Friday Night Slice, Part 20

Hey, it's the guest host edition! While The Mrs is tending to some other things, I am going to take the next couple of weeks to tell you about the pizza options in my hood of West Meade. I apologize in advance for the photography, which will not live up to the high standard that The Mrs has established in this series of reports. Michaelangelo's Pizza

I guess Michaelangelo's has been around for about 10 years now. It was started by that South African guy who they bring in to talk about soccer on 104.5 The Zone. They started out with a location in Green Hills and a location on Elliston Place. The Green Hills location is no more, but they have replaced it with a location in Belle Meade. There is a website for the Elliston Place location. And another one here. But neither of them mention the other store. Maybe it is under different ownership? The location in Belle Meade, which is the one that I ordered from, is carry-out and delivery only, while the Elliston Place location has a dining room.

Like The Mrs, I prefer my pizza with pepperoni and extra cheese. This one is a large, and it was very reasonably priced at about eleven bucks. It's an attractive looking pie, with the cheese nicely browned and the edges of the crust nice and crispy. About that cheese - at Michaelangelo's, when you order "extra cheese," you get mozzarella and cheddar. The cheddar definitely gives the pizza unique taste, but it cuts down on the "pull-away factor" significantly, as melted cheddar just does not have the same stretchy, stringy qulaity as mozzarella. The pepperoni slices were of average quality, not especially spicy. My biggest disappointment with Michaelangelo's pizza is with the sauce. The sauce lacks any character whatsoever. It is bland, and completely fades into the background. Michaelangelo's pizzas are pan pizzas, which are not usually my perference, but definitely have some redeeming qualities. I like the crispy ring that is formed around the edge of the crust. But overall, the crust has a bready consistency and lacks any degree of chewiness. As a result, their crust always seems slightly undercooked to me. I'm not sure if The Mrs has mentioned this before, but one of the best things about pizza is eating it leftover and cold the next day. In this situation, I think Michaelangelo's pan crust works well. As it cools down and perhaps slightly stales, it tightens up. And out of the refrigerator, or even at room temperature, the crust becomes almost like focaccia, with a chewier texture. The result is a kind of savory pastry that makes for a good breakfast.

Michaelangelo's Pizza

5133 Harding Pike, Suite B-9, Nashville, TN 37205

615-352-8066

delivery, carry out

205 22nd Ave N, Nashville, TN 37203

615-329-2979

dine-in, delivery, carry out 

* * * * * Cold Pizza:

Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and Joey's House of Pizza

Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs

Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders 

Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef 

Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky 

Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza 

Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen 

Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro) 

Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville) 

Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria 

Friday Night Slice, Part 11: Angelo's Picnic Pizza (Antioch) 

Friday Night Slice, Part 12: Manny's House of Pizza 

Friday Night Slice, Part 13: Nashville Pizza Co. 

Friday Night Slice, Part 14: Brick's Cafe 

Friday Night Slice, Part 15: Sal's Pizza (Hermitage) 

Friday Night Slice, Part 16: Painturo's (Mt. Juliet) 

Friday Night Slice, Part 17: Brothers' Pizza (Franklin) 

Friday Night Slice, Part 18: Snappy Tomato, Roma Pizza and Jet's Pizza 

Friday Night Slice, Part 19: Geadello's Pizza

Music Thursday: Music in the Kitchen

Austin City Limits is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the PBS series this year. To commemorate the occasion, Glenda Pierce Facemire (the long time makeup artist for the show) is publishing a cookbook with submissions from ACL performers. You can learn the secrets to B.B. King's Classic German Chocolate Cake and My Morning Jacket's Quinoa Eggs with Cheese, Please!. There is a pretty expansive list of 130 musicians' recipes ranging from Willie Nelson to Damian Marley and even Widespread Panic offers up a Chilly recipe.

Click here to buy Music in the Kitchen

BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: Jonathan's Q

It's not just barbecue sauce, Dear Reader. It's Gourmet barbecue sauce. Jonathan Soares started Q Products, Inc when he was but a mere college student. For a school project at Western Connecticut State University, he developed a business plan to market his mother's recipe for honey barbecue sauce. The plan sounded like such a good idea that he decided to invest his savings in getting Q Products off the ground. Since 2005, he has been pounding the pavement, spreading the Q gospel to supermarket execs. And it looks like it's paying off - his line of sauces are now featured in over 5,000 stores across the United States.

