Brother's BBQ — Restaurant in Florida

I can give three stars. Food was good, service/packaging of food was not. We stopped in on Saturday late afternoon for take out. It was quite busy and waited a bit to order which was fine. What was not fine was the lady at checkout. We placed an order for baby back ribs...they were out. That's fine so we ordered a lb of the pulled pork. We also ordered 1 quart of potato salad which we had to repeat multiple times as it seemed she wasn't quite getting it. She went to the back to find out if they had a quart and she came back and said she did. Then we ordered a pint of the BBQ beans. We stepped outside to wait. Waiting wasn't an issue, there were a lot of people waiting. We finally got our order and I checked the bag. We had a quart (not a pint) of baked beans but no potato salad. We inquired and she looked at the receipt and said it wasn't on our ticket even though we ordered it. After a bit of back and forth we took what was given and left. We stopped at the Dollar store and I ran in to get some hamburger buns. I came out and picked up the bag that I had placed on my passenger side seat and it seemed that inside the bag was all wet. Unfortunately the lady had put the pulled pork on the bottom, on top of that the small container of sauce (which was in a paper bag) and then added the quart of beans on top of the small container of sauce. Needless to say this arrangement caused the beans to practically fall over because of the instability of the packed contents. The beans caused the sauce lid to come off spilling the sauce into the plastic bag, the paper bag was saturated. We tried to lift the baked beans off of the sauce container and the top to that was broken and we almost were wearing the beans at this juncture trying to struggle with all of it while still sitting in our car at the dollar store. Fortunately we had a reusable Publix bag in the car so we moved the beans into that bag. I typically don't post bad reviews as I try to always encourage every business but at some point after the fact I was concerned that the lady at the takeout window was overwhelmed. Common sense tells you that when packing a takeout order you put the big things on the bottom and layer with the small containers on top. Or at least put items in multiple bags if there's a concern of anything tipping over. This might seem like a a small reason to complain but I'm only bringing it up to make you aware that the take out counter might need a...

I'm going to tell you right now, you won't find better BBQ north of Texas. The Monday special is what I ordered and at 14.99 was a deal. It came with 2 pulled pork sandwiches and 1 side. I ordered 1 extra side because I wanted to taste the most common things I think people would order in the south. Collard greens which I usually just tolerate (I'm not a greens person) and fries.

Let's start with the pulled pork. Comes on a nice sized soft bun (everyone loves soft buns) and a adequate amount of pork compared to the bun. It didn't hang over but it was heavy. First bite was of the pork only and it was explosive with smoke flavor and a hint of vinegar style bbq sauce. You won't need to add any extra sauce. The pork was tender and juicy. Second bite was with the bun and it was spot on. You could taste the freshness of the bun but it was definitely overpowered by the luscious smoky pork.

The fries were cooked to order and brought to the table piping hot. They were steak fries the wide flat kind and were very crispy on the outside and hot and soft on the inside. This means the oil was the perfect temperature before the fries were dropped and they were definitely not pre cooked then we dropped to heat them up. These suckers were fresh. I dipped them in a little of the house bbq sauce instead of ketchup (eew) to give them that little kick.

Ok now on to the part of the review I usually don't look forward to.. The greens. It was a nice size 8oz portion and looked very fresh. Ok here we go... I took the first fork full expecting the horrible experience I usually get when eating anything I hunt eats (love me some rabbit). These green surprised the (bleep) out of me. What kind of witchcraft is this? These greens had a very good flavor with a tease of heat to them. If your a collard greens connoisseur you have to order these. They weren't greasy from just being slammed with fatback. These greens still had a taste of greens but with some added ohhyeah. Not spice enough to burn my mouth but just enough to say, hey I have some spice in me.

If your in Pensacola do not even think about passing by Brothers without stopping in. If you do the gods of BBQ will forever frown upon you.

Reviewed on Monday January 8th...

It was the smell first, that thick honest smoke rolling out and winding itself into the hot Pensacola air, lazy and heavy and full of promise, the kind of promise a man can taste before the meat ever touches his lips. Brother’s BBQ does not serve food—it offers remembrance, a recollection of fire and patience, of hickory embers slowly collapsing into their own ash while the meat takes on that deep and ancient flavor that has lived in the bones of men longer than history remembers.

They will tell you that Dreamland in Birmingham is king, that Hook’s in Troy has the kind of sauce a man might carry in his soul. But when the plate comes down in front of you, that lacquered sheen of bark glistening under the dim overhead lights, the vinegar and smoke playing like old friends across the pulled pork, ribs stacked high in defiant testament to time’s slow art, you know better. You know that what sits before you might very well be the best barbecue in the state, not by the boast of the sign or the declaration of the menu but by the immutable truth of what good food does when it is prepared without compromise, when it is made with faith and fire and understanding.

Here, the sauce does not shout—it speaks in slow drawls, deep and complex, coaxing the meat forward rather than drowning it. Here, the brisket does not crumble—it holds itself firm, demanding the weight of a proper knife or the reverence of a man willing to use his hands. And here, when the meal is done, when the last hushpuppy is dragged through the remnants of sauce and the bones rest in quiet testament to what was, there is only the satisfaction of knowing that barbecue like this could stand against any in Alabama, against any in the South, against any in America.

If a man is wise, he will take this truth with him when he leaves, but he will return. Because meat like this, slow-smoked and reverent, is not just eaten—it...