Whiskey Creek (Hays, Kansas)

It's almost comical the number of nights I have spent in Hays, Kansas. It might be 5 or 6 nights now, and I cannot think of a single reason why. I was there when I was a kid with my mom and grandmother. Once my dad and I stayed at a Holiday Inn there and ate at the Chinese retaurant in the hotel; easily one of the top 5 worst meals of my life. Once I remember eating at an Applebees in Hays, and remarking to the waitress that it was really windy.

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"It's always like this," she said. "Where are you from?"

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"Southern California," I replied.

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She turned her head to the side and stared at me for a few seconds, like a confused puppy. "Then what the hell are you doing in Hays?" she asked.

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The last time I was in Hays I stopped at Whiskey Creek for dinner, mostly because it was the only restaurant with cars in front of it. I figured that was a good sign. I started with an order of "Southwest Tootsy Rolls," hoping they would be better than the name. Basically they were egg rolls of shrimp, cream cheese and chives. They were pretty good, although nothing special at all. (But they did not make me sick, which is more than I can say for the Chinese meal I had in Hays.)

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The pulled pork sandwich was not very good. They claimed it was smoked for hours over hickory, but I doubt that. There was no smoke ring and it was not tender at all. Perhaps they only cook barbecue a couple times a year, keep it in the freezer, and heat it up and serve it to the Californians passing through town, figuring we won't know any better.

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I would like to tell you that if you find yourself in Hays to keep driving to the next town for dinner, but that means a few hours. So if you are in Hays I guess you should probably eat here. Just don't order the barbecue.

Frisella's Roastery

Frisella's Roastery

179 N Glendora Ave

Glendora, CA 91741

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I had lunch with my brother in "downtown" Glendora, not far from where he lives. I have never been there so I asked him for suggestions. I don't always have to eat barbecue, believe it or not, but when it is an option I always want it. He suggested a roastery that he said he thought had barbecue.

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I don't know what it is about downtown Glendora, but I felt like I was walking around a retirement community. Literally 9 out of every 10 people on the sidewalks and in the three restaurants we walked past had to be over the age of 75. I'm only saying this as an observation. I have nothing against old people. I loved my grandparents and when they were alive I would eat with them frequently. (This usually involved meeting another couple at Coco's at 5 for dinner. My grandmother would get there at 4 to get "settled in." It was never made clear to me exactly what that meant; apparently it had something to do with my Granny reciting every item on the menu and saying "oh, that sounds good," and my Grandad wondering what Howard Jones would do with USC Football that year, even though Jones stopped coaching the Trojans in 1940.)

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I ordered the barbecue pork sandwich. The entrees come with homemade potato chips and a choice of one side, or you can get fries in lieu of the chips and side. I went with the chips and cole slaw. My brother got the quarter chicken with dark meat. He opted just to get the fries.

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My sandwich was very good. I doubt the pork was smoked; it tasted much more like it had been roasted, but it was still good, although there was a little too much fat on it. The bread was fantastic. It was substantial enough not to fall apart with the sauce on it, but soft enough to melt in my mouth and not get in the way of the pork.

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The chips were not good. They were not fresh and they were overly seasoned. The cole slaw was Smart & Final. I hate when that happens. I like Smart & Final cole slaw at a picnic or a ball game, but when I am paying for a restaurant meal, I wish they would tell me when their slaw isn't homemade. Especially considering that my brother's fries were awesome. I should have gotten those. He said his chicken was really good, and it had a smoke ring to it, but I didn't try it because I do not like dark meat chicken.

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I liked Frisella's. It was far from a "barbecue" restaurant, but it was good, and the bill for the two of us, with my sandwich, his chicken, and a couple iced teas, was 22 bucks.

Mo's Smokehouse (Pismo Beach)

Mo's Smokehouse
221 Pomeroy
Pismo Beach, CA

I first visited Mo's three years ago. It was the middle of the week and I stopped in relatively early. The barbecue was terrible, and obviously a day or two old. I said to the guy working the counter "This wasn't smoked this morning, was it?" He simply shrugged and mumbled "I dunno." A couple months after this trip I mentioned my experience to my buddy Les - one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subject of barbecue - and he reported having a very similar experience when he went there.

So I pretty much put it out of my mind. But then a few years went by and I found myself in Pismo Beach again and I figured why not give it another try? It was much, much better this time around.

