I read the review by Sam Upshaw Jr., (The Courier-Journal May 12, 2011) for Smoketown USA and I couldn't wait to try it for myself. I was most excited about the chance to get Country style beef ribs and apparently I was not alone.
As my wife, teenage daughter and I sat in Smoketown's eclectic dining room on Saturday waiting for our order, the phone rang frequently with people asking for directions. My wife offered “that's what GPS is for isn't it?” My response, “the article listed both the address for Smoketown USA (1153 Logan St) and they have a website ( http://www.smoketownusa.com) with directions.” I'm sure the wait staff were thinking the same but they patiently and politely gave each person directions.
The owner, Eric Gould came to our table introduced himself and thanked us for coming in. Wow, before I knew it we were talking like old friends. I told him I had read the article in the Courier-Journal
on Friday and we had driven over from Indiana to try it for ourselves. Eric said that the restaurant had been slammed on Friday night and he was expecting another big crowd Saturday. He spent several minutes with us and before he left us he knew our preferences for barbecue and even refilled my wife's sweet tea himself. He thanked us again and was off to the next table.
I overheard him as he spoke to the customers at the next table and was amused to hear them say that they also had driven over from Indiana. There is a serious lack of good BBQ on the north side of the river!
My wife and I split the Flintstone (beef) ribs and shared sides of greens, macaroni, texas style pintos, and both the sweet and jalapeno cornbread muffins. My daughter had the rib/chicken combo (pork ribs) with the green bean side. There was more food than we could eat and everything was just too delicious for words. Or rather the CJ review used all the right words!
Thanks to the Courier-Journal reviewer we were given a rare experience today. I should say here that my wife and daughter are very picky eaters and the three of us were fed to contentment and treated like important guests for a very reasonable price! Eric, thank you for your hospitality. We will be back and we'll be bringing friends.