I’m not saying I could grill every day, but every time I suggest going out for a grill, my wife tells me she has a headache. When I was a bachelor on a business trip for a week earlier this year, I binged barbecue for four days and hit a few joints I’d never tried before. City Grillthe Ohio-based chain, whose Madison location is between West Towne Mall and Vel Phillips Memorial High, was the clear winner.
It made such a convincing impression that it created a smoke ring around the competition, and inspired me to issue an official review. I checked out eight barbecue joints for Isthmus since 2011, and I’ve eaten even more – some local, some imported; some impressive, others less so. After trying City, I can confidently say that the food – not to mention the atmosphere – is anything but corporate.
My motto has long been that barbecue in a region that does not have its own local style should still choose. Don’t try to do everything.
But City Barbeque changed that rule for me. I believe a restaurant can serve many different styles of barbecue, but must pay attention to what sets them apart and give each one its due. It’s not about offering seven different sauces. With each attempt at style it becomes more and more tough. City is coping with this challenge surprisingly well.
My first love is, as always, brisket. I like it straightforward, with forceful bark and properly softened fat, and if it’s right, I’m a content boy. City’s best cuts of brisket didn’t need a knife, definitely didn’t need sauce, and were equally good on a bun or on a metal tray lined with butcher paper. I did get a few that were on the dehydrated end, maybe the last slices of one brisket before the next one came out, but nothing was so vulcanized that I had to fight for a bite.
North Carolina vinegared chopped pork usually includes whole pork and is harder to find at smaller barbecue markets. City offers a Lolo’s pulled pork sandwich, and Swine Wine’s house-made sauce provides plenty of vinegar. And because it’s not chopped whole and contains all the fat, City’s pulled pork is glisteningly damp.
Nashville is home to the barbecue-adjacent “meat and three” concept, and the City has plenty of dishes to fill that list. Collards with pork should be collards AND pork; meat is not a secondary issue here. The mac and cheese is gooey, the cornbread is slightly sweet and more damp than you’d expect from a single mini loaf. Even the potato salad, so easily doused in mayonnaise and underseasoned in a mass-produced restaurant, was solid and enjoyable.
I liked the More Cowbell cheesecake sandwich (also available with turkey, which is what I tried) – think peppers, onions and provolone. I also liked the turkey “taqo”, although the turkey barely made an appearance amid the cacophony (qaqophony?) of noisy and hot toppings. Fans of Ohio Tavern’s stuffed tacos will be delighted.
The ribs, advertised as being cut St. style. Louis, they fall off the bone and I’ve even found that I enjoy the bits with the cartilage at the end, usually too challenging to chew.
Not everything ends with complete success. I had high hopes for the sausage, but like nearby Doc’s Smokehouse, City link is basically charcoal-smoked sausage, not the symphonic combination of supple interior and crispy East Texas crust. Good taste but less than transportable experience. The same goes for the Nashville heated fried chicken, which was dehydrated and hot. Honey helped. And if I’m not a huge fan of half chicken, it’s mainly because I don’t enjoy eating bone-in chicken in the same way as beef. Chopped chicken, like you’d find in a hearty smokehouse salad, will save you the effort.
City Barbeque, opening in Madison in 2021, operates more than 50 locations, mostly in Big Ten states (though that term is becoming more popular). less significant currently), as well as Kentucky, Georgia and North Carolina. You wouldn’t know how large this chain is by how personable and welcoming the staff is.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that all three desserts I tried – triple chocolate cake, chunky peach cake, and travel-friendly banana pudding in a cup – are wonderful. And now on the menu page I see that there is pretzel pudding. I’ll have to see if my wife, who, by the way, wrote the headache joke at the top, wants to take another trip to the west side of town.
City Grill
7015 Sligo Drive
608-302-3001; citybbq.com
11:00-20:00 Sunday-Saturday
$3-24