On my previous trip I had an order of garlic fries that were cold, including the garlic topping, and a pulled pork sandwich that was old, as I mentioned, and also completely drowned in cole slaw. I do not mind slaw on a sandwich, but that was the only time I can remember having more slaw than pork.

This time my friend and I got a large order of homemade potato chips. As soon as we saw them we knew we couldn't have gotten a smaller order. But they were so damn good we ate almost all of them. Homemade potato chips are one of my biggest weaknesses. I got the shredded pork sandwich and she got the shredded chicken. Since the sandwiches come with slaw on them, we got potato salad on the side instead of slaw.

The shredded pork was very good. It was fresh, and even though there was a lot of sauce on it, the sauce was good. The shredded chicken was phenomenal. I took one bite and it melted in my mouth like the barbecue equivalent of cotton candy.

They have four barbecue sauces: original, hot, Sweet Carolina's, and Philthy Phil's. The first two were good although there was nothing to set them apart from hundreds of sauces I have tried around the country. The sweet sauce was lousy. I am not a fan of sweet sauces, but this was just ridiculous. You could put this on ice cream and it would not be out of place. The Philthy Phil's sauce was fantastic: a vinegar sauce with brown sugar, mustard and spices. I bought a bottle of this to take with me.

So I have been to Mo's twice now. Once was terrible, reheated food, and once was fantastic and very reminiscent of a Southern barbecue shack. One of these days I will make it back for a third time and see what I find.

Robin's Redux

Unlike the last time I went to Robin's with my camera, I did not lose the pictures from my most recent trip. I ordered my usual chopped pork sandwich. When it came, I noticed that there was less meat on it than usual. However, it was fantastic. There was plenty of smoke ring, and the pork was tender and pulled apart easily, with very little fat. It was probably the best sandwich I have ever had there, and I have had dozens.

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I got sides of both the "Carolina Sweet Mustard Sauce" and the "Memphis Red Vinegar Sauce." They were not as good as usual. The mustard sauce tasted just like French's yellow mustard, and the vinegar sauce had too much sugar in it and was far too sweet. It didn't matter, really, because the pork was so good it didn't need sauce.

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I also got a hamburger to go for someone. It did not look very good and I did not even bother trying it.

Matt Denny's Ale House

Matt Denny's Ale House

145 E Huntington Dr

Arcadia, CA 91066

I have been eating at Matt Denny's for over a decade now. There was a time when I visited it as frequently as once a week, although now it's more like once every few months. My standard order is almost always the "smoked turkey sandwich," which is one of the best turkey sandwiches anywhere. (I have had many other items on their menu, including fish & chips, Guinness pot pie, fried shrimp, pastrami sandwich, and grilled halibut... everything on the menu is good, except the Caesar salad, which is curiously one of the worst I have ever had.)

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The turkey is always juicy and never has any fat on it. The sauce comes on the side, although it is really good so I add it to the sandwich. The third picture is a pulled pork sandwich. One of the employees, whom I sometimes see outside of the restaurant, told me it was even better than the smoked turkey, so a little while ago I gave it a try. It was indeed good, but definitely not as good as the turkey.

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Matt Denny's also has a great beer selection, and there is always sports on the TVs. Their menu is pretty expansive; I would love to see them cut out several of their items and concentrate more on barbecue, because they are very good at it.

Gilroy Garlic Festival

On the list of things I love, somewhere between barbecue and Thanksgiving, is garlic. I love it roasted, fresh, infused in oil, or any other way I can eat it. I even considered calling this blog "Baseball and Garlic." (Actually, that's a lie. That would have been a terrible name for a blog.)

For years I had wanted to make it to Gilroy - the "garlic capital of the world" - for their annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. A couple years ago, after watching Huell Howser do a special on the festival, I decided I had to do it. It was a lot of fun, although it was well over 100 degrees, and after eating garlic egg rolls, garlic pizza, and a dish of garlic shrimp that seriously challenged my line that "there can never be too much garlic," my friend and I were sweating garlic out of every pore.

There was also a barbecue stand there, so I had to try a pork sandwich. I was not expecting much, and that is exactly what I got. It was drenched in a sweet sauce and did not have any smoke ring. I can't really complain about being disappointed for ordering a cheap barbecue sandwich at a festival centered on garlic, but if I ever go back, I will stay away from this sandwich and just go for another round of garlic ice cream.