood smoke". There was never any explicit mention of quality, but as far as I know there is no wood smoke at Russell's so it doesn't belong in any case. Carson's is an interesting case because while they do use wood smoke it is extremely unlikely that you will ever get a taste of it in the final product.

Maybe the OP initially stated an intention for it not to be overly comprehensive given the effort and time he was willing to dedicate to the mapping exercise. But the inclusion of additional entries can only add more value to it as a tool for finding "Real" BBQ in this region. Sometimes these things have a tendency to take on a life of their own far beyond an author's original intent. Perhaps until a certain level of community acceptance reaches a plateau it may still see a bit of growth and expansion of the initial vision, who knows?

Russell's Barbecue: Your absolutely correct! I completely forgot that they bake then grill the ribs there! As I originally said, "inferior Q"...

abf005 wrote:IOne other note on the existing map: Someone put Captn' Porky's in Zion on the map. It is a seafood fish place first & foremost, but yes they also do have a couple of BBQ items on the menu. They strictly use charcoal, and personally I found the Que there quite bad.

The couple of times I was at Captain Porky's they were using wood in the Aquarium smoker.

G Wiv wrote:

abf005 wrote:IOne other note on the existing map: Someone put Captn' Porky's in Zion on the map. It is a seafood fish place first & foremost, but yes they also do have a couple of BBQ items on the menu. They strictly use charcoal, and personally I found the Que there quite bad.

The couple of times I was at Captain Porky's they were using wood in the Aquarium smoker.

Not to dispute what you saw, but on my last two visits (with the most recent being last year) they had bags of Cowboy charcoal stacked next to the smoker and the meat was dark & dry without ant taste of wood smoke. Perhaps they've changed what they burn since your visit, or maybe they burn wood during the summer vs winter?? IDK

Today I noticed a huge smoker type of smoke stack rising out of the Red & White building being renovated in North Chicago on SW corner of 10th & McAlister...I'll post if it turns out to be a BBQ joint.

abf005 wrote:
Maybe the OP initially stated an intention for it not to be overly comprehensive given the effort and time he was willing to dedicate to the mapping exercise. But the inclusion of additional entries can only add more value to it as a tool for finding "Real" BBQ in this region. Sometimes these things have a tendency to take on a life of their own far beyond an author's original intent. Perhaps until a certain level of community acceptance reaches a plateau it may still see a bit of growth and expansion of the initial vision, who knows?

At this point KSeec seems be doing all the work so his vision should be the one controlling the list. After carefully reading all of his posts on this thread it is pretty clear that his concern was not how much work there was going to be but how truly useful the map was going to be in his (and our) quest for real wood smoked barbecue.

Beyond KSeecs intentions, it seems to me that if the list becomes too big it will lose much of its value, becoming like a google search with pages and pages of listings in no order of relevance.

scottsol wrote:Beyond KSeecs intentions, it seems to me that if the list becomes too big it will lose much of its value, becoming like a google search with pages and pages of listings in no order of relevance.

Exactly, the tighter the focus the more useful the map. If one wants a yellow pages type listing of BBQ joints there are a number of sources.

G Wiv wrote:

scottsol wrote:Beyond KSeecs intentions, it seems to me that if the list becomes too big it will lose much of its value, becoming like a google search with pages and pages of listings in no order of relevance.

Exactly, the tighter the focus the more useful the map. If one wants a yellow pages type listing of BBQ joints there are a number of sources.

If that were really true, we wouldn't be contributing very much to this total effort now would we??

KSeecs (or anyone for that matter) would simply be able to "eliminate" the schmutz by filtering down for a more "focused" map to arrive at the desired results, thus more information is always better. But a great map of any level doesn't exist, and if it does, please post me a link, because I sure have been missing out

As a general rule, I generally hate Chicago Southside style hot links and much prefer the Texas hot guts variety. It would be nice to be able filter all the possibles and arrive at a few good options for me to go try and see is if I ever find my sausage nirvana here in Chicago.