Besides the original Honey flavor, there are also Spicy Cajun and Hickory Teriyaki versions of the sauce, as well as a line of "Q Fusion" marinades, all of which are all natural, with no gluten or high fructose corn syrup.

The Honey sauce is about as sweet a sauce as I have tasted in these reports. Like really, really sweet. Lord knows I have no problem with sweetness, but in this case, it really is the only dimension. There is no tanginess or savoriness or heat or other interesting flavors to balance the sauce. There are traces of tomato and mustard flavor, but they are too buried in the mix to have any real bearing on the flavor.

Grade: C

NASHVILLE BARBECUE: Part 18 - Dickson County

The logical conclusion to our barbecue tour of Nashville's surrounding counties would be Cheatham County, which lies directly west of Metro Nashville. However, aside from the ubiquitous Whitt's, which we have already covered, there does not appear to be a single barbecue restaurant currently operating in Cheatham County. And that's a shame, because Ashland City would be a great place for a BBQ joint - it's one of my favorite small towns in Middle Tennessee.

So what we will do is sub in Dickson County, which is just a little bit further west.

We begin in White Bluff with a familiar place. Carl's Perfect Pig was one of the first places we reviewed on this blog. I don't know whether my standards have escalated over the last 2 years, or if Carl's has declined, but I was not as impressed with their product this time around.

The ribs were big and meaty, and were definitely finished on the grill. And they were actually cooked to a nice tenderness. But they were significantly lacking in flavor. Beyond the light application of sauce on the outside, these ribs were pretty bland.

The pork sandwich was better. The meat was nicely seasoned and was complemented very well by the sauce. Overall - good flavor. The texture and tenderness were average or slightly better. This is a very serviceable barbecue sandwich, but not mind-blowing by any means.

Next up, and also in White Bluff is Hog Heaven (no relation, apparently, to the Hog Heaven in Nashville).

Unfortunately, the barbecue also bears little resemblance to the other Hog Heaven. What you see here is a combo plate with ribs on top and pulled pork on the right. There is also some "pulled beef" hiding under the ribs, but that's outside the scope of this report (and not worth talking about anyway).

This pulled pork was very poor. It was dry, but that's not the worst part. It had a very unpleasant, almost rancid flavor that I could not take more than one bite of. I'm not sure what went wrong here. This is the worst pork that I have tasted in these reports.

The ribs were not much better - dry and chewy and overwhelmed by a smoky flavor that was not pleasant.

Chelsea B's is located in a Shell gas station on Highway 47, between White Bluff and Charlotte.

They were sold out of ribs on the day that I visited, so I went with just a pulled pork sandwich. When I ordered, the fellow at the counter simply reached into a steam tray and removed a pre-made, pre-wrapped sandwich and told me that sauce was already on it. So it was no surprise that when I unwrapped the sandwich, I found the bun soggy and the meat mushy. The meat was lightly smoky and aided by the peppy ketchup-based sauce, but the poor texture of the sandwich was just too much to overcome.

Moving on to Charlotte, Tennessee, I encountered the above sign near the intersection of Highway 47 and Highway 48.

The arrow on the sign pointed to this building.

There was no sign, but I knocked on the door and was greeted by an older gentleman. He took my order, then disappeared into the other side of the building, which appeared to contain an old brick pit. He returned a minute later with my ribs and pork shoulder. There was no posted menu, so I asked him how much I owed him. "Just give me ten bucks," he replied. I asked him what the place was called. He had to think about it for a second, but eventually said, "Bill's Barbecue." I guess he was Bill?

I always want so badly for these kinds of hidden, off-the-beaten-path places to be great. But the reality is that sometimes they're not. Unfortunately, Bill's was not great. The ribs were dry and leathery tough. It was literally difficult to even tear away a bite.

The pork shoulder was more of the same. This is about as dry as pulled pork gets. It was almost the texture of jerky.

Bart's Bar-B-Que in Dickson, with their flat screen TVs and old school arcade games, is worlds away from Bill's spartan setup. Their sign contains an interesting variation on the pig-eager-to-dine-on-itself motif that we see so often on barbecue signage. Here, we also have a catfish holding a fork!

Three kinds of sauce to choose from.

Bart's pork sandwich is average or maybe a bit better. The pork is very tender and well seasoned, with a nice savory flavor. But there is no discernible smoke flavor and there is little textural variety (no bark).

The ribs are also big on tenderness, perhaps even to the point of being overcooked. The tangy applied sauce is a nice complement, but unfortunately there is not much flavor beyond in the meat itself, smoky or otherwise.

