Elmer's BBQ — Restaurant in Tulsa

My favorite BBQ restaurant is open again! Sadly, they closed at the height of the COVID pandemic. I was afraid I would never get to eat their incredible food again. I was so happy when I learned they were open in a new location a little further down Peoria. They actually opened back in January but somehow I didn't know it until now.

Same friendly folks and fortunately, the same amazing food! This is THE barbeque place that I judge all others against. The owner, Keith, said, "Good barbeque makes you happy." Well, I was very happy today! The ribs are my favorite menu item but, over the years, I have had most everything on the menu and it's all good. Pulled pork, beef, chicken, sausage, hot links, you name it, it's good. It's so good that there is no need to use sauce but their sauces are awesome and must be sampled. They have a spice I can't identify that gives them that signature Elmer's taste.

The new place is nice. The blues is still playing and the B B King Epiphone is still proudly displayed. It's in a popular trendy area a couple of blocks south of 31st St. The only drawback is parking. The area was really crowded and parking was in short supply. Don't worry about that though, the Q is worth hunting for a place to park.

Go to Elmer's!

Eat great Barbeque!

Be happy that you're helping a...

First, any good bbq place should have fresh brewed tea. Not out of a machine or bottle. If you get it, it’s just a little bottle which, of course, you have to pay for another bottle if you want “refills”. Same with the cokes. Very very sloooooowwwww, even though it wasn’t crowded. Not sure what they were doing behind that counter, because obviously, the food was ready back there. Ordered the badwich with Texas toast. What a mistake. There is nothing worse than a piece (one piece) of Texas toast that is sitting on top of the counter in a metal dish with a piece of foil over it! You could tell it had been sitting there a long time just by the taste of it, not to mention it was completely cold and completely soggy. I mean completely! One of the customers complained while we were in there and they made them a fresh piece. Why wouldn’t they just do that for every customer? All the food was room temperature. Sorry, but we won’t be back. Next time we will drive a little further to Knotty Pig, where we have never had a...

Elmer’s ruined my life. I ate this BBQ all through my formative years. They were a tasty part of several milestones - birthdays, graduations, they even catered my wedding (and made true believers out of many hardened “Texas BBQ is the only good bbq” folks). But I moved to Texas - the land that is supposed to have good BBQ. After tasting the very best, everything the Lone Star State has to offer is just substandard (at best). They don’t even have fried bologna down here! This means I only get to enjoy BBQ when we drive nine hours to visit my mom. The one thing that keeps my going is being able to purchase BBQ sauce and bring it home after our visits to Tulsa. Even that has been known to cause problems, as my husband sometimes uses too much of the sauce that we have to carefully ration to ensure we have enough to last our next visit.

In short, Elmer’s is nothing short of amazing, Keith is great, and they need to open up a chain down in Houston so this pregnant woman can indulge her craving for pulled pork and...