The Joy of Meat!

OK, One last thing about my Chattanooga trip last Saturday!

After Buying the Cheapest High Quality Sneakers on the Face of the Earth, I met my wife for some lunch at a place we had been wanting to check out for months.

Sugar's Ribs, on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, has a cute name, and an approximately 25-foot-tall sign next to their building featuring what I can only assume is their namesake mascot, "Sugar", a smiling, pleasantly-plump, African-American waitress carrying a heaping tray full of BBQ ribs. Whether this waitress is a hypothetical construct, like Mrs. Butterworth, or actually based on a real person, Like Wendy, from the Dave Thomas restaurant of the same name, I do not know. I do know that "Sugar" does not own the restaurant, nor did she cook my meal when I was there. (Clicky the linky at the beginning of this paragraph to see what I am talking about.)

As you take I-24 east past downtown Chattanooga, you cannot help but notice the restaurant and huge sign, which are located on the ridge facing the interstate and downtown in such a way as to be only slightly less prominent that the famous "Hollywood" sign in Los Angeles.

Nearly every time my wife and I would pass the place, one of us would say something like "Y'know, one of these days we need to stop in there and check that place out", while we continued driving to the Collegedale Airport, which is where we were usually going.

Well Saturday, I finally took the bull by the... ribs, and when Becca called me (while I shopped for shoes) to tell me that her meeting was done way early, I told her to get a ride to Sugar's, where I would meet her for lunch.
And, Boy! I am glad I did! The Brisket I had that day was, quite simply, the best piece of dead livestock I have ever run across my taste buds. Hands down.

Some of you reading this, if you are a really fortunate person, have had the good luck to eat at Sticky Fingers, the small chain Ribhouse which serves "Memphis-Style" ribs that are exceptional. If you haven't had the pleasure of eating at a Sticky Fingers, I suggest that, the next time you find yourself in the Southeastern United States, you check and see if there is one near you. The Memphis Dry-Rubbed ribs they serve are extraordinarily, eyes-roll-up-in-the-back-of-your-head delicious, and the Peach Cobbler available for dessert ain't bad, neither!

But the Brisket I had at Sugar's was even better than that! Seared on the outside just enough, and so tender that, not only did you not need a knife to eat it, you didn't even need teeth! I probably could have sucked it up with a drinking straw! I'm talking seriously tender meat, here!
My wife had the half-chicken, which you can watch cook while you are ordering it, and it was awfully good too, if you are in a white-meat mood. Next time I go, and there will be a next time, I will probably get the ribs, or the pulled pork, just to compare. But I expect to be disappointed, because I can't imagine a more satisfying carnivorous experience than the one I got on Saturday.