Angry Barbeque
 Canton, Ohio        Date of Visit  12/11/14            http://www.angrybarbeque.com

So, we had a big deal picked out for our 500th adventure. Over a month of not leaving the house changed all of that. Some folks have suggested we don’t celebrate holidays on the actual day for all sorts of reasons, when realistically it is mostly just never an option with our schedules. The big deal is still on the schedule (and with a new special guess who probably does more fancy-dancy eating than the rest of us put together). While we are waiting for culmination of the big deal, we are back on our game. As a part of the day we have coined #yumbo, we ended up in Canton and at Angry Barbeque.
 

Someone's Brewing Them Up Functional Sodas
 

This little joint was being manned by a friendly but somewhat desperate trio of young men. We entered the small section of the strip plaza near Belden Village mall and ordered the special for the day and a rib combo…allowing us a taste of rib, chicken, pulled pork, brisket and four sides. Lots of words on their website about q. I didn’t see much of it pan out on the trays. It’s not horrible but it is somewhere below what you would expect from most national franchise options like Crapplebees or Chilettes. The buns for the three sliders (the chicken, pulled pork, brisket special) had a nice toast on them…best part of the two dinners. The sauces come in sweet, angry or mad (as hell) and aren’t all that different from one another. They all appear built on the same base with a splash of heat in the final two. The mad as hell isn’t really any hotter than the angry but is missing its vinegar bite. Not great but not bad, but still better than the meats. They are practically devoid of smoke (hence not Q) and really don’t have much going for them outside of the original protein.
 

The portions were thin for the price point and there was nothing memorable about any. The ribs are a little overdone and listless. The chicken is the most lame of the four we tried, the brisket seemed mostly fat in a small portion (unpleasant), and the pork was just ho-hum.

Everything on both platters was strewn with green garnish, as if to dress up food that hadn’t been seasoned or caressed with the signature taste of Q.
 

Pork Was Boring
 

The mac n cheese was mushy and messy on the palate, the bacon ranch potatoes were floating in a pool of grease, and the house slaw stood out among some weaker options. We have been working to perfect our own cornbread recipe, pretty well I might add, and the muffins here again lacked anything you would expect at a McDonalds southern menu roll out. Meh, at best.

A nice little pickle of cucumber and onion in the corner of the tray was meant to cut through all of the richness and flavor the actual barbeque never provided. Another Ohio shadow of what the countries bastions of smoke churn out on a regular basis. Too bad. If you want to try it yourself, I would go soon. Unless the owner’s last name is Timken and there is a  trust fund to go with it, I’m hard pressed to imagine them renewing their lease. The hospitality industry is vicious, often with cause.