June, 2014 – The Battle of the BBQ, Part 1

The Florida Foodie

The Battle of the BBQ: Part #1 -Blue Front BBQ vs. Tom’s Place

By Saucy Sarah

There is nothing in this world more synonymous with summer than Barbeque. The entirety of my childhood can be conjured from one whiff of smoke trailing off a grill full of meat. Memories of sitting in my backyard as my grandfather would tend to spit-roasted chickens over a charcoal fire while I listened to him hum a Frank Sinatra tune and slip me sips of his beer swirl – dances in my mind at the beginning of every summer.  So, it’s easy to say I’m a passionate BBQ aficionado as an adult. So, to celebrate summer The Florida Foodie will set out to see whose BBQ reigns supreme in Palm BeachCounty. For June and July, I’ll seek out and taste PBC’s finest BBQ at independently owned joints; some with deep roots in the Florida Foodie scene and some younger BBQ blood.

Our first two challengers belong to what I fondly call “the old school” club. There is no better place to start our battle than with the barbeque crafted by these mavens of meat. Blue Front BBQ and Tom’s Place each have served Palm BeachCounty customers, respectively, for nearly fifty years. Both establishments have wildly popular sauces that can be found and purchased at your local Publix and other fine retailers. If I’m looking for barbeque done right, these two establishments would be the logical place to begin. Restaurants don’t stay in business by luck; Blue Front and Tom’s must be doing something right.

Blue Front Barbeque, (pictured in the slideshow above), originally began its operation in 1964 on the corner of 15th Street and Tamarind Avenue. Norris Nelson’s secret orange-colored BBQ sauce was an instant hit and soon after Blue Front opened, they began to bottle and sell the addictive sauce in a manufacturing plant across the street.  John Paladino, a local developer, purchased the BBQ business from Norris’s widow and in 2013 with plans to re-open Blue Front and keep the BBQ legacy alive. The new joint is located at 1132 North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth. The new location has a wonderful outside patio area for enjoying the South Florida weather. The building is art deco and not what you expect from an “old school” BBQ joint, but it works.

The Hits: The cornbread, hands down, was the best I have ever eaten. Moist, dense, and studded with plump, sweet corn kernels. I was in cornbread heaven. The leftover cornbread was great the next day, toasted and buttered, for breakfast. The pulled pork was probably the moistest and most tender I’ve had in a long time. The tangy and unusual Blue Front BBQ sauce compliments the pork perfectly. The final high-point was the baked beans. Nice and smoky with the right amount of spice, the beans complimented the BBQ perfectly.

The Misses: The chicken was as dry as sawdust. Even the sauce could not cut the over-cooked meat. The BBQ ribs were also a disappointment. Though tasty, the ribs were dry and tough. The mac & cheese was bland. It was hard to tell if there was any cheese actually on it. And I’m not sure if they meant to make the Cole slaw spicy, but for me, Cole slaw should not make you drink a gallon of water. Cole slaw is meant to cool the pallet, not the opposite.

Tom’s Place, (pictured in the slideshow above),  was opened in 1978 on the corner of Glades Road and Dixie Hwy in Boca Raton by Tom Wright and his wife, Helen. Back then, the restaurant was not much more than a shack that lines of patrons would wait for hours to taste Tom’s succulent ribs and chicken. The BBQ became so popular that the shack was soon replaced by a 250 seat mega restaurant where you still had to wait in line, for sometimes up to two hours, to get a chance to feast on Tom’s Ribs. Tom’s was the place to get St. Louis Style ribs smothered in their famous bright red sweet and tangy sauce. My family would make the pilgrimage to Boca at least once a month to get out to have Tom’s ribs. The sauce, so popular with diners, was bottled and sold at Publix. Due to failing health, Tom and Helen sold the restaurant to a developer in 2003 with plans to move Tom’s to West Palm Beach. Today, Tom’s son-in-law and daughter run the small and quaint Tom’s Place at 400 East Boynton Beach Blvd, in Boynton Beach. A cozy cottage that has the feel of what a BBQ place should be. Mismatched tables with red-checked table cloths, exposed wood beams, the smell of smoke in the air, and a cake stand proudly displaying cute little sweet potato pies. I would have swooned in delight if there weren’t other customers there.

The Hits: The ribs were just as I remembered them; juicy, smoky, and doused in that sauce that no one can resist. I ate without abandon, with my face and hands covered in sauce. The BBQ chicken was moist and perfectly smoked. Also, the mac and cheese was seasoned just right and had a nice balance of cheese to pasta. The baked beans were a delight, sweet and intense with a bit of green pepper to them. I found them interesting and addictive.

The Misses: The corn on the cob was obviously frozen and bland. With Florida’s bounty of sweet corn just at the peak of season, I would hope Tom’s would take advantage of the season and provide their customers with the corn. The corn bread was as I remembered, sweet and cakey, which I’ve always enjoyed. But, I have to say, I’m spoiled by Blue Front’s cornbread now. So, Tom’s corn bread was a bit “blah” for me. The Cole slaw and the potato salad had way too much pickle relish in it and both were cloyingly overpowering. I know all you southerner’s love your pickle relish and sweet slaw, but it was too overpowering for our tastes.

All in all, a day spent taste-testing BBQ is not a day mis-spent.

The Verdict: I will give Blue Front a second chance on their ribs solely based on the merit of their cornbread and their pulled pork. As for Tom’s Place, they are clearly the winner of the Florida Foodie’s first round of Battle of the BBQ! I am happy to have rediscovered an old favorite and find it is still a stellar joint for BBQ. I am sure we will be back to Tom’s many more times throughout the summer and beyond.

Summer is inspiration for barbeque. Take this warm-weather to try out some great summer-time dishes at your local BBQ joints. Try Blue Front and Tom’s and post your opinion on who reigns supreme on The Florida Foodie Facebook page! For as long as there has been BBQ, there have been arguments about who has the best BBQ.

In her previous life, Sarah, a Palm Beach County Native, spent ten years working in various high-end eating establishments around South Florida. She is currently a fiction thesis candidate in the MFA program at Florida International University where she also teaches creative writing and rhetoric. If that is not enough, Sarah is also the owner of Cakes by Sarah, a local custom cake shop. Sarah lives in Lake Worth with her husband and two beautiful boys. “Food, fiction, and family are my life.”