BBQ Quest: Scruggs

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Working downtownish, I've been looking for a barbecue place near my office to satisfy my midday barbecue cravings. Max and I aimed for Dixons on Magnolia last Thursday only to find they weren't quite open yet (here's a hint: Th-Sat but go AFTER 4 p.m.). Fortunately, Scruggs is just down the road, and it keeps a much more regular schedule.

Scruggs might be easy to miss unless you know this detail: it's attached to a liquor package store. Now let me tell you, Scruggs has the hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint ambiance down to a T, which I absolutely loved. Dark wood-paneled walls, pictures hung of UT football teams from the '50s, a (possibly inoperable) Shaq Attaq pinball machine and an overgrown plant that looked like a cousin of Audrey II's.

photos by max., who forgot to take photos of the actual food.

Upon ordering it occurred to me that I'd forgotten to stop by the ATM on the way over and only had three dollars cash to my name. Here's the Modern Gal's first tip in eating at hole-in-the-wall joints: always have cash. Fortunately, the lady at the counter told me I could pay with credit card. In paying by credit card, I had to take my bill, walk next door to the liquor store, where everything was encased in plexiglass, pay the lady behind the plexiglass and bring my bill back to the restaurant before they'd start putting my order together. Max ran into his own barrier in getting his order filled in that the Coke he ordered was locked in a cooler.

Now, about the food. It was another case of the pulled pork being more chopped than pulled, and it really didn't have the flavor I've been searching for. Or maybe it did have the flavor, but it was oozing with so much wonderfully thick, sweet, tomatoey sauce that I didn't notice. Seriously, Scruggs needs to bottle its sauce and sell it.

The baked beans were perfect too, cooked in the same sweet sauce as the barbecue and, as Max noted, absent of giant vegetables that didn't belong (a reference to F.A.T.S.' jalapeno-laden beans). Scruggs doesn't have straight-up mac and cheese, but they do have this amazing macaroni salad, prepared almost identically to potato salad and every bit as good. Max says the slaw was a smidge dry but still tasty.

Unlike some of the other places we've been we weren't overcome by the food coma by the end of the meal so we also tried some cookies -- a chocolate chip and an M&M. They were edible, but I think they may have also been a week old.

I'll probably go again just because it's a place that's close to work and open during lunch hours and not named Buddy's. The macaroni salad might be enough to bring me back, but I'll probably try either the ribs or the chicken next time.



Scruggs Bar-B-Que
920 E. Magnolia Ave.
(865) 524-4333