The Joint (New Orleans)

The Joint
701 Mazant Street
New Orleans, LA 70117
(504) 949-3232

For various reasons, I ended up spending the last three weekends in New Orleans. I have a good friend there, Amy, who lives in the Bywater area. She mentioned going to The Joint several times to eat some barbeque, but being a Memphis girl, I kept coming up with other things I'd rather eat. I mean, I can eat ribs in Memphis anytime, right?

Well, finally on my third visit, I figured I better humor her. Look how cute this place is!



What finally sold me was the fact that Amy's eight month old son, Leo, apparently loves to suck on the rib bones. I was NOT going to miss that.

The Joint, like most places in the Bywater, has a very laid back vibe. We arrived around 7pm on a Saturday and managed to score a nice picnic table on the patio.



Amy's husband, John, got Leo buckled in and we perused the menu. There were all of the standard offerings--ribs, sandwiches, etc. We decided to split a rack of ribs and two sides. Amy & I went inside to order from the nice dude at the bar.



I noticed a Memphis in May poster on the wall inside, so that definitely gave them some cred. John says the owner used to live in Virginia, and that's where he learned to bbq.

We got a few beers and went outside to wait. There were several other tables with small children, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.



The food came out amazingly fast and we dug right in.



The ribs were really, really good. Juicy and full of flavor, they came right off of the bone. There was a nice sauce on the table that I slathered mine in. It was a little more vinegary and less tomato-y than what we have here, and it didn't have a lot of heat, but it was tasty.

As you can see from the picture, the sides were a little more fancy than what you'd find in Memphis, but that was fine by me.

We all cleaned our plates, and Leo cleaned our bones.



The Joint is definitely worth a visit if you are a serious bbq fan.