Billy Bob’s

Billy Bob’s =  Poughkeepsie, NY

Billy Bob’s appearance at first is a little bit more of a Country Cafe than a barbecue place.  It is made up of small dining room with a large bar area.   Billy Bobs is located in a  neighborhood near Vassar Collage.  I drove by the building several times looking for the entrance to the parking lot.  I didn’t miss it, it just wasn’t there.  It turns out that you had to find a spot on a  side street parking or down near Vassar.   Billy Bob’s was very busy, which is always a good sign, and I had to wait for a table to be cleaned.  The wait staff was very friendly and attentive.

The menu struck me more as a general fare menu than that of a barbecue place. There was a healthy assortment of burgers, mac and cheese, and other sandwich offerings before you got to the barbecue on the last page.  I ordered, as usual, an assortment platter so I could trying brisket, pork and ribs.  I was a bit surprised to find that they didn’t offer hush puppies, so instead I ordered the corn bread.  When everything was delivered it was a huge portion of food, in fairness though a good portion of the plate was taken up by the cornbread biscuits and a large helping of the sweet potato fries.  The brisket was piled high as was the pulled pork.  I actually had to order the ribs separately and they came out on a separate plate.  Looking at the ribs give me a little concern as I am not a fan of when the ribs are already sauced, especially drowning in it, which these were.   The sauce was not anything out of the ordinary and didn’t appear to stand out from from generic sauces everywhere.

Everything was tender and tasty although I honestly didn’t pick up much smoked taste at all.  The brisket didn’t have a nice smoke ring appearance and certainly didn’t have any any distinguishable wood flavoring.  The pulled pork was good but again couldn’t really get much taste beyond the bbq sauce.   The ribs were smothered in barbecue sauce, even trying to remove most of the sauce you were not able pick up a lot of wood or smoked flavor.

Overall I would say it’s a nice local place or nice neighborhood restaurant but I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to visit visit for the bbq.