'Cue Barbecue (Milton, GA)

13700 Highway 9
Milton, GA 30004
770-667-0089
http://www.cuebarbecue.com/

After finding that the local Pig 'n' Chik had recently shut down, I went with my back up plan, 'Cue BBQ in nearby Milton. From what I've heard, the former chef from Roswell's own Swallow at the Hollow left in hopes of making his own name in Georgia BBQ. 'Cue definitely doesn't have the atmosphere that makes Swallow at the Hollow so locally famous, but we were only focused on one thing here...the food.

When you walk in 'Cue you'll notice the "modern meets Western" decor. Just in case you're wondering, it's nothing like the backwoods, distressed look that you'll find at the Swallow. The friendly staff promptly greeted me and sat me at the nearest table. I was surprised to see some of my Texas favorites on their menu such as brisket and sausage. As strange as it might seem to some, you don't see a lot of either on many Georgia BBQ menus. I decided to go with the pulled pork and brisket with coleslaw and their bacon beans as my sides. While I waited for my food, I went ahead and sampled each of their three homemade BBQ sauces. The Kansas City style sauce, which they referred to as their "Georgia sauce", was decent. It was pretty thick and sweet, but not dark at all like you'd see with a molasses or heavy brown sugar sauce. It had a strong sweet tomato flavor. The South Carolina sauce tasted a lot like honey mustard to me. The last sauce was their vinegar based sauce which I actually enjoyed. It had some kick and nice smoky chili flavors as opposed to just straight vinegar. This complemented the pulled pork very well.

Sadly, I never get my hopes up for brisket here in Georgia. I've had more bad experiences than good. Unfortunately, this brisket wasn't one of my favorites either. It lacked any good bark or smoke flavor and was dry and tough. I wouldn't recommend it at all. The pulled pork however, was delicious. It didn't have a ton of smoky flavor, but it was tender, fresh, and had enough bark to satisfy my BBQ needs this day. I could've/should've went without either of the sides here. Their "bacon beans" were bland and a little too al dente for my liking. The colelsaw was mushy and watery.

'Cue is forgettable and didn't really stand out in anything besides offering good pulled pork. It made me wonder if I should've just waited the additional fifteen minutes for their sausage. If you're ever in the area, stop in and let me know what you think.