Customers gobble Smokey Point barbecue joint’s meat

Published 12:51 pm Thursday, June 30, 2011

SMOKEY POINT — People who love barbecued pork, ribs or chicken always search out new barbecue restaurants, seeking to find the best taste and tenderness since recipes, preparation and ingredients vary so much in this highly competitive business niche.

Many of those people have found Moo

se Creek Barbecue in Arlington’s Smokey Point. Co-owners Pat and Sharon Patton are attracting so many customers that they often run out of meats before the 8 p.m. closing time.

They even publicize that warning on their menu, web site and the door to their business, hoping fewer people will be disappointed over a “sold out” sign.

“That’s because we’ve learned over 30 years of barbecuing meats that day-after, warmed-over meats don’t taste as good as fresh meat prepared the same day. In fact, day-old meat has a definitely different, far less flavorful taste and texture,” Sharon Patton said. “We want to only sell the best and we’ve gotten really good at estimating how much to cook each morning, but once in a while we still run out.”

All of the diner’s food — such as Curly’s Gourmet Ribs from Iowa — is cooked slowly early in the day, smoked in a high-tech, computer-controlled Southern Pride smoker with seasoned white oak, pecan and cherry wood, but never with too much smoke since that ruins the meat flavor, she said.

“We’re not Texas barbecue, we just do our own style,” she said. “We love Texas and the South but we’ve picked up more unique twists in barbecue cooking in New Mexico and California. Our own style just evolved on its own.”

The couple has barbecued since the 1950s and has run restaurants since the 1970s. After several years in Alaska, California and Oklahoma, they moved to Arlington to be closer to their family.

The menu includes lunch sandwiches priced from $10.95 to $12.95 but the portions are generous and include a choice of ranch beans, coleslaw and potato or macaroni salad. Dinners start at $12.95 for a three-rib pork dinner and $14.95 for a regular 5-rib meal. A large dinner costs $25.95 with 10 to 12 ribs, plus a choice of two sides with each meal. A half-chicken barbecue meal is $12.95 with two sides.

Beyond that there are full racks of pork ribs, brisket, pulled pork and a variety of other choices, including family packs or rib, chicken and brisket combinations to feed up to 12 people.

The Pattons also offer catering any day of the week, with each pack of brisket and chicken, ribs and chicken or ribs and brisket including sides to feed about 25 people.

Restaurant review sites include overwhelmingly positive comments from people who have eaten at Moose Creek. One said, “This place is amazing… I’d make the three-hour drive just to eat there because it is an absolute treat! … People were soooo very friendly.”

Experience and knowing your customers pays off, Sharon Patton said.

“For a few years we even ran an Alaska fishing lodge at King Salmon, 300 miles southeast of Anchorage,” she said. “But our barbeque experiences convinced us to try that at our Arlington restaurant and the results have been great. We’ve had customers from Vancouver, B.C., Bellevue, Kirkland, Everett and many other places. Mostly we’ve grown from word-of-mouth advertising. We had to change a few things. In California, brisket wasn’t popular at all but it is up here. But sandwiches were more popular there.”

When the Pattons opened the restaurant, they wanted to do something for military veterans, she said, but didn’t know what.

“We talked to the Marine Corps about Washington soldiers who had died in action and then asked one of the mothers if she could put her son’s picture in the restaurant to honor his sacrifice. She readily agreed,” she said.

That was just the beginning.

“People just started bringing in pictures and stories and we looked for more names on the Military Times’ Honor the Fallen Website” (militarytimes.com/valor), Patton said. “These soldiers sacrificed everything for our country and freedom and we wanted some recognition for them. Now we’ve almost filled a whole wall. We’ve really been touched by the great response. I don’t think people realize how many have died. We don’t just limit it to Washington soldiers now. They’re all our sons and daughters.”

Learn more

Moose Creek Barbecue is located at 3617 172nd St. NE, Suite 5, Arlington. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday for lunch or dinner. Find more information at www.moosecreekbbq.com or call the diner at 360-651-2523 or Sharon Patton at 425-516-8874.