Bogart's Smokehouse — Restaurant in St. Louis

4 stars-In an upscale residential neighborhood (Soulard) that is home to the oldest farmer’s market west of the Mississippi. Homey interior with about a dozen tables. Interestingly, you order at a table just inside the front door and then find a space to wait for your order. Doing a brisk take-out business during our visit. Sandwiches and platters available here with the usual meats along with the not as usual options of turkey, tri-tip, and pastrami. The famous bruleed ribs-basted with an apricot sauce and caramelized with a blow torch!-are available in half and full slabs or combined with a second meat plate. Meats also available by the pound. Two meat platter to share was our choice here today and wanting to eat a little lighter we picked the pastrami and turkey. With deviled egg potato salad and a sweet and sour coleslaw as the sides. Neither meat had a strong smoke flavor but were both delicious. The pastrami had the perfect amount of peppery rub. One of the best we’ve had. Turkey breast was nicely moist and would make a perfect sandwich. Sauces were an interesting assortment, none of which we found outstanding. The Sweet Meagan Ann sauce was pretty good-quite sweet but too heavy on the molasses we thought. All the sides here appear to be made in-house. The potato salad was delicious with mustard and dill the predominant flavors. The slaw was heavy on the vinegar and very wet. Not really to our liking. An overall enjoyable meal at a place I would recommend if needing a BBQ fix...

I have seen Bogart's on many lists of best BBQ in America and I finally got to check it out. the food did not disappoint at all. We had Ribs and Tri-tip with slaw and deviled egg potato salad. The ribs were perfect, tender but not falling off the bone. They had a good glaze on them which created a bark and the ends were really crispy. The seasoning on the ribs is sufficient and sauce is not necessarily needed. The tri-tip was shaved thin and would be perfect on a sandwich, but was good alone too. It is so tender and flavorful. Horseradish is served on the side if you wish and is a great accompaniment. The slaw is sweet and sour but not over the top in either extreme, great balance. The potato salad did taste like a devilled egg.

There were 4 sauces available; A sweet KC type sauce, a Carolina vinegar, a cayenne cranberry, and spicier sauce. all were very good, not sure I could pick a favorite. The one negative on the sauce is that some corn syrup is used.

The restaurant itself is very small with limited seating. It was very busy as there was a festival across the street and the limited seating was an issue. The seating process was a little difficult and the hostess was not very accommodating. I am used to better service from the Pappy's family joints.

I would go back definitely because the food is outstanding. Maybe they need to expand or consider a bigger location. And as someone who has spent years working in hospitality, be a little more friendly and accommodating...

So during my visit to St. Louis I went to the Arch and asked different people who were locals where they'd recommend I eat. Some suggested seafood, burgers, and of course ribs. I asked where the best ribs in town were and the first couple seemed too "chainy" and I wanted something local and unique. At the fudge store inside the Arch--yes, you heard that right--a young lady and I were talking about food and her and family being from Louisiana (where my parents are from) I knew I could trust her palate. So she recommended this place and showed me some pictures and set myself to go. She said it's not as well known but is known to locals, so again, another plus.

Parking with the ParkLouie app was easy and inexpensive right across the street.

She suggested the ribs of course, but also to have turkey as well. Got the half rack, fire and ice pickles, apple sauce, and a 1/4 lb of turkey. The pickles were definitely packing the heat and balanced by the sweetness. The applesauce was chunky and fresh, none of the processed stuff you get in stores.

But the main event, those ribs...as you can see from the clean bone, I was a fan. Tender, well seasoned, flavorful, just awesome, no additional sauce needed. And then that hot turkey...I won't swear here but I uttered a few words a few times under my breath, it was that good. This is coming from a Texas Meat eater, it all...