Frank & Joe's Southern Smokehouse

Frank & Joe's Southern Smokehouse (Closed)
110 E Colorado Blvd
Monrovia, CA 91016

Frank & Joe's has been closed for some time now, and that's too bad... but not necessarily for culinary reasons. The place was attractive - full of Southern memorabilia. The owners were extremely nice, always shaking hands and asking how you were doing. And they always had plenty of ice cold bottles of Turbodog.

However, the food was very inconsistent. Sometimes the crawfish corn chowder was as good as any chowder I have ever had; sometimes it tasted like old corn in spoiled milk. Sometimes the fried catfish was reminiscent of the food stands at JazzFest; sometimes it tasted like the original KFC popcorn chicken (i.e. fried chicken skin.) And sometimes - usually, in fact - the pulled pork sandwich was like the one here: not much pork, too much lettuce, and all of it swimming in one of two barbecue sauces: either the much-too-sweet sauce or the "smoky" version that tasted like straight liquid smoke.

Still, sometimes the food could be pretty good, and as I said, it was a nice place to spend a hot summer afternoon watching baseball and drinking beer. There was a rumor they were trying to reopen somewhere, and if they do I will go back. But I doubt I will ever get the pulled pork sandwich again.