Cabin Creek BBQ Co. (Nicholson, GA)

199 Memorial Drive
Nicholson, GA 30565
706-757-2267

We made a little day trip recently to Cabin Creek BBQ Company in Nicholson, GA. If you don't know where Nicholson, GA is, that's ok...neither did we. It's in the middle of nowhere just north of Athens (which is also in the middle of nowhere). If you make this day trip, make sure it's on a Friday or Saturday because otherwise you'll leave empty handed. Cabin Creek opens its doors Friday and Saturday only.

When I pulled up, I parked right outside their screened in smokehouse. There were a couple Ole Hickory smokers inside from the best I could tell. There was also a stick burner in the back that wasn't getting any use at the moment. The dining room was less than half full. I counted fifteen people, most glued to the silent TV which was playing some insignificant Division 2 college football game. Jamie and I placed our order of St. Louis style spare ribs, brisket, pulled pork, coleslaw, mac 'n cheese, baked beans, and Brunswick stew.

We tried both the mild and hot BBQ sauces while we waited for our meal. Both were sweet and tangy with flavors of ketchup, vinegar, and cayenne pepper. I'd consider it "Memphis Style" if you needed to put a label on it. There wasn't a strong difference between the mild and hot sauce that we could tell. We waited about five minutes before our BBQ platter showed up. Initially, the food looked fantastic.

The ribs were beautifully covered in a sweet and spicy glaze. They were cooked perfectly with a good amount of smoke throughout the whole rib, even with the membrane left on. I'm not sure if I could eat more than four or five of these due to the sweetness, but the couple that we had were great. The big pieces of pulled pork were tender and flavorful. It was a little salty with no big pieces of bark. I imagine this would have made a pretty good pulled pork sandwich though. My least favorite part of this meat triumvirate was the brisket. It was overcooked with no bark or smoke flavor. The texture made us believe it had spent most of the day baking in its own juices and not in a smoker. This wasn't my idea of great brisket. It left a strange aftertaste that we couldn't quite put our fingers on. Another thing worth mentioning was the spicy mayonnaise the brisket was served with. This was a first for me and hopefully a last. Brisket with spicy mayonnaise seems ridiculous and insulted one of my favorite cuts of meat even further. I know there are mayonnaise-based sauces originating in Alabama, and I can assure you this was not one of those.


Everything here has some kind of kick or spice to it, even the cayenne pepper sprinkled mac 'n cheese. Our noses were both running near the end of this meal. The Brunswick stew was nicely done, but nothing too out of the oridnary. The coleslaw was way too salty for either of our liking. I'm not sure I'd drive too far out of the way for Cabin Creek BBQ, but if you're ever close and want a solid meal, then don't steer to far away from the ribs, pulled pork, and Brunswick stew.