Dickson's other barbecue joint is a little place with a big reputation. Fossie's Bar-B-Que has been in operation since 1958! Milton Fossie and his brother-in-law began in the mid-50s by selling barbecued chickens as a side venture, but eventually became so popular that Fossie quit his job at the Ford Glass Plant in Nashville and opened Fossie's on Walnut Street near downtown Dickson. He operated the restaurant for over 40 years. His daughter took over in 2000 when he became ill. And it's still going strong today.

Big wood pile out back. The smokehouse is in the picture at the top of this article.

The pork sandwich is simple but tasty. You can taste the hickory flavor, but the sandwich is otherwise sparsely seasoned. The hot sauce is thin and vinegar-based, and complements the pork well. The meat could have been more tender, but overall, a good sandwich.

Fossie's ribs are also a picture of simplicity. The outer bark of the ribs is a chewy and salty treat, with a nice pork flavor.

Highlights: Carl's Perfect Pig pork sandwich (Pretty Good), Fossie's pork sandwich (Good)

Disclaimer: Please note that these reports are based on particular servings of barbecue at a particular day and time. Barbecue can be prone to fluctuation. Your experiences may vary.

More reports in this series:
Part 1 - The Legends
Part 2 - The Chain Gang
Part 3 - Local Chains
Part 4 - Jefferson Street
Part 5 - Clarksville Highway
Part 6 - East Nashville
Part 7 - The West Side
Part 8 - Memphis Imports
Part 9 - T for Texas
Part 10 - Williamson County
Part 11 - Murfreesboro
Part 12 - La Vergne & Smyrna
Part 13 - Wilson County
Part 14 - Catching Up in Nashville
Part 15 - Hendersonville & White House
Part 16 - Portland & Gallatin
Part 17 - Robertson County
Part 18 - Dickson County
Part 19 - "Barbecue by any other name..."
Part 20 - Places We Missed
Part 21 - More Places We Missed

Good Morning Bacon

Have you ever been annoyed in the mornings with a beeping alarm clock? Do you find yourself hitting the snooze button every morning? Do you get pissed when you wake up and breakfast is not ready? Well Matty Sallin has a solution to your problems. He has invented the Bacon Alarm Clock. This alarm clock does not beep and it won't blare any Rascal Flatts when you are trying start your morning. No this alarm clock wakes you up with the sweet smells of bacon. Read more here....

Thanks to Muzzy on the BBQ Forum for the heads up.

BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: Mad Dog Original

NOTE: Not to be confused with "Mad Dog" 20/20, which was a key recreational accoutrement of my teenage years. Man, that stuff was outrageous. Did you know that there is a flavor called "Electric Melon"? And one called "Purple Rain"??!!! In fact, there are a total of 17 "flavors" available - MD 20/20 is totally the Kool-Aid of adult beverages. I'm starting to think I could do a whole post on this, but I won't.

Mad Dog BARBECUE SAUCE has some serious bite, especially for a sauce not specifically labeled as "hot". Make no mistake, it is quite hot. But I've come to expect it from companies who specialize in hot sauce, which Ashley Food Company certainly does. This sauce is big on high quality natural ingredients and claims no fillers, no additives and no preservatives. It also features tamari - a richer variant of traditional soy sauce, and not an ingredient you see every day. The tamari yields a strong savory element to the sauce that is complemented by the robust sweetness of molasses and some tangy vinegar. But the heat is clearly the bandleader here. It's a sneaky heat that escalates to a nice lingering burn in your tummy and on your tongue.

Grade: B

Music Thursday: Smoky Mountain Smoke

BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: Smoky Mountain Smokers

Like many that we've reviewed before, this is a sauce by a competition barbecue team - and one of the best. Smoky Mountain Smokers, from Sevierville, Tennessee, have come on strong in the last few years, culminating in a 5th place finish in the overall KCBS standings in 2008. We often compete against them at contests here in Middle Tennessee, and to say the least, they are a worthy adversary.

And wow, do they make one heck of a sauce! It definitely has shades of Blues Hog, with its heavy sweetness and savory essence of tamarind. But it's definitely its own sauce. It's not quite as thick as BH, and there are subtle but significant differences in flavor. SMS' sauce has molasses higher in the mix, as well as prevalent notes of mustard, garlic and cumin. The pronounced cumin flavor plays especially well with the sweetness of the sauce. The sauce leaves behind a nice mild lingering burn that is also a nice complement to the sweetness. Overall, an excellent, very tasty sauce!

