Raspberry's BBQ Macon Mo.

 Raspberry's BBQ Macon Mo
July 23rd 2011

Raspberry's enters the ring with Hawg Father's BBQ.  Hawg Father's received a 13.  1st Service 4 it was a seat yourself joint that reminded me of Sill's cafe in Ogden. Our waitress was there to let us know immediately that we can sit wherever we wanted.  Our waitress did a fantastic job.  Our glasses were never more than half empty and she stopped by often to see how we were doing.  2nd Bang for your buck. 4 it was very reasonably priced.  The most expensive thing I saw was the full rack of ribs for $18  I had the 4 rib dinner that was 8 Bucks with every plate you get two sides and Texas toast.  Very affordable and it fills you up.  3rd. Atmosphere 2 it was homier than Hawg Father's  but lacked country music I can see what they were getting at.  A nice place where the whole family or a group of friends could sit and talk.  But some music would have been nice.  That being said.  Our table didn't wobble..... 4th Quality of the food 3.5 my ribs were good and the fries were seasoned with the same Cajun dust stuff.  I ordered cole slaw which was very very good!!  The place where Raspberry's falls short is the sauce.  I wan't impressed with it at all.  It was a sweet sauce. earlier in my life I would have loved it but the tangy spicier sauces are starting to win my heart over.  They might as well have put a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's on the table... Well,  Raspberry's receives a 13.5  on my review.  It barely slides past Hawg Fathers and becomes the best BBQ joint in town! It won on it's service and affordability   If your taking the whole family out and wanna save some money and have a great time Raspberry's s the place.  If you want the best food in town though.  Go to Hawg Fathers It'll take a considerable load off of your pocket book but it's worth it.  It's been another great chapter in Forks, Knives and Nametags here in Macon Missouri.  Next week........the Apple Basket Cafe!! 

Hawg Father's BBQ Macon Mo.

July 7th 2011
This is the First Entry in my food journal which I'm entitling Forks, Knives and Nametags.  Tonight Elder Gleave and I were patrons at Hawg Fathers BBQ. When I do these reviews I'm going to cover what I feel are the 4 main categories of a fine dining experience I will be rating them on a 1-5 scale 1st Service 2nd Bang for your Buck 3rd Atmosphere and 4th Quality of the food.   1st Service 3 We had to wait a while to be seated while there were tables open.  But the food came in a timely manner.  Our waitress was pretty friendly and the Owner, Hawg Father himself came and asked how the meal was going.  2nd Bang for your Buck 3 I thought the beef brisket that I ordered was pretty reasonable for the amount I got but the other items like the steaks and ribs were all over $20.  Those better be world class steaks if you're gonna charge an arm and a leg for them.  3rd Atmosphere 2 Atmosphere is a vitally important part of the dining experience. I wasn't too impressed. I didn't like the Bar being so simple and plain and in the way.  The chairs were all on rollers and our table wobbled.  I would have like to have seen some decor related to the Hawg Father.  The menu and the name and everything features the hog, but why not the decorations? They had 5 TVs that were all on CMT.  Not the best.  When I go to a BBQ place i want country music.  If they had country music videos playing that would be awesome, but the MTV like shows on CMT aren't doin it for me!  Gimme that Country!! 4th Quality of the Food  5 the food is what really takes this place to the next level  The brisket was really good.  It was tender and seasoned well.  It came with thick thick steak fries seasoned in a Caijon style dust.  It went perfectly with the Father's Homemade ketchup.  It had a nice mustard potato salad with it.  The best part though was the sauce.  I've had a lot of BBQ and I've had better cooked brisket but, I'm not sure if I've evert tasted a BBQ sauce as good as Hawg Father's homemade sauce.  I launched my Brisket into the extraordinary and earned them a 5 in my review.  It was a sweet tangy vinegar sauce.  The first taste was honey sweet but the longer it sat in your mouth the more the spice comes into play.  IT leaves your mouth with a slight burn and a desire for the next sugary bit to cool it.  It's a beautiful cycle of Burning and Quenching.  It was a really really good meal.  Definitely a great way to kick off Forks Knives and Nametags.  Next week,  We put Hawg Fathers into the ring to contend with Macon's other Famous BBQ joint Raspberry's BBQ It'll be a heavyweight title match you won't want to miss!!

Forks Knives and Nametags

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I served a mission for the Church to St. Louis Missouri.  On my mission I started to write reviews of the unique restaurants that I went to.  I entitled this "food journal" Forks, Knives, and Nametags.  Posts with that label are reviews of the restaurants in Missouri and Illinois that I have been to.

This is Food Mission Statement

Hello, my name is Richard Buys and welcome to This is Food.  A blog dedicated to the preparing, presenting, and consuming of good food! I love food! I love the exploration of new tastes and new cultures.  I love the ritual satisfaction of breaking bread with family, friends and even strangers.  Food is a tool.  It makes new memories and makes me relive old ones.  It's a portal to the past and a means of discovery.  This blog is designed to document different restaurants attempts to define what food is.  All of us have defined for ourselves what certain foods are.  When we order a hamburger we have a preconceived notion as to what a hamburger should look like and should taste like.   But the beautiful thing is that we forfeit that perspective when we invite others to prepare us a meal.  In a sense we are asking them to declare to us.....This is Food.  We surrender authority, and control, and perspective, in order to gain something richer and deeper and more interesting.  And sometimes we reject their definition of what food is and opt to retain the favorite flavors that we know and love.  I will be documenting both the good and the bad and maybe somewhere along the way we will find the extraordinary.....