BBQ Review - Hickory Pit Bar-B-Queue, Chattanooga, Tennessee

BBQ Review - Hickory Pit Bar-B-Queue, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Note: I don't publish any negative reviews at all, so you only see reviews for places I stop at and enjoy.  I don't think it's fair to write a negative review for an establishment that might have had an off day.

These guys (Mr. and Mrs. Ford) just won Fifth in a Nation-wide award from TripAdvisor!  That's no small feat; per TripAdvisor, their "community of millions of travelers" had decided that this BBQ restaurant is worthy of 5th place in the USA!

The award was posted Thursday, May 8, 2014.  I learned of it on Friday, May 9, 2014.  I was there eating a big-ol' BBQ Pork sandwich on Saturday, May 10 - the next day!

My wife and I planned the trip for Saturday, May 10th, 2014, to see relatives in Chattanooga TN that would require us to go right by this restaurant on our way to visit!

Coming from Atlanta on I-75 N., we took Exit 1B for Ringgold Ave, then headed West for one (1) mile, and located the restaurant on the right side of the highway.

It's small!  Like 2 tables outside, 4 or 5 tables inside!

We tried to time our arrival at 11:30, so that hopefully we might avoid the major crush I was expecting.  Well, I was wrong - there was already a major crush, and it just got bigger and longer as we waited....45 minutes to be served, after waiting about 15 minutes to order.

The staff was doing all they could, but they were overwhelmed.  Everyone was pleasant though, and we didn't hear anyone complain about the wait.

They were, however, in addition to taking orders from the people that stood in line to place their order at the counter, also taking orders at the drive-up window, as well as orders over the phone.  That meant anyone placing an order via their car or over the phone was jumping to the head of the line and this meant the line was at least 3 times as long as what we saw standing in line. 

At some point Mrs. Ford realized this wasn't fair to the people that had traveled to eat with them, and stopped taking any further orders over the phone, which continued to ring non-stop!

There was no where to sit for us, so we took 'take-out', and ate it in our vehicle.  That was a little difficult, because this was a huge BBQ Pork sandwich, heavily laden with sauce!  Careful attention was required, after multiple wraps with napkins, to try and keep it off of our cloths - we both succeeded, which I would have thought would be impossible!

So - what did we think?

WE LIKED IT A LOT!

Worth the wait?  No, but then nothing would have been worth the wait!  The wait will change as the excitement wears thin, or they adjust their staff to the new reality.

WOULD WE GO BACK!  YES!  After the excitement has died down somewhat.

This is ONE HUGE BBQ PORK SANDWICH.  Next time, I'll ask for it to be NAKED, so I can better judge the meat, but it's the real-deal!