God bless Southern Living.
Sometimes we almost forget that the South’s most popular lifestyle magazine is based in Alabama – in fact, it was founded here.
Damn, sometimes they seem to forget where they came from.
Take Southern Living’s latest list of the best new barbecue joints in the South for 2024.
It includes 22 barbecue restaurants from seven southern states.
Five from Texas and five from South Carolina. Three from North Carolina and three from Tennessee. Two each from Georgia, Virginia and, yes, even Florida.
But Alabama?
None. Nada. Zero. Nothing.
The birthplace of world-famous Alabama white sauce and home of barbecue legends Robert “Big Bob” Gibson, John “Big Daddy” Bishop and Chris Lilly deserves a little more love and respect.
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But we understand that. We can’t rest on our laurels, no matter how Hall of Fame-worthy they may be.
However, it is not the case that no new barbecue restaurants have opened in Alabama in recent years.
For its purposes, Southern Living defined a “new” restaurant as one that opened since the last version of the magazine’s list of best new barbecue joints was published in September 2021.
“It also has to be a truly new restaurant,” writes Robert F. Moss, the magazine’s barbecue editor. “Many successful restaurateurs have opened new locations in recent years, and some are building sprawling, multi-state empires. But more is not the same as new, and we’ve excluded additional locations that share the same name and format as their predecessors.”
Fair enough.
And with a nod to Charleston, South Carolina-based Moss—who has eaten at all 22 establishments on his list at least once, and some of them multiple times—we realize that due to time, distance, and, er, “stomach capacity,” it’s impossible to visit every new restaurant that opens in every Southern state.
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Trust us. We’ve put together a number of lists like this in the past, from the best barbecue in every Alabama county to the old Alabama barbecue joints we miss the most. We know it’s not an easy task (even though outsiders may say otherwise), but it’s easy to miss something right under your nose.
And no matter how long your list is, someone will always be forgotten.
The next time Southern Living sends Moss out to find a new pool table, here are a few places in Alabama we think he should definitely visit. We’d be happy to go with him.
And while we realize these are just two of many new barbecue restaurants that have opened in Alabama since 2021, we don’t want to seem greedy.
So, two are enough for now.
And it’s much better than nothing.
The brisket sandwich at Creekside BBQ in Pelham is topped with smoked beef brisket, drizzled with Alabama white sauce and garnished with Wickles pickles and fried onion strips.(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Creekside BBQ in Pelham
Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, Eric Pippert worked in kitchens in North Carolina and Tennessee before moving to Alabama and opening Creekside BBQ in late 2021 in a converted Waffle House near the Oak Mountain Amphitheater in Pelham.
A self-professed “pork connoisseur,” Pippert knows that quality barbecue takes time and patience. It shows in the juicy smoked chicken, tender pulled pork, meaty ribs and melt-in-your-mouth brisket he serves to a fan base that has grown exponentially since he opened his small smokehouse overlooking Bishop Creek in Pelham nearly three years ago.
Pippert’s crispy chicken wings – which he smokes, flash-fries, then tosses in an Alabama white sauce – were among our favorite dishes of 2022, and his brisket sandwich – a giant Whopper of smoked beef brisket drizzled with even more of the same Alabama white sauce and topped with Wickles pickles and fried onion strips – repeated the feat in 2023.
Creekside BBQ is located at 1020 Oak Mountain Park Road in Pelham, Ala. The phone number is 205-358-7103. For more information, call go here.
Jamie Lee Mitchell grew up in the small town of Gainesville in Sumter County in Alabama’s Black Belt. After moving to Boston, he returned home and opened Alabama Rib Shack in 2021. (Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Alabama Rib Shack in Gainesville
Jamie Lee Mitchell, who grew up in the small town of Gainseville in Sumter County, moved to Boston after graduating high school, but came home on July 4, 2020, and began building the A-frame log cabin that would become the Alabama Rib Shack, opening it about a year later, in May 2021.
(Although this falls outside the September 2021 window for the quality of a “new” restaurant set by Southern Living, Moss — who writes that “rules are meant to be broken, or at least bent a little” — made an exception for West Palm Beach’s Tropical Smokehouse, which opened in early 2021, so we’ll make the same exception for Alabama Rib Shack.)
To be clear, the Alabama Rib Shack is neither a “shack,” nor is the menu limited to ribs.
Mitchell, a self-taught grill master, also smokes chicken, sausages, pork and pig tails on white oak and pecan firewood stacked from floor to ceiling in his grill room.
We first visited this little slice of barbecue heaven in Alabama’s Black Belt in 2022, and John T. Edge spread the good news to a national audience when he featured the Alabama Rib Shack on Season 6 of his popular SEC Network series, “TrueSouth.”
Since then, thousands of barbecue lovers from across the country have flocked to this town of less than 200 residents to enjoy Mitchell’s delicious barbecue and hear his fascinating life story.
And if it’s not on your wish list yet, it should be now.
The Alabama Rib Shack is located at 9316 State St. in Gainesville, Alabama. The phone number is 205-652-1115. For more information, please call go here.
