Pappy's Smokehouse

Ratings Guide:
Half handshake, half chest-bump hug – 5 stars
Chest bump – 4 stars
Fist bump – 3 stars
High five – 2 stars
Handshake – 1 star
Manly ass slap – ½ star
Fone and fone – 0 stars



Restaurant: Pappy’s Smokehouse
Location: 3106 Olive St., St. Louis, MO


I like my BBQ how I like my women – rubbed and wet. Lucky for me, Pappy’s is Memphis style BBQ at it’s best.

From the moment you walk in you fall in love with the place. All the tables are picnic tables topped with checkered tablecloths. And there’s a giant pig just chilling in the middle of the room. The place is nice, almost too nice, with a down-home feel. And the owner (Mike Emerson) is usually somewhere in front greeting you as you walk in.

We went there for lunch and the line stretched through the entire restaurant, almost out the back door. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see at a 2-for-1 deal at Diamond Cabaret, but not at Pappy’s. Not because it isn’t good, but because of its location (right by SLU, which doesn’t exactly get a lot of foot traffic from local business men), the fact that it’s a BBQ place (plenty of good ones to choose from in the Lou), and just the fact that it’s lunch, so people don’t usually have a lot of time to waste.

I couldn’t decide on what to get, so I went with a little bit of a sampler that allowed me to try the pulled pork and the beef brisket. And let’s not forget the sides that went along with it. I opted for the applesauce and the baked beans.

The baked beans were fantastic. You didn’t have to add anything to them. They were sweet and spicy and barbequey all at once. A lot of times with baked beans you’ll end up having to throw some BBQ sauce in ‘em, or mix them with whatever else you have on your plate, or salt and pepper them, or something, simply because they’re usually a little bland. But these were perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing about them. Except for the cup they came in. Just a small Styrofoam cup (by my standards. For a normal human being I’m sure they were more than enough.). Baked beans go hand-in-hand with BBQ, so I would have liked to have had a little more of them. But, there was plenty of meat for me to eat, so I wasn’t too upset (how gay did that sound? My wife just read that over my shoulder and asked me if I wanted to move to California.).

For me, beef brisket is really hit-or-miss. There’s a place in Rolla, MO (Johnny’s?) that has great beef brisket. But then you go to a decent BBQ joint like Smoke Daddy’s in Chicago and their brisket is just so-so. Not sure what it is that makes brisket good or not good (as someone who writes a lot about food, I should probably know what makes it good or bad, but I’m really lazy), but I do know that I really liked the brisket at Pappy’s. And I wasn’t the only one. Two other people at my table got it and loved it. In fact, they said they liked it better than the pork (they’re idiots, but I’ll get to that in a second), and it’s what they’d be getting the many times we plan on heading back there.

You get three types of homemade BBQ to choose from at your table – Original, sweet, or spicy. That’s right, you add the sauce. They don’t put any on their meat (which, I imagine, would increase the amount of chafing), so it’s up to you how much, or how little, you use. Which is nice, since a lot of places give you too much, and you can’t avoid it, or too little, and you have to go back and ask for more. And all three sauces were good, but the original Pappy sauce was by far the best.

The pulled pork was amazing. It was so incredibly juicy. A lot of times you have to use BBQ sauce on pulled pork because it’s dry, but that isn’t the case at Pappy’s. This stuff was mouth watering. Now, the two aforementioned idiots (Jeff and Kelly) complained that the pork was too “fatty”. What they seem to not realize is that’s what makes it juicy and delicious. And, it really wasn’t that fatty. I honestly can’t say enough about the pork. It was, by far, the best pulled pork I’ve ever had. You didn’t even have to use sauce if you didn’t want. It was that good and juicy.

Now I know why people are willing to wait.

I’m kind of impressed with myself for not getting The Big Ben, which is a full slab of ribs, a beef sandwich, pork sandwich, ¼ chicken, and four side orders. For a measly $34.99. I think that would fill even me up. At least for a couple of hours. The fact that there’s not a plaque on the wall for anyone who finishes it is a disgrace. I’ll volunteer to be the first competitor.

On top of all of that the service is fantastic. You order, take a seat, and they bring everything out to you. And everyone there is so nice it’s almost annoying. The owner chats you up on your way in, and your way out. You couldn’t feel more welcomed. Strippers are nice to you because you pay them money, but the people at Pappy’s are nice to you just because they’re nice (and probably because you pay money for their food).

One warning – they open at 11 a.m. and close whenever they sell out of meat. So if you’re heading up there for dinner give them a call first.

I loved Pappy’s. Maybe St. Louis won’t be so bad after all (other than the fact I now have two speeding tickets and my car has been broken into). Chest bump with a manly ass slap.



Got a question? Send it to josh@borntofork.com.