Friday, September 9, 2011

Slope's BBQ (Alpharetta, GA)

5865 Gateway Drive
Alpharetta, GA 30004
www.slopesbbq.com

Slope's Barbecue of Alpharetta on Urbanspoon


Slope's BBQ has been around the North Atlanta BBQ scene for almost twenty years now. I've seen multiple locations, but have honestly never tried any of them. Today would be my first. My buddy Clay would join me for this Georgia Barbecue Hunt tour stop.


We arrived during lunch time and after much consideration I ordered the combo plate. After speaking with the gentleman at the counter who assured me that all their meat is slow-cooked using hickory wood, the chicken, spare rib, and pulled pork plate seemed like my best bet. I went with the mac 'n' cheese and baked beans as my sides. This BBQ sampler included a drink but still set me back $16. Clay's on a budget so he went with their pulled pork sandwich special with fried okra and green beans on the side. Dave Ramsey would've been proud. 



When we got our food I went straight for the spare ribs. They were tender, but that's about it. I wasn't crazy about the amount of sauce/glaze on top and a little disappointed that there wasn't more of a rub or crust on top. They were pretty soft and mushy alltogether. If you've been following my blog at all, I've mentioned how pulled pork in Georgia is the standard for BBQ. It's what brisket is to Texas and ribs to Memphis. The pulled pork at Slope's was bad this day. It tasted old. It was dry. There was no bark. There was no smoke flavor. It was borderline unedible for me. A pet peeve of mine is when BBQ joints serve old meat. If you don't have anything available that's fresh then tell me you're out of it and I'll gladly come back or order something else. Use yesterday's pork for your baked beans or brunswick stew. Don't serve it to customers. The funny thing is that with the amount of sauce that Clay added to his sandwich, he couldn't even tell and actually enjoyed it. Rookie move, but definitely the only way to make this sandwich enjoyable. Maybe he was on to something here. After that, the rest of my meal was pretty forgettable. The chicken was tough and the mac 'n' cheese tasted like it was from the local elementary cafeteria. The two redeeming things about Slope's is their fried okra and BBQ sauce. Both are delicious and on point. 


Slope's didn't offer their best BBQ on the day we went. I'm hoping that we caught them on a bad day and that's not what they usually serve. I won't be going back to find out.  Please keep in mind that this is only my opinion based on our visit and the other Georgia BBQ we've tried. If you love Slope's already, then keep loving it. If you haven't ever tried it, then we'd suggest visiting a couple other places first.

6 comments:

  1. I have heard that Slope's uses an 80/20 mixture of pork and chicken for their "pulled pork". That stuff is No Buenos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't confirm that but wouldn't doubt it. Something's not right with it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There was an occasion in 2000 when I went to one Slope's store and for the entire meal, I listened to the owner yell about a politician whom he did not like. Two months later, I was back in the area tutoring, decided to give them another chance, and the guy was delivering the exact same loudmouthed speech. I prefer to think that it was just the same fellow, sitting in the same spot, listening to the owner shouting about the same politician, for two solid months.

    Anyway, the food wasn't good enough to ever warrant a return visit to see whether that politician's still on the owner's bad side.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me guess, he was complaining about Obama.

      Delete
  4. That's unfortunate. On this occasion the food spoke for itself...and it didn't say much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I had the pulled pork sandwich and wondered if it was shredded chicken. Tasted like chicken.

    ReplyDelete