Grade: A

Music Thursday: Ready Teddy for The Jack

This weeks music selection comes to you via Lynchburg, TN. The site of this weekends Jack Daniels BBQ Contest and the home of famed musician Little Richard.

Apparently Little Richard moved to Lynchburg in January of 2008, and has been keeping a pretty low profile ever since. Since we are headed down to The Jack this weekend, I thought I would bring you some old school Little Richard. I doubt he will be hanging out in the holler, but there might be some other B list celebrity spotting. Stay tuned.....

Little Richard - Ready Teddy

BBQ IN THE NEWS: If it doesn't walk like a duck...

There was an article in last week's West Meade News, of all places, about Drifters - the new barbecue restaurant that has recently opened in East Nashville. While this site will of course reserve final judgement until we've had a chance to dine there, some of owner Matt Charette's comments in the article raised some red flags.

While most places smoke their meat, Drifters uses a roaster, which Charette says is the most expensive piece of restaurant equipment he's ever purchased. The method is said to preserve flavor.

"A lot of times smoking barbecue tends to dry it out somewhat, and that's why you have the sauces that go with it," he said. "We roast it so the meat stays nice and tender and juicy. Generally, when I eat it, I don't even need sauces."

Listen, I have absolutely no problem with roasting meat. You can make a pretty strong bird that way. But...is it barbecue? The "definition" of barbecue is something that will ultimately never be agreed upon. I realize that for the majority of Americans, barbecue is anything that has barbecue sauce slathered on it. And I begrudgingly accept that. But it seems to me that restauranteurs, especially ones in the South, where barbecue is king, should know better.

But who knows - maybe I'm the one who needs to get wise? Maybe my own personal definition of barbecue, which involves slow-cooking and using wood - is too narrow. After all, one of the most famous barbecue restaurants in the world serves ribs that don't fit that definition. You will notice, however, that Rendezvous never refers to their product as "barbecue", but rather "charcoal-broiled ribs" - the "barbecue" nomenclature has been applied by the general public. But I digress.

So what do you think? Is roasted meat barbecue? What are the unofficial requirements for calling something "barbecue"?

Friday Night Slice?

I know, I know...more like Friday Night Slackers.

This week's pizza review takes us a little north of our normal sphere of pizza influence: Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is home to the famous Kentucky Derby, the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory, the Bluegrass Balloon Festival, the world's largest Beatles festival, the original Lebowski fest, the former recipient of my paychecks: ear X-tacy, and the questionably safe Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

Louisville offers a wealth of local restaurants across every ethnicity and style. The streets are lined with unique bars, restaurants, bakeries, delis, and bistros in lieu of Logan's, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's and Chili's. And while Louisville also houses the world headquarters of Papa John's and Pizza Hut, there are an incredible number of local pizza parlors. After asking around and consulting Where The Locals Eat and the local alt-weekly, we decided to go with the 2009 people's choice winner.

Boom Bozz Famous Gourmet Pizza



In 1989, Tony Palombino opened Boom Bozz Pizza in Louisville. What began as a modest little parlor has evolved into a dominant force in the city with four packed locations where various local and international awards line the walls.

Boom Bozz, of course, does it all from scratch with a very thin and tangy tomato sauce base coated in 100% mozzarella cheese. The dense cheese has little pull away and gets a bit greasy, but boy is it tasty. The pepperoni surprises with its flavor and spice, building upon itself with a little heat as well. The crust is a little disappointing for a place that has everyone falling at its feet - it's a basic hand-tossed crust that's cooked well but has little to no flavor.



While I do it pepperoni-and-cheese-only-style for these reviews, it's clear that Boom Bozz brushes its shoulders off with its specialty pizzas. The D'Sienna (International Gourmet Pizza Winner) has a tomato cream sauce, mozzarella, asiago and romano cheeses along with fresh chopped spinach. The Pollotate (2008 International Pizza of the Year) has marinated grilled chicken with roasted potatoes and onions on a garlic olive oil crust with asiago and mozzarella. Boom Bozz offers starters (the fried ravioli is excellent), salads and sandwiches as well along with over 30 microbrews (the Magic hat has more than just a hint of apricot) from its new "Ice Bar" at the Bardstown Road location.

For the exotic specialty pizzas, I'll give it to you Boom Bozz...but c'mon Louisville, the hand-tossed pepperoni pizza just barely snuck above average.


