Not quite so divey is one of the
Boston area's least expected
treasures: Blue Ribbon Bar-B-Q, in
Arlington. Given how hard it is
to get first-rate barbecue in the northern states, this is hardly
the place you would look for it. But, surprisingly,
New England has
a major barbecue tradition, albeit one that doesn't show itself
often in commercial establishments. The New England Barbecue
Society routinely sends barbecue teams to the Jack Daniels World
Championship, which is the
Super Bowl of barbecue, and in 2006,
Dirty Dick and the Legless Wonders, a team from the nearby town of
Norwell, won the award for the best barbecued chicken in the world.
So Blue Ribbon is not serving to an uneducated public. The
spareribs are meaty and yielding but still have enough firmness to
allow for something being left on the bone after you take a bite.
The
Kansas City burnt ends, a rare treat on the
East Coast, consist
of rich, succulent pieces of beef brisket that have been cut away
and cooked an extra-long time in a bath of fragrant smoke. They're
dark, soft, and intense, and they don't need any sauce at all
(which is how you should order them). Blue Ribbon's other meats -
chicken, pulled pork, and sausage - are also ideally barbecued:
smoky but not stinky, and cooked through but not dried out. And
they taste like meat rather than like spices and dry rubs.
In a way, Blue Ribbon could be said to represent Boston's best
restaurants as a whole: If you didn't know about it, you wouldn't
suspect that it actually exists. But once you find it, it will make
you happy every time you roll back into Boston, secure in the
knowledge of your secret pleasures.
If You Go
Blue Ginger, 583
Washington Street, (781) 283-5790, www.ming.com/blueginger