Last comment on Capt'n Porkys; Since I live pretty close to Capt'n Porkys, I will stop in and see what's really going on in there these days, I'll even snap a few pictures for a more conclusive determination on what exactly they're cooking with.

abf005 wrote:If that were really true, we wouldn't be contributing very much to this total effort now would we??

It's not about how much "we" contribute, its about the usefulness of the list within the parameters set by KSeecs

abf005 wrote:Last comment on Capt'n Porkys; Since I live pretty close to Capt'n Porkys, I will stop in and see what's really going on in there these days, I'll even snap a few pictures for a more conclusive determination on what exactly they're cooking with.

abf005 wrote:Last comment on Capt'n Porkys; Since I live pretty close to Capt'n Porkys, I will stop in and see what's really going on in there these days, I'll even snap a few pictures for a more conclusive determination on what exactly they're cooking with.

When I have been there, I have seen bags of wood charcoal and wood, which Dino said was applewood. I will be interested if your information differs from mine.

Regards,

Now there's a first! Just how old are those pictures??

I'm still going to swing by there this week, as I'm absolutely positive they told me they only use charcol, maybe only the owner knows whats really burning in the aquarium smoker.

Its not that big of an issue anyway, since we all agree that theyve always slow smoked em, I guess in my mind its just a question of whether wood is still involved today... Either way; I still think they belong on the BBQ map.

Cathy2 wrote:

abf005 wrote:Last comment on Capt'n Porkys; Since I live pretty close to Capt'n Porkys, I will stop in and see what's really going on in there these days, I'll even snap a few pictures for a more conclusive determination on what exactly they're cooking with.

When I have been there, I have seen bags of wood charcoal and wood, which Dino said was applewood. I will be interested if your information differs from mine.

Regards,

I stopped by this afternoon; Cathy2 is exactly right. Clearly visible from behind the front counter located on one side of the smoker are stacked bags of Cowboy lump charcoal, and on the other; the applewood. I also confirmed this with the very, very nice counter guy who was cleaning up and closing (and no, it wasn't Dino), he said he's been working there for a real long time, and that they've always used both to help keep the "emissions footprint relatively low", since the cost of applewood had gone from free (if you hauled it) to now they have to pay to get the stuff!

Honestly, after our chat, I just didn't feel comfortable snapping any pictures, and the ones posted below are quite excellent and acurate. Besides the smoker was off and not running today, they said tend to run it real heavy going into and on the weekends, and not so much on Monday & Tuesdays.

Anyway I'm glad I stopped in, these guys have always been salt of the earth nice and friendly, and this visit was no different. I really do need to throw more business their direction, especially for the seafood, since I know in my heart, I still can't find a good reason to eat the BBQ here, over going Big Ed's in North Chicago, which I prefer and is closer to me anyhow.

Is anyone still updating the list? I was looking for BBQ but noticed this map was done in 2009.

Thanks!

Pie Lady wrote:Is anyone still updating the list? I was looking for BBQ but noticed this map was done in 2009.

You've put your finger on a major problem with such undertakings: it's relatively easy to make a list or map but a lot more work to ensure it remains useful.

For any who are interested I have started the process of updating this map somewhat. A number of closed restaurants have been moved, several additions made and a couple relocations adjusted for.

Also I made it so that when looking at the map the address and city are visible on the list along the side. Any suggestions for additions to the list, or info as to closed locations or type of cooker are certainly appreciated if anyone would like to do so. You can email me at ksecrist@gmail.com or message me using the forums.

I certainly realize this list will never be exhaustive or 100% accurate of every detail, but my goal is to be more proactive in maintaining and updating it as a resource for myself and my friends as well as any here who find it useful.

Wonderful! Thanks!

Smokey Bear and Woodfire are out of business.

scottsol wrote:Smokey Bear and Woodfire are out of business.

Noted, confirmed and updated. Thanks!