Boom Bozz Famous Gourmet Pizza
Louisville: Springhurst, Clifton, the Highlands and J Town
dining in, delivery, carry out and catering

* * * * *

Cold Pizza:
Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and Joey's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs
Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders
Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef
Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky
Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen
Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro)
Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville)
Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria
Friday Night Slice, Part 11: Angelo's Picnic Pizza (Antioch)
Friday Night Slice, Part 12: Manny's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 13: Nashville Pizza Co.
Friday Night Slice, Part 14: Brick's Cafe
Friday Night Slice, Part 15: Sal's Pizza (Hermitage)
Friday Night Slice, Part 16: Painturo's (Mt. Juliet)
Friday Night Slice, Part 17: Brothers' Pizza (Franklin)
Friday Night Slice, Part 18: Snappy Tomato, Roma Pizza and Jet's
Friday Night Slice, Part 19: Geadello's Pizza


While my pizza reporting will continue to be sporadic throughout the remainder of the year, the quest for the best pizza isn't dead! Got any suggestions for places that I should cover? Let me know!

MUSIC THURSDAY: Dinosaur Jr.

At first glance, Dinosaur Jr could probably be lumped in with the Nirvanas, Mudhoneys, and Soundgardens of the grunge movement, but in many ways they were actually the antithesis of that genre, with their sprawling arrangements, drawling vocals, and lengthy guitar solos.

Bandleader J Mascis is kind of like the Neil Young of Generation X, only without the commercial success - an introverted guitar anti-hero with a shaky voice and a deep catalog. The cool kids will tell you that the best Dinosaur Jr albums were You're Living All Over Me and Bug, from their days as indie darlings, and back when it was truly a band and not a thinly veiled Mascis solo project. But I think they did their best work later, in the early 90s, when they sold out and signed to Sire. Green Mind and Where You Been were the soundtrack of my early teenage years, and still hold up pretty well today.

Check out this extremely raw 1994 performance on British television programme The Word.

BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: Dinosaur Sensuous Slathering Sauce

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is a well-known barbecue restaurant that originated in the 1980s in Syracuse, New York as a small biker bar, but has now grown into a full-blown enterprise, with additional locations in Rochester and New York City. And they have reached that lucrative level of notoriety which brings with it...airmail revenue. Yes, like so many of the institutions in Memphis, you can have a rack of Dinosaur ribs packed on dry ice and shipped to you overnight.

So needless to say, they have their own brand of barbecue sauce.

It's a relatively thin sauce, vinegar and tomato based. It has lots of little pieces of garlic, onion, and green pepper floating around in it, giving it a chunky mouthfeel. Overall, the sauce has a very fresh, earthy taste, with the natural sweetness of the tomatoes and the tanginess of the vinegar leading the way, flanked by mustard and fresh onion and garlic flavors. It's a pretty mild sauce in terms of the heat level.

Grade: B

Plow On Plowboys

Last weekend, the 30th Annual American Royal BBQ contest took place in Kansas City. This is the world's largest bbq contest with over 450+ teams competing for a chance at the $12,500 grand prize. There is also an invitational contest that pits grand champion bbqers from all over the country against each other. This contest alone has over 100 competitors and a $10,000 grand prize. This year the Pork Pullin Plowboys took home the coveted Grand Championship at the American Royal Invitational. Congrats to Todd Johns and his team for a great win. Check out the full results here: American Royal Results

Bob Dylan - Gospel Plow

BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: Sticky Fingers Memphis Original

Without really planning to, I wound up at a barbecue restaurant in Jacksonville over the weekend. After watching the Titans get completely dismantled by the Jags, we headed for the airport and were looking for a quick bite before we returned the rental car. We wound up at Sticky Fingers. And I have to say - for a chain barbecue restaurant, they turn out a pretty good rack of ribs. I brought some sauce home to review.

The "Memphis Original" sauce actually reminds me more of Kansas City than Memphis. Although less thick than a KC-style sauce, it has the smokiness and the molasses sweetness that tend to overshadow the tomato element. Worcestershire and vinegar flavors are prominently featured too, as well as a light peppery finish. Overall, a pretty average, unspectacular sauce.

Grade: B-

Interview with Tony Stone

Former KCBS president Tony Stone sits down with BBQTV for a one on one interview. Tony has been around bbq for a long time and he has some real interesting things to say about KCBS and bbq in general.