Pop's Southern BBQ — Restaurant in Sisters

I've lived in all parts of Texas including Austin and Houston, for decades. I have to say, I haven't found anything close to real Texas BBQ recently here in Bend. Recently some new pitmasters have emerged.

In terms of local restuaurants, I have tried BTBS's inventive Q preparation and although I love Bro Jo's in general, they're just going through the motions in terms of Q. Their brisket is way too tough! Mr. Baldly is a fine enough fellow but skinny chicken and dry flavorless meats at high prices are not my style. In my view, it ranks as a local fav only because no one can think of another place in town to vote for when the Source runs their annual Best Of contest, otherwise the best thing Q related there is their sauce.

Texans know asking for sauce is an insult to a proper brisket pitmaster. As a rule there are two things you don't need to eat good Texas brisket: teeth and sauce! Whether you layer on copious amounts of dry spice profiles, inject or just work with salt pepper and smoke, you gotta let the meat speak first, not try to make up for bad Q at the end with sauce.

Enter Pop's. It was referred to me by another Texan, from Dallas.

I took my two teens for lunch there for lunch recently. We first stopped at the Mexican truck on site to look at the menu, out of respect. One of my girls said, what is that smell in the air and where is it coming from? I pointed at Pop's and they both said, "Let's go there!"

They were sold out of ribs, so we had the brisket plate. They make a point of tellin' you it comes with chips, but you get to choose two additional sides. We chose the spicy poblano slaw, the tater salad and opted for the brisket chili, cause nobody much makes brisket chili, especially this far from Texas. True to proper Q plates, you get a slice of white bread. Only thing missing was a pickle. You choose your own sauce once your plate is ready, if you want it. I never even thought of asking for sauce. Heard it (all three) was good so I'll sample it next time.

First, as always, the honest truth. Chips. Fresh, with just the right thickness so they are hearty and have a bit of crunch. My youngest commented that she could eat them all day long. We all agreed. Nuf said.

Next the brisket. Tasty with a perfect pull. That means it was tender. (yeah!) It's not supposed to be tough or fall apart. I grabbed a slab straight away and laid it in the bread to make a "bend back". No sauce. Never looked back. Mesquite smoke. Classic. Burns hot. Not easy to manage. Done well here. One reviewer said too much salt. Can't see it. Traditional flavor profiles for brisket are fairly simple. Salt and pepper laid up early to marinate. Its a big hunk of meat so its hard to overdo. Competition brisket is open season on profile layering. Mine is somewhere in the middle. Pop's flavor profile was simple, but good. I got a lean piece. Some people will have to serve you a fatty piece (which is delicious too) to ensure its tender, not Pop. You get three nice, no less than pencil width thick slabs. Right out of the book.

I would add a nice pickle spear or simply a few hamburger dill slices. In Texas you'd get jalapeño slices, maybe a whole one - flash fried.

Brisket chili. Nice tender chunks o brisket, which of course is not the standard for chili makins'. Special, therefore. Had a great Texas flavor. Cumin, it may have been, that was calling me by my name, but at any rate, good chunks and spicy gravy with all the trimmings and a nice back heat we all noted.

Cole slaw. Correction, smoked poblano cole slaw. Green, sloppy, crunchy and spicy, without being hot. I love hot, but my youngest doesn't. She approved. Imaginative. Simply stunning.

Tater salad. Just fine.

Portions are for one, but we shared the selections above and did fine. Lunch for three before being tempted to add three Cowboy Crack cookies and tip, (not a fan of tipping for counter service but these folks were nice and friendly, so I did.) = $29. Not...

I went to pop Southern BBQ on September 3rd 2022. I asked the gentleman if I can have some brisket and I wanted the point only. It's my way of checking out the quality of their barbecue operation, the young man said let me talk to the boss his name was John. So I asked John if I can have some brisket and the point only. Because I didn't want the flat, that's the leanest part of the brisket. To my surprise he said yes. I paid $12 for this amount of brisket that's in the picture.

When I got the brisket it looked awesome very tender looking jiggles, so to speak. When I cut into it and tasted it it had a very nice taste I believe it was salt pepper and garlic powder. I also do believe that it probably was smoked with Mesquite because it had a very very strong smoke taste. But it wasn't an over-pleasant taste, it was just a taste that tasted really good but very strong in smoke flavor.

The Bark.... I do think the bark looks good , they call it in the industry "Black Gold". (see pictures Below) Cutting the Point in cubes can showcase your brisket more.

As you can see in the pictures, the brisket looks like the flat but it wasn't the flat. If I was going to serve the point to a customer, I would make sure that it didn't look like the flat. This is a way that you can really distinguish the difference between the flat and the point, most points are cut in cubes versus long slices. I will post another picture so that customer can see what I'm talking about. But this picture will not be Pop's Southern barbecue brisket. SHHH ( it is Mine ). It will just show what i feel the shape of what the brisket should look like when you ask for the point only.

The other thing is....... if you notice the brisket it is not red but it looks brown. I believe it was pre-sliced ahead of time and kept in the warmer where the oxygen gets to it. It doesn't ruin the taste to it or make the taste any different. It just makes the appearance look a little different. A great example would be when you get pulled pork if it's brown it's been pulled away ahead of time but if it's red it's just recently pulled for your serving. Many barbecue joints in the south will slice their brisket right in front of you and when it comes out the presentation really looks awesome. But some places have to slice ahead of time.

On to the barbecue sauce, I tasted all 3 sauces it was really good tasting it was a vinegar ketchup taste with a little cumin. Even the spicy one wasn't too spicy it just had a very pleasant spicy taste. It did not have a powdery spicy taste like sometimes barbecue joints will put things into their sauce to make it spicy.

So I'm going to give the rating a five because it really was an excellent piece of brisket. And yes it was better then some barbecue brick and mortars places that I've been to in Bend Oregon and Redmond Oregon and food trucks.

John Thanks for the Brisket.

First two pictures are Pop's Southern BBQ

Next two were...

You can tell a lot about a pitmaster by their food. In this case, I'm not sure if the folks at Pop's are considered 'pit masters' but they definitely are LEGIT and put a lot of care into their food.

It's a food truck located into a food truck spot with a few other trucks and beer on tap. IMO, there's not a lot of really good BBQ in Central Oregon. Pop's might be the best though.

We had the half chicken and pulled pork. The bird was brined and smoked to perfection. Chicken is actually hard to do on a smoker if you want to get it right. There's not a lot of fat, so chicken can dry out quickly...it's unforgiving like that. These guys (and gals?) found a deft balance of seasoning, smoke and technique. The breast meat was super juicy with juices glistening in the sun as we devoured it like a pack of velociraptors.

After taking that first bite, I could tell the person on the smoker cared very much about their craft and had perfected it over time. If I had one critique I'd say it was a bit too smoky. The smoke wasn't subtle, it was right there in your face. And the seasoning was a bit salty, but I like that. In this case the seasoning and smoke went well with the hazy IPA I had to wash it down.

But the real measure of quality for a BBQ joint is all the items that aren't meat. I pay a lot of attention to how they make their own sauce and how they pickle their red onions, things like that. These guys put a lot of care into the side dishes, including the brisket chili, which was exceptional . You could take all the ingredients in the chili like grandma just made it.

Overall, I"m impressed there's someone in C.O. who has spent the time mastering their craft, getting to know temperature swings (which can drop at night) and really dialed in their...