Restaurant No. 5: Brand BBQ Market

I am going to start this post out with a positive, I will go back. But they better get their act together over there.

Place: Brand BBQ Market, 2824 W. Armitage, Chicago. Neighborhood: Logan Square. Pricing, not expensive, most items under $10 except for the ribs.

I love BBQ and especially a BBQ place that is trying to be more than a joint and really be a restaurant. The place is kinda cool. A key to the place is that it is BYOB without a corkage fee. That rocks.

I went on a Friday night with a buddy of mine. The place was packed and is pretty loud. I'm not sure if it was because there were a couple of large parties or if it's the norm but the tables were spaced far enough apart that you don't have you neighbor's eavesdropping on you. That is a very good thing. Well......

This place has some serious issues. We're looking at the menu for a bit and our waitress finally comes over and informs us that they are out of a few things. OK, shoot. On the appetizers, we're out of the chicken wings, the Gorgonzola crab cakes and rib sampler. For entrees, they were out of the white meat chicken and the baby back ribs. Excuse me. A BBQ place that runs out of chicken and ribs!!! What good are you. That's like going to a breakfast place and saying they ran out of eggs. Come on, this is serious problem.

As they were out of the two appetizers I was interested in (seriously Gorgonzola crab cakes, I must try these), I decided to just order a sandwich. I order the smoked pork belly confit. Anything that they can make bacon out of is all good in my world. And mainly because how damn good this sandwich was, will I consider going back. Seriously, the pork belly was so flavorful and moist, I could barely take a breath before I inhaled it. I had never had pork belly before and believe me, I have missed out. My friend ordered the smoked pulled duck. Another interesting option at a BBQ place. He really liked it, it was moist and flavorful. The side of mac and cheese with burnt ends of brisket thrown in was really good but served in what was a Dixie cup. Not enough to be a side more of a snack size serving.

Another huge problem is that we were still hungry. When was the last time you had BBQ and were left hungry after eating your meal? Didn't think you could answer that. We called the waitress over and told her we needed more food. Now, they had run out of the brisket and the remainder of the dark meat chicken and the pork belly. Great, so what you have left is the pulled pork, duck and salad. On a good note, or so we thought, she said they have one half slab of ribs left. Really, where did you find those? And that is the exact way to describe the ribs. They were horrible. They were dry and tough. I think they were ordered for take out and sat around for over one hour and were reheated. They shouldn't have been served. Ribs are supposed to be falling off the bone, moist and delicious. I really could have done without bad baby back ribs.

The service was not good. The waitress took forever to get to us originally. As we figured out what we wanted, only to be told that they didn't have most of the items is inexcusable. That needs to be done right away as soon as they sit you down. Especially when you run out out of the basics of BBQ, hello. Also, they have seven different sauces and only keep the three most popular on the table. I asked for the others and she was asked me with an attitude if I wanted all of them. Yeah, all of them. Sorry to make you do your job but you know it's my first time here and how the hell am I supposed to know which sauce I like. On a side note, we had a conversation with her about them running out of food and our experience. She was nice enough in apologizing but in doing so she put down other BBQ places around there. Not necessary at all. I'm in your restaurant and can figure out if I'll come back again based on things like the food and the service.

This place is new and the only reason I will give it another go is the pork belly and the duck were so damn good. If they can make two amazing dishes, maybe they were just overwhelmed that night. Also, plan ahead and have enough food on hand and smoked, that would be a welcome treat. BBQ is not something that you can just whip up, it takes time to prepare and smoke.