Baby Blues BBQ

Baby Blues BBQ

7953 Santa Monica Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90046

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I first heard about Baby Blues BBQ in Venice several years ago but I never made it out there. I have never been a big fan of Venice. I don't hate it and I certainly understand its appeal, but I have never liked dealing with the crowds, and I especially don't like circling around looking for parking. There is nothing in the world I hate more than looking for or waiting for a parking space. I would rather park a mile away and walk. My brother lived in Venice for more than a year and I think I visited his house once. Not that he blamed me; he paid a fortune for an athletic club membership - that he never used - so that he could park in their lot.

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A couple years after I first became aware of it, I saw it featured on Food Network. Guy Fieri - he of the bleached hair and backwards sunglasses and the tattoo reading Kulinary Gangsta, despite the fact that he is 41 and grew up in Humboldt County - did a feature on it, and the food actually looked really good. The place looked simple, like it didn't make much fuss over its appearance, just the food. When I heard a few months ago that they were opening a West Hollywood location, I figured I should try that out.

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The other day, one of the few sunny days we have had in the midst of this ridiculous June Gloom, Elizabeth and I headed over to Baby Blues for lunch. It didn't look like much from outside, but as soon as I walked in I immediately liked the place. There is an open kitchen, wooden chairs hanging from the ceilings, and tables that aren't crowded together, or even placed in any kind of order.

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To the left of the entrance was a fantastic-looking bar, the kind I have spent countless hours in on my travels through the South. It would not have been out of place just off of Bourbon Street. A couple guys were drinking cans of PBR and a flat screen television was playing the Angels game. I had high hopes.

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When I sat down at the table there were three squeeze bottles of sauce, the middle of which was labelled "porno sauce." I asked the server what that meant and she said it was their hottest sauce, a mix of habaneros and barbecue sauce. That sounded good, despite the silly name, although I doubted it would be good on barbecue. They also had a large container of cider vinegar with chilis on the table - a perfect complement to well smoked pork.

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The menu had a nice selection of drinks, including sweet tea, which I did not hesitate to order. They also had Kool Aid on the menu. I do not remember the last time I saw that. Elizabeth ordered a glass. We started with an order of fries, a mix of shoestring and sweet potato. They were quite good, although expensive, at $7 for a basket. Still, I reminded myself, we were not at a roadside barbecue stand in North Carolina; we were on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. Going to any kind of sit-down restaurant and expecting low prices would be unreasonable. I tried some of the porno sauce with the fries. It was indeed spicy. Perhaps I would like it with some chicken nuggets, but I wasn't in the mood for much of it with my lunch.

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I got the pulled pork sandwich and Elizabeth got the brisket sandwich. As soon as they arrived my heart sank: they were both served on charred, rock-hard ciabatta buns. I have written this before and I'm sure I will again: if you have any kind of pride in your barbecue, you want people to eat it plain. You don't serve it already drenched in sauce and you certainly don't serve it on a distracting, hard roll. Serving your barbecue on ciabatta buns, or pretzel buns, or garlic bread is basically announcing "I don't want you to pay too much attention to the meat."

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Not surprisingly, neither meat was good. The pork was very dry and lacking any flavor. There was a small trace of smoke ring to some of the pieces and a generous amount of pork on the sandwich, but I could not get past the dryness. I put a healthy amount of cider vinegar on it, but it barely helped. The cole slaw on the sandwich was good, not much more than cabbage and vinegar, but that was little consolation.

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I took two bites of Elizabeth's brisket, several minutes apart. The first bite was very fatty. The second one was better but also had no flavor. She liked her sandwich, though. "You're a barbecue snob," she said. I wasn't really in a position to argue. I have had some of the best barbecue all over the country, and I don't hesitate to point out when something is mediocre. (I also do not hesitate to point out when something is spectacular.)

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We also got a side of mac n' cheese. It was very good, full of several kinds of cheese. Some of their other sides looked good, too. I wished they'd put the effort into our meats like they did into everything else.

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There is a lot about Baby Blues that I like, but, unfortunately, that doesn't include the food I had. The service was fantastic and you get a decent amount. The interior is beautifully designed, like a marketing consultant took the best parts of places like Lucille's Smokehouse and Famous Dave's and incorporated them here. But my food was no better than any of those chains, and that's a shame.