RedBones

I think barbecue might be my favorite food. I have had it from Austin to Boston and tons of famous places in between, but in these parts, I think the OG in the game, around since 1987 and still going strong, is Redbones in Davis Square Somerville.

When you walk into Redbones, man, you smell that barbecue. But there's also a lot to look at. In the dining room, you see some of the great jazz, country, soul performers… most of whom have eaten at Redbones.

I prefer what they call Underbones…It is so colorful and unique and lively. It's just so much fun down here.

But my number one favorite is the bar….It's got the obligatory barbecue trophies, the beers on tap, just the kind of place where you want to hang out all night long.

“Redbones is interesting. It has three distinct different spaces, and everybody has their own place where they like to be. Some people want to be in the upstairs bar, which is kind of a local neighborhood bar. Some people…prefer the dining room upstairs, and then there are people that love the downstairs.”

Rob Gregory is the co-founder and pit master, and he is definitely one of the founding fathers of barbecue in New England.

Rob will tell you that it's been trial and error since 1987 and I will tell you their act is now down perfect.

“My dad's from the south, so I knew about barbecue, but I had never cooked it.”

“We had good days and bad days while we were learning to…cook barbecue.

“But over the years, we kind of figured out how to perfect it.”

Sandwiches are tremendous at Redbones, this is the smoked beef brisket. It's got that great barbecue flavor.

“Slow smoked beef brisket”

“we chop them up out of the end pieces, and we have a little special sauce that we put on them, kind of a little,little tiny bit sweet, not too sweet, tangy with a little heat.”

“You know, can't go wrong with that.”

When I go to a barbecue restaurant for the first time, I like to get a sampler platter so I can try a lot of things…This one has pulled chicken, pulled pork and burnt ends. Burnt ends are the part of the brisket on the outside with a lot of fat, so it has even more flavor than the regular part of the brisket. If your mom used to make you craft mac and cheese, you will love this mac and cheese, elbow macaroni, really, really cheesy, and then the baked beans have the burnt end flavor mixed in, I'm telling you, this is an amazing combination of five different barbecue items.

“That's probably one of the biggest sellers at Redbones, the barbecue meat platter…people figure out where the best value is. There's a lot of meat there. For the meat lovers… they get a sample all that meat, and it's quite a bit, and I think people love it.”

The Texas beef rib is really prime rib on a stick.

You won't see Texas Beef ribs on a lot of menus in these parts. Here they are a specialty. This is like eating prime rib on the bone, but smoked for hours and hours and hours. I like to get mine with the corn bread, which is so delicious here. And it also comes with their pinto beans.

“Beef ribs are pretty big, and that's a hefty meal.”

“That's a nice, nice combo. You know, pinto beans are very Texas…some onions and peppers in there, and very tasty... Can't beat it.”

My favorite item at Redbones is the St Louis pork ribs.

These are pork ribs, and the essence of the smoke gets inside. There are five or six bones worth of ribs.

“16 hours in the smoker, slow smoked…wrapped in butcher paper…just beautiful tender…beef with just the right amount of fat in it and still a little bit of juiciness to it, just luscious stuff.”

Then there's two amazing biscuits served with their own homemade peach jam. You're gonna want every little piece of that peach jam on those delicious biscuits. Then if you really want Southern flavor, you gotta get the collard greens. That's like Southern kale, but much tastier.

Chicken and waffles is big in the south, but it's making its way north. Here, the fried chicken is boneless and delicious. The waffles are perfect. Put the gravy on the chicken, put the syrup on the waffles, maybe mix it together, and you're in flavor heaven.

“I mean, that combination will put you in a coma. As simple as that.”

My best bet for dessert is the beignets. These are like gourmet fried dough served with tons of powdered sugar, served in the bag, just like you're going to go for a walk down Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Beer barbecue and Beignets, I'm a happy man.

“People love fried dough. That's as simple as that. It's just fancy fried dough…beautifully crafted…light and airy and then… just tossed in some powdered sugar and nothing wrong with that. Just try not to eat too many of them.”

Barbecue and beers with your buddies. I say there's nothing better. And I say there's no better place to do it than Redbones in Davis square, Somerville.