Johnson's Barbeque Review

Incidentally, I went to the San Bruno Avenue fair two Sundays ago (on September 18th 2005) and noticed Johnson's BBQ, one of the other highly ranked barbacue joints in the city and a place I almost chose for a previous outing. So I had it for lunch, and it was pretty decent.

It's a dimly lit hole-in-the-wall with a long mahogany-colored counter. Two flimsy tables sit to the left of the entryway; to the right in a roped-off area is a larger table and a small tv and playstation. On the left past the tables, the counter makes an L and receeds, but this length of the counter is also roped-off. One lone grisly man (white) sits eating at the counter when I enter. Two young men (black) are sitting on the roped-off area to the right chatting, one by the counter, the other at the table.

As I realized while gazing at the menu on the wall and later while eating, this restaurant was actually the closest thing to the place portrayed in Barber Shop that I've ever been in. Most of the people that came in simply came to chat with Joe (the head honcho it appears) or one of the others hanging around, or to play playstation with one of the other employees lounging around. From eavesdropping, one neat fact I learned was that much the floor space was roped off because insurance costs are charged by the customer-accessible square foot. And since Johnson's BBQ is mostly a take-out joint, they have practically no need for floor space.

Enough about the atmosphere. How was the food, you ask. I started with a dry pulled pork sandwich, served open-faced because of the huge amount of meat. The BBQ sauce that covered it was a red/brown sauce with a dark molassesy flavor that didn't go well with the pork. Also had some poor coleslaw that had the consistency of mac-n-cheese.

After this, I decided I couldn't write a fair comparison with the other BBQ joints based on just one entree, soI negotiated with Joe to just buy two ribs to try. And these were quite good, certainly comparable to Memphis Minnie's and Big Nate's. They were massive and meatier than either and not dry, and cooked just so they were soft but not falling apart. The same BBQ sauce was served on these, but here it meshed quite well.

In short, I should've read the citysearch review of this place beforehand, which reflects much of my observations. So, try the ribs and the brisket but skip the coleslaw and ptoato salad and pilled pork. But really, the ribs are good!

Original Announcement

Since Johnson's Barbeque was the result of serendipity -myself being at a street fair and hungry and recalling that I remember reading some good reports about this BBQ joint-, there was no original announcement.

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