So I want to talk about The Brick Pit in Mobile, AL. You may notice I have pictures of it here and no info about it, so I wanted to let you know why. The first time we visited this place was during our first visit to Mobile in 2009. Doug found it while searching on line for barbecue and we decided to give it a try for lunch one day. When we pulled up to the restaurant, we suspected we had hit the motherload. It's a small, unassuming looking place with an almost un-navigable dirt parking lot, and the smell of hickory is thick in the air. We pulled around back and got our first view of the smoke pouring out from the back of the place, coating the huge old trees with a layer of black soot. Once inside the first thing we noticed was the remarkable amount of writing covering the walls. Apparently, everyone who visits leaves their 2 cents with the aid of colored sharpies. It's a sight. There's a little window toward the back where you place your order, then you take a seat. On our first visit I had the half chicken with beans and slaw and Doug got the ribs. We grabbed our iced teas and took a seat and read the walls until our meals arrived, which was pretty fast. Everything was very good, great even, and we were in hog heaven. All of the elements we look for in great barbecue were there, from the perfect smoke to the tender meat and great sauce. The sides were on par with what we've come to expect from good barbecue, and we saved room for that ubiquitous Southern sweet, banana pudding, a mix of banana flavored pudding, fresh bananas and vanilla wafers. We left thinking that this place definitely made it to our Top10.
This past February we revisited The Brick Pit, and were a bit disappointed to find some seriously oversmoked barbecue. If we had been trying The Brick Pit for the first time on that visit, we would not have been real happy. Maybe they had a rookie back there in the kitchen, maybe it was a glitch that happened just that one day, I don't know. We left feeling like our dog had died. I don't know if we'll go back, as life is too short for so-so barbecue, but this place was a favorite that slipped off the list.