Bullpen Ribs & BBQ — Restaurant in Atlanta

Wife and I came here around noon today (Tuesday Feb. 16 in the eternal year of our Covid 2021). Parking was easy as they have a large parking lot attached to the restaurant with at least 20 spaces. Only a few customers inside so we put our anti-covid-superpandemic-eradicater masks on and went straight up to the counter to order. Menu is typical BBQ joint, with full menu of goodies - pulled pork, brisket, chopped chicken, cole slaw, baked beans, etc.

My wife ordered the spare rib plate with green beans and Brunswick stew, also comes with cornbread. Ribs were a little dry but tasty - they come without sauce, you add the sauce, the stew was excellent and the green beans are the flat kind, but had a nice smoky flavor to them, a little underseasoned but still good. Cornbread was sweet, and moist not dry (I had to use the word MOIST - say it with me..."moist"...see don't you feel better after saying MOIST more than once today? You're welcome).

I had the chopped chicken plate with potato salad and coleslaw as my sides. Chopped chicken was a little underflavored and not enough sauce, so I added some of their sweet sauce later, so that turned out better. I like coleslaw on my BBQ samminch - yes I said samminch. SLAWBQ! The slaw was pretty good, a little more mayo and couple degrees colder would have been perfect but it was good. The only thing I didn't enjoy at first was the potato salad - I guess pandemics make people stop putting mustard in potato salad. I'm pretty picky about my tater-salad, and this was a letdown as it was probably made with mayo/sourcream/dill...not very southern (where's the MUSTARD?) so what I did was I went over to the sauce counter and got some of their "Carolina mustard" BBQ sauce and put that in the potato salad and Bingo it was better.

For my drink I had the unsweet tea with lemonade because yeah, tea and BBQ. They do have beer by the bottle but I was driving and didn't want to get a DUI and miss any of the wonderful goings-on in the world right now (lawdy I might have missed something as spectacular as that last superbowl halftime show)!

So if you are: Looking for decent BBQ close to downtown A BBQ place to "dine in" A place to park at a BBQ joint without paying $20 to park A no frills place where you won't get the evil-eye for eating without a mask on (yes masks are required to enter but you can take them off to eat, instead of eating by osmosis like many places expect you to lately) Plenty of elbow room in the dining area Good basic counter-service and fast food service

...then this is your joint. Definitely recommend and will be back, with...

My 1st time there was looking forward to trying this spot after passing by it serval times when in the area. Memorial day wanted some ribs so this is where I went. Greeted by a man who said he was the Master chef 👨‍🍳. I told him I wanted it for dine in. It didn't take too long before it was ready. I ordered 3 rib bones with potatoe salad and Brunswick stew. The food looked appealing. The stew taste ok so I kept that aside to take with me. Tried the ribs and they were good not burnt or dry. The sauces mustard/BBQ and reg/ BBQ were good. The potatoe salad ok not a traditional southern potatoe salad but ok. Unfortunately before I could finish eating the lights were turn off while I was still eating and I was shocked. I didn't know their hours of operation so I didn't have a clue that the restaurant was getting ready to close. When I asked the chef why they turn off the lights he said "I thought you were finished eating and that they ( he& his staff was just trying to get outta there". He never asked me if all was good or If I was finished and nor did he even come close to where I was sitting to see what was still on my tray. They serve your food on top of a sheet piece of paper food wrap -sort of like a parchment or wax paper type (not a paper tray or paper plate). After saying I was finished they didn't turn the lights back on. So I asked for some foil to put my food in and was give the Togo box and bag. I didn't feel to good after eating that food and I discarded the rest. I took a laxative to eliminate it as soon as I arrived home. 1st and...

This Is definitely a place You should only come to order Take out only because The service here sucks with the only 2 employees Here being very rude and not so genuine with customer service. I tried this restaurant out twice.The first time was OK But my food was put together very sloppy And when told the very next time I went back About it And how I would like my food put together An attitude was dispersed because of He Being the one To have put it together and instead of taking constructive Criticism he displayed an attitude Moving forward Before preparing my food he went to the bathroom, came Back hands seemed unwashed but I just had high hopes that he did indeed sanitized them...and while he was in the bathroom I wanted to check out the rest of the restaurant because it's huge with not so many customers Based on the 2 times I have went. The music was accidentally Cut off Because of me tripping over a wire And instead of not saying anything I told him and I was rudely Responded back with not Even an are you ok but instead scorned and talked down to saying I shouldn't be going over there as if I'm some child and i feel as if that is so then you should have something to close that part off and have your wiring system taped up or intact. This would be the last time I come to this restaurant. I refuse to spend my money on people working in an establishment that knows customer service comes along with the food. Now I see why it's always empty so if you must get a bite to eat over here at the BBQ BLUEPEN order takeout DO NOT...