EVERETT — If this journalism thing doesn’t work out for me, I’m going to go after the contract to provide paper towels to the Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurants.
There’s a reason every table at Famous Dave’s has a full roll of paper towels on one end: sauce. Sauce on the meat. Sauce on the plate. Five squeeze bottles of sauce on the table, not counting the ketchup.
And the sauce on your fingers, lips, chin, shirt, pants and the occasional elbow.
So, yes, snap off a few paper towels before you begin.
Famous Dave’s, near the Everett Mall, has been open since January, part of a nationwide chain that does for barbecue what chains such as Olive Garden do for Italian food: provide familiar favorites with few surprises, served cheerfully amid theme-heavy decor.
For Famous Dave’s that means sauce-drenched smoked ribs, wait staff dressed in T-shirts that tell you, “We serve no swine before its time,” and a roadhouse look with vintage (and reproduction) tin advertising signs, hub caps and neon on the walls.
The menu is extensive, so first-timers would do well to order from “Dave’s Famous Feasts.”
A party of four or five can order the All-American ($60), which includes a full slab of St. Louis style spareribs, a whole chicken and a half-pound of your choice of Texas beef brisket, smoked Georgia chopped pork or hot links with accompaniments that include corn on the cob, fries and corn bread muffins and a choice of two of several sides, including baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, Southern-style green beans, mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese.
A half-order of the above ($35) is more than enough for two, and what my wife and I shared during a recent visit. Mom and Pop came along, too. Mom ordered the Buffalo Chicken Wings ($11.59), while Pop ordered the Rib Tips ($12.29).
First, to the meats, all of which are available as separate entrees: The pit-smoked ribs served with Dave’s Rich and Sassy sauce were moist and had enough smoke to balance with the sauce. The barbecue chicken, likewise, was moist and clad with sauce that penetrated to the meat.
Only the Georgia pork was a bit on the dry side, but that was easily fixed with a squirt from one of the sauce bottles. I grabbed the bottle of the Georgia Mustard, a blend of vinegar, brown sugar and mustard and a good alternative to the other tomato-based sauces, particularly for the pork.
You have five sauces to choose from if you prefer more or less heat or sweetness on your meat. The favorite at the table was the Texas Pit sauce, flavored with black pepper, although I liked the heat from the Devil’s Spit sauce.
Mom said her Buffalo wings had enough spice for her. And Pop said the rib tips, a pound of the ribs, chopped, were “good.”
Dave’s also offers a selection of sandwiches made with the barbecued meats, as well as burgers. If one meat isn’t enough on a burger, order the Ultimate BBQ Burger ($9.99), a ground beef patty served with a pile of smoked pork, jalapeno bacon and melted cheddar.
Your vegetarian cousin is stuck with the Caesar salad ($7.79), but there are a couple of alternatives to the beef, chicken and pork that dominate. A salmon fillet grilled with a pineapple barbecue glaze ($15.29) and catfish strips, breaded with Cajun-spice cornmeal ($12.99) sound like good choices.
A word on the sides: It’s not why you came here, but there are hits and misses.
The Wilbur Beans, baked beans with bits of smoked pork and beef brisket, were flavorful and actually cooked to the point where they still had some tooth to them.
The Drunkin’ Apples, cooked apple slices in a cinnamon and amaretto sauce, were sweet enough to be considered dessert.
I wasn’t expecting much from the corn on the cob, as a chain restaurant isn’t going to go to the trouble of serving fresh corn. With Yakima sweet corn now arriving in stores and farmers markets, a previously frozen cob isn’t worth raising to your mouth. Pop’s green beans, simmered in chicken stock with bacon and onion, suffered from the same weakness despite the effort at offering something green on the plate.
The corn bread muffins were sweet and moist, more like a cupcake than corn bread. I like a grainier texture and less sweetness in corn bread.
We skipped dessert, but I was tempted for a moment by the bread pudding ($6.29) and the pecan pie ($6.29).
Famous Dave’s offers a full bar and several regional beers on tap.
The service is quick and friendly. Our server asked if this was our first visit and, like a sommelier of barbecue sauce, clued us into the various sauces at the table as well as his recommendations for dinner.
They also have a sense of humor. Along with the table service he brought us each a moist towelette. Like that’s going to be enough to clean off more than one finger.
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