Heirloom Market BBQ - Smyrna GA

[Poppa's PTL Club]

Big hype on this place with very good press. It is a combination of a southern chef and one from Korea and the Korean influence shows mostly in the sides, where they have kim chee, an asian pickled cucumber salad, etc.

The rumor is that it's almost impossble to get a spot at lunch and for once, a rumor was 100% confirmed. They are in a very small space attached to a gas station and I arrived around 12:44. There was not a parking space to be found. I was lucky, because just as I was trying to turn around, disappointed that I wouldn't be able to grab lunch, a space opened as someone left just ahead of me. I watched the parking lot and no one else left for more than 15 minutes; this place is packed!

I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and brunswick stew as my side. The stew was a pretty paltry portion (maybe, if I wanted to be very generous, I'd call it 3 oz). Smelled nice, but there was an obvious greasy film on top. The first bite was very heavily greasy, coating my tongue and was a little bit offputting because of it, but had a nice, traditional brunswich stew flavor and a decent amount of meat/everything else ratio. After I got all the grease out of the way on the first bite, it was solid, very good stew. Nicely flavored with a hint of vinegar and well-seasoned, it was much better than most brunswick stew you get in the ATL. Skimpy portion, but very tasty.

The pork sandwich was served on a massive bun. I had the first bite without sauce (kudos to them for serving the meat without pre-applying sauce) and was struck immediately by two things:
1 - The bun was very, very good. It had a nice crustiness and had been slightly griddled and was that great balance between yeasty-soft and chewy.
2 - The meat to bun ratio was way, way off. There was somewhere just short of 4oz of meat on the sandwich and this was a jumbo sandwich type of bun. I very much liked the bun, but the bun should complement and highlight the pork, not be the star of the show. The pork was good, but not great, but it was overwhelmed by the giant bun. I am OK with a 4oz sandwich, but you need to downsize the bun to match it.

They had several sauces available. The table sauce was thick and fairly sweet, but was a little too smoky for my taste (the meat had plenty of smoke flavor; the smokiness of the sauce was too much for me). The hot wasn't pleasant at all for me, either in the taste or heat dept. Settler sauce is a hybrid sweet/Carolina vinegar thing and was the best of the bunch. There was also a Korean style thing that I just didn't care for either.

Solid, decent BBQ with thin portions. IMO, they get such good buzz because of the "hidden gem" feel and the pronounced smokiness to the meat, something lacking in the area. The crowds are as much of a statement about the lack of good BBQ around here as they are a testament to the food put out by these fine folks (it looked like a 20 year Delta Theta reunion, lot of aging frat boys wearing blazers with their jeans and ironic slip on Vans, trying to let you know that despite the paunch and the bald spot, they can still rock out to Camper van Beethoven in the Town and Country on the way to the kids soccer match)

I liked it fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way. Still better than most choices around the ATL.

PS I did like the outside communal table where everyone stood up and chatted while they ate. Wouldn't have liked it so much had it not been a beautiful day
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I likes to eat 'da pig!
Acts 11:5-9

[keanderson2]

It's one of my favorite places in metro Atlanta for BBQ. I really like the Korean influence the place has, it's a nice change of pace from the typical offerings in the area.
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Weber 22.5" Kettle
ProQ Frontier