Baby Blues Bar-B-Q
444 Lincoln Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
We stayed the night near LAX before our trip to New York. Not wanting to let this rare night in Los Angeles go to waste, I did a little research and found a highly rated restaurant, Baby Blues Bar-B-Q.
Baby Blues has been on TV shows, Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives and Food Paradise. Baby Blues has been open since 2004. It was started by two guys that describe their barbecue as a hybrid of barbecue from all across the US. The sauce is reminiscent of sauces from North Carolina, the rest of the menu draws on barbecue techniques from Kansas City, Memphis and Texas, among others. Needless to say I was pretty excited to try the food, so let's see how it turned out.
Starting us off was my Mom's choice for dinner, the Carolina Style Pulled Pork Sandwich. My Mom was pretty pleased with this dish. She found the meat was really moist and liked the Cole Slaw. Out of the five sauces that were on the table, she liked the sweet chili sauce the best with this.
My Dad is not a big rib guy, so he ordered the Beef Brisket Sandwich. On the positive side, my Dad felt that the meat was tender and moist, and he liked the BBQ sauce best on this. The only negative thing that my pops said about the sandwich was that the meat could have been cut thinner. My Dad also wanted to try a side item, so he got the Mashed Sweet Potatoes, which he called very good. I am not really a sweet potato fan, but I liked the smooth consistency of these and the flavor was pretty good as well.
Our sandwich parade rolls on with Katie's option for dinner, the Shrimp Po Boy. Katie raved that this sandwich was delicious, with more than enough shrimp on it. She also wanted to try two sides, so she got the Mac N' Cheese and the Blues On the Cob. The mac n cheese was very good, with just the right amount of cheesy goodness. I did not try the corn, but Katie really liked the cheese that was on this. Not sure what kind it was, looked a little like Parmesan.
I was at a barbecue restaurant, so you know that I was definitely going to get some traditional barbecue items. I selected the Bones and No Bones Platter. This dish came with half a rack of Memphis ribs and a half a pound of pulled pork, served with two sides. The ribs were very good. Some of the best I have had in awhile. The pulled pork was equally good, because it was so moist. I experimented with the different sauces on the table. I believe that the regular barbecue sauce was my favorite, but it was also nice changing up the pace with some squirts from the hot barbecue sauce as well. The mashed potatoes were okay, but the collard greens stole the show for the side items. Served in a brown sauce, that I am not even sure what it was, but it really added to the collard greens. Very good plate of food here.
Baby Blues Bar-B-Q is a small, kitchy joint serving up big platters of barbecue favorites. The prices were decent. Sandwiches were in the $9 to $11 range, while the dinner platters were going for $18 to $25. The service matched the southern charm of this place. Our waitress was very sweet, even giving my Mom her cell phone number, so she could give us some restaurants to try in New York. Something unheard of in LA. I was also surprised there was no wait when we arrived at 5pm on a Saturday night. Guess we got lucky in more ways than one by coming to Baby Blues.
Out of five police cars, (because for a short time in the late 70's/early 80's police cars in San Fransisco were painted baby blue for some reason), five being best to zero being worst, Baby Blues Bar-B-Q gets 4 police cars.
For more information on Baby Blues Bar-B-Q, click here: http://www.babybluesvenice.com/#/home
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