Monday, January 16, 2012

Payne's Bar-B-Que

Payne's Bar-B-Que
1762 Lamar Avenue
901-272-1513


After Satchel's basketball game on Saturday, we decided to go to Payne's Bar-B-Que with some of his teammates and their dads. There was some discussion about whether Payne's was one of the best bbq places in town, and since I hadn't been there in twenty years, I thought it might be worth checking out.



We arrived at 12:30 and were the only ones there, which seemed odd. (Turns out we just beat the rush.) The kids sat at one table, and the adults sat at another. There were three wall heaters and despite being fairly empty, they made the place feel warm and cozy.



The menu is pretty basic, and you order at the counter. No matter how much you order, they do not write it down.



When I asked the monkeys what they wanted to eat, they surprised me by answering, "Ribs." I thought for sure I'd get off easy with hot dogs. I told them that they could share a half slab and they did not like that. Regardless, I only ordered one. Warren wanted a large chopped sandwich, and I went with a small chopped. I ordered a hot dog just in case.

Despite there being nine of us, the food came out really fast. Turns out all five of the kids wanted ribs. They looked pretty tasty.



As you can imagine, things got pretty messy at the kids' table.




Between the five kids, they had two half slabs and one full slab, five bags of chips, and five sodas. They didn't come close to finishing, but they did a good bit of eating.



At the adult table, we were doing our share of eating. Behold the large chopped sandwich.



As you can see, the slaw is very mustardy. The sauce, which we ordered medium, was very sweet. Warren said it reminded him of sweet and sour sauce at a Chinese restaurant. The meat was very tender though and overall it was quite good.



Stephen got the sliced sandwich and he said he really liked the meat, but after several bites he had to abandon the bun, slaw, and sauce.



Carlos, who was originally going to get bologna, went with the chopped sandwich and a hot dog. (I never got the hot dog I ordered, but I didn't care when I saw how much food there was.) The hot dogs are deep fried and pretty yum, even plain.



I ordered some beans too, which were good, but nothing special.



There were a lot of napkins that died in service to our lunch. The dads took care of getting the kids cleaned up in the restrooms, so I can't vouch for them.

Once we were done, we went back to the counter to pay. We each reminded the guy what we ordered and paid in cash. (They do not take credit cards.)

Overall I think we all enjoyed ourselves and thought the food was good. I'm not sure I'd put Payne's in my top five, but I would definitely go back. The service was great and the prices were more than fair. By the time we left the place was packed. It's definitely plenty of people's go to place.

Payne's Bar-B-Que on Urbanspoon

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