The Insiders' Guide to Twin Cities BBQ

Barbecue is not putting meat on a Weber kettle. It’s a serious culinary technique traditionally centered around pork. In Kentucky, however, mutton is the meat of choice, and in Texas, it’s beef. Most barbecue variations are geographically rooted.

Simple vinegar sauces are common in the Southeast because that’s what early settlers used. But as barbecue migrated, tomatoes and sweeteners were added as chefs in Memphis and other river towns had access to a more diverse group of ingredients. Memphis is a hotbed of dry-rub cookery, with a spicy-sweet red sauce served on the side to keep things moist. Kansas City adopted this technique, serving ribs basted and mopped, while “St. Louis–style” is merely a reference to a well-trimmed, squared-off rack of spareribs, with uniformly sized bones.

Almost all barbecue in our towns is Memphis– or Kansas City–style barbecue. Most meats are slow-cooked for a few hours in braising liquids or a commercial cook-and-hold machine, then finished on a grill or oven. The result can be awfully tasty, but it isn’t real barbecue. Only one joint in town serves authentic rubbed meats slow-cooked over wood in a real brick pit and that’s Market Bar-B-Que, which is approaching its sixtieth birthday.

Though only a fraction of what we sampled around the metro ranks with the best barbecue we’ve eaten in noted barbecue capitals, the Twin Cities boasts a wide and deep range of very good barbecue-style restaurants. It’s hard to argue with greatness on a plate, whatever the technique that delivers it. We went home happy many an afternoon.

THE TOP TEN

1. Redstone American Grill
The dining rooms are more reminiscent of the Parade of Homes than typical roadside honky-tonks, but you have to be impressed by the exacting standards and meticulously consistent quality of Redstone’s kitchens. Baby back ribs and herb-rubbed natural chickens are slow-roasted over apple and cherry woods to produce a pliant and perfect product. The meats taste lightly smoked from careful cooking, while a last-minute turn on the wood grill imparts a slight char. During the final stage of cooking, the meat is basted with a sweet-tart Memphis-style sauce. 12501 Ridgedale Dr., Minnetonka, 952-591-0000; 8000 Eden Rd., Eden Prairie, 952-903-9500, redstonegrill.com

2. Cap’s Grille
At this rustic, plank-floor diner across from Minnehaha Park, the country-style ribs and apple-wood–smoked spareribs, chickens, and beef brisket are all grill-finished, creating a nice light char. The pork shoulder, shredded and sauced for sandwiches, needs a lot of work to bring it up to the high standards set by the rest of the menu, especially the incomparable spareribs. Slabs come hot off the grill, brushed with Cap’s signature tomato-based sauce, and have some of the best pork flavor we found. Now that the LRT stops about 100 feet outside the front door, everyone will soon be talking about this once well-kept ’cue secret. Expect some of the sassiest servers in town. 5000 Hiawatha Ave., Mpls., 612-722-2277, capsgrille.com

3. Ted Cook’s
Steamed-up picture windows, a giant iron smoker and grill, a chin-high linoleum counter, and the imperious gaze of pit masters dominate this small, authentic, neighborhood barbecue joint that only serves to go. Nitpickers can argue all they want about the lineage of Cook’s ’cue (a neat hybrid of Memphis and Kansas City styles), but the cherry- and hickory-smoked spareribs, beef ribs, chicken, and rib tips and the sweet-hot glazy sauces are the real deal. If you like heat, check out Cook’s hot sauce—it’s only for the bold. All the BBQ is served really wet here, so if you take your ’cue dry, say so. And while it wasn’t part of our official taste test, some of our gang thought the cottage fries (Jojo potatoes) complemented the meat and heat perfectly. 2814 E. 38th St., Mpls., 612-721-2023