I love barbeque. When i was a boy, i thought barbeque was brown-sauce covered beef ribs. How wrong I was. When I became a man, I learned that true barbeque is always slow-roasted pulled pork... More

I love barbeque. When i was a boy, i thought barbeque was brown-sauce covered beef ribs. How wrong I was. When I became a man, I learned that true barbeque is always slow-roasted pulled pork (occassionally, it's allowable that it be chopped -- see "Dickies" in Dallas), it's always got a tangy/sharp vinegar-based sauce that's not overloaded with ketchup and sugar, and it's almost always best on a bun with a generous helping of classic coleslaw on top. Well, i've eaten barbeque all over town, and i've found the best. As often happens with barbecue joints, it's also the least appealing in terms of location. Rhodies fills about 100 triangle-shaped square feet of an unused corner of a gas station on teh corner of Broad/Denny/4th Avenue, just across the street from the Space Needle. Everything's to-go -- no seats, no tables, no space. Just a counter, a drink cooler, and a guy waiting to serve you the tastiest bbq sandwich it's possible to get in Seattle. The "Trailboss", with pork and the spicy sauce + the requisite slaw, is perfection -- more Kansas City bbq than the "pure" Carolina experience, but definitely not Texan. The true innovation, though, at Rhodies is the use of a French roll. I know, i know, it sounds sacreligious -- but here's why it works: BBQ is messy. A nice firm (but not too cruncy) French Roll has a trough, to hold the BBQ and slaw together as you chow your way through it. Genius - if there were BBQ nobel prizes, the proprietor of Rhodie's would get one for this innovation. Go eat it.
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