MILLIANS: My BBQ bucket list

Published 12:30 pm Saturday, February 18, 2023

Somehow, some way, no matter who I happen to be talking to, the subject of barbecue comes up.

Like it did the other day when I was getting off the phone with Mrs. Chan Tagliabue. The Milledgeville native lives in the Washington, D.C.-area with her husband, Paul, the former NFL commissioner.

Mrs. Tagliabue said the next time she visits Milledgeville she wants to eat some real, pit-cooked, Southern BBQ.

I told her I’d be happy to oblige because I know the feeling. When I moved to Ohio many years ago, I craved Southern ‘Que. It was hard to find. One time I went to eat with some friends who said they were serving BBQ. It turned out to be more like sloppy-Joes. 

Now, you can find barbeque — pork and brisket — in Ohio and most other parts of the country. There’s a place called City Barbecue in cities such as Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. And it’s pretty darned good.

But you can take the boy (or girl) out of the country, but you can’t take away their love of Southern pulled pork. 

So, Mrs. Tagliabue, here are my five favorite BBQ places to go in Middle Georgia. All of these are within a 45-minute radius.

FRESH AIR

It has a restaurant in Macon, but we’ll go to the mothership location in Jackson. It was established in 1929, making it the oldest pit-cooked barbecue restaurant in Georgia still at its original location. 

No less than Ed Reilly, a self-described BBQ-ologist, says this on bbqnewsletter.com: 

“It’s a step back in time when you enter Fresh Air Bar-B-Que, complete with an old tin roof and raw cut tree posts holding up the front porch. The third-generation family-owned restaurant only cooks pork hams slowly overnight on an authentic open-pit grill that sits in the middle of their historic building. The joint chops the pork and serves it with a choice of chips or slaw, a pickle, and a side of Brunswick stew made from a recipe that’s more than a century old. The thin and tangy tomato-and-vinegar barbecue sauce is served warm and is kept in pots that sit over the fire that burns 24/7.”

Oh, just to smell the smoke when you drive up is worth the trip.

You can dine there or bring back to Milledgeville the Party Pack: two pounds of chopped pork, one quart of Brunswick stew, one pint of cole slaw, a dozen buns, sauce, sliced pickles and Saltine crackers.

HOLCOMB’S

It has a to-go location at an old gas station in Greensboro, but we’ll go to the location in White Plains, where the pork is cooked.

Where’s White Plains? Not far from Siloam and Union Point. Of course.

You can walk on the sawdust-covered floors at the Holcomb’s in White Plains, sit down at the long tables in the rectangular room, and chow down on BBQ, stew, slaw and white bread. Pitchers for sweet tea refills are on the table.

My late dad used to buy BBQ by the pound and Brunswick stew by the gallon to feed crowds of over 100 at tailgate lunches before University of Georgia football games.

OLD CLINTON

I like the BBQ at Georgia Bob’s and Shane’s here in Milledgeville. But fresh-off-the pit BBQ at Old Clinton is still my favorite.

We’d go to the Old Clinton in Gray, where they have been “smoking nothing but the best” since 1958. 

We’d sit on the picnic tables in the front, under the porch roof supported by the old cypress posts.

FINCHER’S

It has several locations in Macon and Warner Robins. I usually just use the drive-thru at the Gray Highway location.

Fincher’s has been around since 1935. Its claim to fame? It’s the first barbecue to be served in space. I’m not sure exactly which NASA mission that was.

It’s just hard to pass up a Pig sandwich. Some days, I order the Super Pig sandwich.

STRAW’S

It’s on Highway 16, on the other side of Sparta. 

It’s a down-home, Thursdays and weekend place that current and former Sparta residents swear by.

Their pork is tasty, and I’ve had several people tell me that I ought to go back and try their brisket.

* * *

That’s my list, Mrs. Tagliabue. That’s where we can go and eat Southern-style, pit-cooked BBQ.

After we try those, there are hundreds more in Georgia to try. 

I read a review the other day about a BBQ place in Macon called Satterfield’s that I have never tried. 

“It’s the best BBQ in Georgia and – quite possibly – the continent, in my humble opinion,” wrote a women who was visiting from California.

Well, that covers a lot of territory, but I’m willing to give it a try.

As spring approaches, I’m ready for a BBQ road trip.

How about you?

Rick Millians, a 1970 Baldwin High graduate, worked at newspapers in Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina before retiring. Reach him at rdmillians@aol.com.