The Bar-B-Q Shop

There is much debate about barbecue in Memphis. One restaurant that adds its own twist to Memphis barbecue is the Bar-B-Q shop on Madison Avenue. The outside of the restaurant looks very small and unassuming and is easy to miss when driving down Madison Avenue, but once inside the place looks surprisingly large. It has a wonderful authentic Midtown feel to it, with high tin ceilings and old wooden booths.

The menu features the typical barbecue selections, pork, beef, chicken, ribs, plus barbecue spaghetti. I decided to go with the pork sandwich plate (on french toast) with fries and beans. It took almost 30 minutes to get the food, but our waitress was very nice and came around a few times to apologize for the delay. It was definitely worth the wait. The pork was super tender and had a nice woody, smokey flavor. The french toast was perfect for soaking up the barbecue sauce.

Now to the sauce... the sandwich had quite a bit of sauce on it, but I like my meat to be extra wet so I decided to add more sauce from the bottle on the table. Not such a good idea, because the strong vinegar flavor of the sauce easily overpowers the meat. I also used the sauce for dipping my fries, which were wonderful! Crispy on the outside and perfectly seasoned.

The Bar-B-Q Shop

1782 Madison Ave.

Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 272-1277