Always garnering raves from the local press, Pit to Plate BBQ had to be on my list of BBQ places to try. It’s a little out of the way on Compton in Mt. Healthy, but that never stops a BBQ hound from finding good ‘cue. I was pleased by the smoky aroma as we walked up the parking lot towards the front door. Pit to Plate is in a small building set back off the road and is decorated in a Western theme as befits a tasty BBQ joint. Prices were middle-of-the-road compared to other local BBQ places, and I had a half-slab of baby-back ribs, choosing mac ‘n’ cheese and “garlic parlsey taters” as sides.
Pit to Plate offers 5 sauces to choose from: Sweet & Mild BBQ, Sweet & Hot BBQ, Carolina Style Sauce, Wing Sauce, and Hot & Sweet Mustard. The two sweet BBQ sauces are about what you’d expect, although the Hot isn’t all that hot. The Carolina sauce was vinegar-based and to me tasted almost like straight vinegar. They could learn a thing or two from BBQ Revue on how to do a “southern-tang” style sauce. The Wing sauce was interesting, not your typical buffalo flavors, and the Mustard sauce was very tasty indeed.
My ribs came out room temperature and overcooked. The smoke flavor was very good, but wasn’t enough to overcome the tough, chewy bits of leather clinging to the bone. Some sauce helped lubricate things a bit, but equally disappointing was the lack of rub on the ribs. Not only were they tough and dry, but they had little flavor beyond smoke. The mac ‘n’ cheese was average, about on par with those from Jimmy’s. The very interesting sounding “garlic and parsley taters” were just quartered new potatoes in a garlic butter sauce vaguely reminiscent of the stuff that comes in little plastic tubs from Papa Johns.
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