Bob’s Whine and Dine

On a recent trip to D’ Arpino’s I noticed some picnic tables outside of the St. George’s BBQ & Catering storefront. I took a quick peek and found a small dining area inside. I had always thought of St. George’s BBQ as a catering only place and was surprised to see a dine-in option is now available. Last week I got a hankering for some BBQ and decided to stop by for lunch accompanied by my friend David.

The menu is pretty standard for a BBQ place with pulled pork, beef brisket, ham, chicken, sausage in various combo plates and sandwiches. Sides include BBQ staples such as potato salad, cole slaw, beans, fries and onion rings. Wanting to try a sampling of meats, I chose the “Sample Platter” ($9.99) of 3 meats and two sides. They didn’t have any sausage ready the day of our visit so I picked the brisket, pulled pork and sliced chicken with beans and slaw as sides. David picked the “Combo Platter” ($7.99) with 2 meats (beef & pork) along with beans and fries.

Our meals where brought out quickly and on the 3 compartment plate, I was happy to see large portions of meat & sides. There was a lot of meat on this plate – I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an entire pound between the chicken, pork and beef. I loved that all of the meats had a great smoky flavor – you don’t always get that in this town. One criticism I do have is that all of the meats were on the dry side. I expected that with the chicken breast, but was surprised the pork was also kind of dry. That turned out to be not a huge issue because I really liked the tangy BBQ sauce which found its way onto each forkful. There are two sauces – mild and hot. The two sauces are the same except for the heat level. This time, I stuck with the mild sauce for the entire meal.

The beans were pretty good with some chunks of meat here and there. The cole slaw was chopped very finely and was fairly lightly dressed. It reminded me a bit of KFC cole slaw (which I like by the way). The Texas toast on the side was just toasted – no butter or spread involved.

There was just too much for me to eat on the plate and I took about ½ of everything home (and had a nice dinner the next evening). Friend David managed to eat his whole plate and said he too enjoyed it.

I had a short conversation with the owner (Chris St. George) and he said all of the smoking is done there at the restaurant in his digital controlled smoker. He also said that all of the sides are made in house. I was surprised to hear that dine-in option has been open for 2 years (but sorry I hadn’t noticed it before) and that they do a good dine-in business.

Towards the end of our meal, Chris left and went next store to the St. George’s Donut Shop (also part of the St. George’s Empire). He returned a few moments later with a tray full of assorted donuts and offered us one on the house to finish off our meal. I never turn down a free donut (even though I really didn’t need one) and enjoyed the nice cake-style specimen.