The Ultimate BBQ Experience in Cincy 
Barbecue means smoked meat cooked with original recipe sauce over open flames or on a grill. That much is obvious. But a great barbecue joint does more than serve up a great rack of ribs; it offers an authentic, unforgettable experience. This blog features the most attended barbecue restaurants, pits and joints in Cincinnati’s Montgomery County.
There is this joint in Landen in the old shopping plaza at Columbia Rd and Rt 22 called the Landen Smokehouse. It is incredibly spartan, but the guy does GREAT pulled pork, ribs and brisket. THAT is real barbecue! He is only open until 8 pm and some days he runs out. Again, that’s real barbecue! True barbecue is a custom made, organic product with quirks. The author is not saying that this is the best BBQ in the city but it is authentic, “real” smoked BBQ down home flavor.
Barbecue Review in Madisonville, near Madison Bowl, offers homegrown and down-home barbecue brewed and barbecued on premises, not the “faux restaurant fare”.
Ted Gregory opened a Montgomery Inn barbecue place featuring his wife, Matula,’s home recipe, and enjoyed a fantastic business, becoming the 1950s home name for barbecue. But then the Inn began taking reservations and using napkins and finer dishes and the purists expanded their taste buds into Northern Kentucky’s Walt’s Barbecue whenever they needed to feel a more homegrown fix.
The Walt’s fare in Kentucky still sees a large number of Ohio customers pulling in for their smoked meat and barbecue sauces.
Eli’s Barbecue down on the river is another hometown barbecue master of pulled pork, ribs and other smoked meat treasures. It has the customary barbecue pit distinction of NOT having reservations, but DOES do catering. ( It is all in where your priorities are.)
Pinky Sue’s Barbecue House in Newport, just on the river, specializes and is most proud of their baby back ribs, which are usually thinner and smaller than spare ribs. Pinky Sue rubs hers with a BBQ rub and serves them without sauce. The sauce you would apply yourself is dark and overpowering. A long list of sides are options here, and for a newcomer, Pinky Sue is telling everyone to “scooch over”, because this barbecue is here to stay .
Another new style for our town is Riverside Drive Thru’. The drive-through barbecue joints are common in the South, but Riverside is the first one for Cincinnati. It is creating a real fan base and the population is getting accustomed to driving through to pick up their style of ribs, pulled smoked meat, and individual sauces. They have plenty of chicken grilled and sauced, too, for those who limit their red meat intake. (Unbelievable!)
This article would have ended with the five top barbecue joints in our town, but with Riverside and Pinky Sue’s making such an awesome presence in Cincinnati barbecue purist circles so quickly with their recipes matching New Orleans or Memphis for authentic, real homemade barbecue, they have been included. You are invited to joint-hop around our barbecue fixings and soak up our food and atmosphere.
A Savannah Nite Limousine Service can do the driving for you as you sample the sights, sounds, music and barbecue joints of Cincinnati. We are the only service in this area offering the new MKT Towncar for personal relaxation, in addition to a fleet of the most unique, exotic limousines in town!
Related article: 5 Great Gourmet Restaurants in Cincinnati
photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc