Big Dog's Smokehouse BBQ

I've been meaning to write a review of this place for about a week or so now and have finally gotten around to it. My family and I stopped by on our way through the state visiting relatives and I must say...WOW! I was surprised to find a legitimate "smokehouse" all the way up north in Indiana. I'm not sure about SlingMonkey's experience but I found all of their meat offerings had a BEAUTIFUL smoke ring with outstanding flavor!!! Having lived in Austin and Kansas City I have had some great BBQ and Big Dogs has a place right up there with the best of them... Well Big Dogs makes me wish I was homeless then I could sample everyday! Go and find out for yourself!

Look, I am a chef and I have done tons of meat smoking, and I love Chris Schlesinger's book, "How to cook meat" ! Read it if you wanna do it right! It is the Bible of meat. So about Bigdogs... they are hit and miss. The pulled pork is fair and the brisket is fair. I recently got sliced "smoked" brisket. You can't fake that! Good brisket, properly smoked, should have a smoke ring where the hot smoke made a ring around the meat as is slowly cooked. This place is baking their stuff and then putting it in the smoker at the end of the cooking process. No smoke ring means it wasn't SMOKED! The meat didn't have a smoke scent or taste and it was dry, chewy and tasteless. OMG! You can do better "smoking" in your home oven. It will be good! It won't be "smoked", but neither is B-dog's! Unless you are homeless in Cicero, IN... smoke your own or just toss a brisket in the dutch oven!