Rib City Grill
 St. Pete Beach, Florida          Date of Visit  12/06/12             Website

In St. Pete for a few days and ya gotta eat. We stopped at Rib City for a taste of Q. The place has an upscale casual feel and decor with all sorts of random Q related stuff screwed to the walls. We were led to a booth and found a number of bottles on the table. In addition to ketchup there are three sauces, sweet, tangy and mustard-based. Our server clued us in to a fourth hot sauce that could be requested from the kitchen.
 

We started with an order of Three Cheese Fries and I was delighted to find they were crispy waffle fries. I don’t know if it is related to how seldom I see them or if there is something special about the shape…but waffle fries make me happy. Cover them in melted jack, cheddar and pepper jack and then sprinkle them with bacon and add a healthy bowl of spicy ranch on the side and I am ecstatic.

We followed up with a BBQ Chicken Dinner and a Pick Two Combo. The chicken is a full half cooked over wood fire and basted with the house sweet sauce. The chicken was tender and had retained a nice juiciness. They develop a healthy smoke flavor on all of their meats which is a touch much for me but is authentic and tasty overall. The fries were hot and crisp and everything comes with a thick slab of texas toast.

I ordered the combo with ribs and turkey. Now, thinking back I have been forever ruined by the transcendent magic of Pit Master Ed Mitchell at the Pit in Raleigh, NC. The turkey they produce is ridiculous. Comparison is not fair but easy. Rib City’s turkey was actually really good and provides a much healthier smoky protein which retained some juiciness and since it was sliced after cooking had a better smoke balance. It’s not top of the charts but I would happily order it again. The ribs were exceptionally well done, releasing easily from the bone but not all sliding off and slapping your face with sauce. The fries were the same and I was also served perfectly passable coleslaw. Florida holds it’s own in the Q world.
 

Lastly, the sauces. I was pleased to see they offered the variety with notes of Memphis and both East/West Carolina. The mustard sauce seemed to have strong Dijon notes and the tanginess of the vinegar worked as well. The sweet sauce was pretty lifeless which is why it’s nice to have the bottles on the table. Take the sweet add a shot of the hot bottle from the kitchen and start the alchemy. As usual, my favorite combination was a combination of all of them. Hitting on all cylinders as it were. It’s nice to see BBQ spreading all over the country…soon the traditional hotspots may find they have some serious rivals.