BBQ in Nashville

You can say Nashville is like a compressed version of Vegas minus the gambling.  It's the country music capital of the world where small people can dream big.  Nashville's main strip consist of Broadway and 2nd St. that runs perpendicular to each other with a few hidden alleys that offer great food and spirits.  With all the bright neon lights you could call this place mini Vegas.  I do warn you, be weary of drunk obnoxious locals that ziz zags from bar to bar thinking they're gonna be the next Taylor Swift.

If you love music and singing than this is your town because just about every bar offers live bands and karaoke.  Just walking the strip can be enjoyable due to the ricocheting sounds of future stars singing away in every bar.  Most of these establishments will leave their door ajar and let the sound pass through to entice more Taylor Swift wannabes.    

Drinking and singing can work out an appetite really fast but have no worries because Nashville is packed full of BBQ joints.  In fact, you won't even need to leave any bars, each one offers plenty BBQ ranging from ribs, brisket, pull pork and much more.  We just happened to pick Rippy's BBQ because it had an outdoor second floor bar and dinning area.  The bright neon sign also lured us in like a hypnotized bug.

Just before you enter you'll be overwhelm by the aroma the kitchen releases.  At this point it should be a norm in Nashville to drool all over your face with your tongue hanging out like a crazed man.  Just the smell alone made me spray venomous-like spit  from the back of my mouth.  In edition to the food, the country music was good, beer was great and people were crazy.

It's tradition to order the full slab of sweet succulent, finger licking good BBQ  ribs.  A typical sides would be cole slaw, mac and cheese, biscuits, deep fried pickles, Cajun andouille sausages and of course this wouldn't be bizarre dinning if I didn't order the deep fried gizzards and livers.

Let me explain BBQ to yaw.  You haven't had real BBQ until you experienced fall off the bone tenderness with sweet and savory BBQ sauce.  If you didn't leave the BBQ joint smelling like you've just gone camping and lathered your body with campfire ash, than you've gone to the wrong place.  The Cajun sausage was at even par with the ribs, it had a snappy texture with each bite and mouth watering pork goodness on the inside.  I was very excited to try the liver the most because I never had it deep fried before.  The liver had the biggest and crispiest crunch you'll ever get followed by creamy warm 'melt in your mouth' irony liver flavor. Oh sweet Jesus, if only it was socially acceptable to bath myself in ribs and BBQ sauce I wouldn't hesitate!  Everything was spectacular!



We left the city the next day still smelling like we got back from camping.  Now that's real slow cooking smokey goodness.!  Is it crazy to say, " I wanted to bite my friend's arm off because he was emitting smokey goodness pheromones"?  Now to compare how good my Rippy's BBQ experience is from Famous Dave's up north.  I would rank Famous Dave's at 3 and Rippy's at 8 on a scale of 1-10.

Remember, good BBQ is not just in Nashville, you can find them all over down South.  I've gone recently to the number one BBQ joint in Chicago and it doesn't even come close to any from the South.  Below you can find videos and pictures of my food experiences and a few karaoke stars.