November 1: Chuck's Hole in the Wall BBQ

I'm out of my element. I'm not conversant in the ways of barbecue, but I've seen BBQ wars online like you wouldn't believe. Chicken on fire off a shoulder of pork. I've seen sauce glitter in the dark near the fair's Green Gate. All those moments are lost to me, like cornbread in the rain. Time to eat.

Lunch today was at Chuck's Hole in the Wall BBQ. I hadn't decided whether to eat there or at its Smith Tower neighbor, Shawn O'Donnell's Pub, but as good as the bacon cheeseburger sounded, BBQ edged it out today.

The space isn't as small as reviews led me to believe, but seating is somewhat limited to a rail around the windows. Arriving just after noon, there was nobody in line, which wasn't a great sign. However, their other neighbor, the highly recommended Il Corvo, had very little line, too, and it usually has a line half a block long. Guess the light drizzle was too much for some folks.

I ordered the Hole Pile: cornbread under baked beans under pulled pork, drizzled with BBQ sauce. "Spicy or regular?" the guy behind the counter asked. "Regular." I'm feeling kind of bland today.

Much faster than I expected, it's brought out to me. Somewhere under that pile of glistening pork are beans and cornbread, but they're hidden pretty well. Is it a Carolina sauce? A Kansas City sauce? A Texas sauce? I've got no idea what those even mean. Their web site says that it's coffee-based, so maybe it's Seattle-style.

(Yeah, it's clear I don't know what I'm talking about here. But you're choosing to keep reading, so it's all on you.)

The first bite of pork and sauce gives a gentle smokey flavor, somewhat faint, somewhat bland, but pretty much what I expected. I'd never have guessed "coffee." Digging deeper, the cornbread is maintaining its structural integrity despite the layers above. It gives way softly under my plastic fork, and tastes, well, like a decent cornbread. Again, I'm not conversant in barbecue or its trimmings, so really all I can say about it is that it complemented the other ingredients well, and wasn't quite as gritty as the 69¢ box of Jiffy corn muffins I make once in a while.

The beans were a blend of two kinds: the, umm... small light tan ones and darker kidney-type ones. They were good, but really seemed to just a bit of filler.

About halfway through my trough of pork, I would have expected to see some water from the beans or some grease from the pork or some other kind of puddle. I thought maybe the cornbread had absorbed it, but they say they do their best to remove the fats from the meats, so that's probably got a lot to do with it.

Overall, it was pretty good. It was one of the less expensive counter-service meals I've had on this adventure. When I'm craving BBQ, I'd head back there. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two.

Chuck's Hole in the Wall BBQ
215 James Street
Hole Pile (pork, beans, cornbread), can of Diet Coke, $13.43