bbq #4

You must admit that we are tenacious - at least when it comes to ferreting out the best barbecue in the valley.  Friday night/Date Night took us to Goodwood in Draper (133 East 12300 South).  The Goodwood Barbecue Company has two locations in Idaho and three in Utah, so I suppose that technically makes it a chain, but at least it's a local one.  Even better: the 'cue was very good!

The Draper restaurant is located in the middle of retail stripmall hell/heaven (depending on your point of view), not far from In-and-Out Burger.  The building is new: a big, airy, nicely- (if generically-) decorated with earth tones.  We got there 7ish and the place was jumpin'.  We were told it would be a 30 minute wait for a table so we pushed our way to the small (five stool - why not six?) bar where the manager sat us down, poured us Cutthroats and said of course we could eat at the bar! We happily surrendered our beeper and took a look at the menu.

Standard barbecue fare with ribs, platters and sandwiches, but also lots of salads, burgers and non-'cue sandwiches.  I went straight for the half-rack of baby back ribs with coleslaw and BBQ beans; H picked the three-meat platter, with pulled pork, brisket and sausage, and beans and fries for sides.  Despite how busy it was, the food came out quickly - which makes sense, since barbecue is already done and just needs to be dished up.  Portions were much smaller than Famous Dave's, and could have used some accompanying cornbread to fill the plates, but the food was really very good and we cleared our plates. 

The baby back ribs were fantastic, although I wished they hadn't been so heavily sauced (I like my 'cue dry so I can sauce it myself), but meaty and tender and smoky with no fat or gristle.  H's platter portions were pretty small - just two slices of brisket, a small scoop of pulled pork and half a stretch of sausage - but delicious and not at all greasy.  The beans were extremely flavorful and the coleslaw ... one of the best coleslaws I think I've ever had.  The veggies (purple cabbage, green cabbage, carrot and some other dark green leafy thing) were super-fresh and crunchy and there was just enough dressing to add flavor without drowning the slaw.  I wish everyone would do coleslaw like that - so good.

We still have one more barbecue place to try - Q4U out in Kearns - but Goodwood ranks up there with Sugarhouse, beating Pat's and Famous Dave's to pieces.  We'll go back to Goodwood for more 'cue for sure.