This place has a lot going against it.
On the list of everything you would want from a BBQ joint, it only has 2 things: great Q and people that love good food.
Getting there is no adventure. It’s too easy, right beside I-95.
The atmosphere is not at all BBQ-centric. It’s open everyday and shares the space with a bowling alley – which means they also sell pizza and snacks like chicken nuggets for bowlers.
Sure didn’t have much going for it and as a BBQ snob I admit I could have skipped it altogether. But we were on I-95 and wanted to stretch our legs, so in the name of scientific research (anthro-Q-logical) we went for it.
Parked in the large well lit paved lot – ugh said the snob in me, is this any way to run a BBQ joint?
The food and the care in preparing it makes up for everything else.
We lucked out and stopped in on a Wednesday, they have a buffet every Wednesday and Sunday. The Q was perfectly smoked and well done.
Pulled, diced, sliced. Wow, all in one location!
Lots of darkened outside cuts – a place in Denver calls that “burnt ends” but we never reviewed that place because they sold the Q by the pound and the post-eating plate contained a few bucks worth of fat. Yuck, I paid for fat by the pound??
That Denver Q joint got canned from the review opportunity. But we kept the term “burnt ends”.
Back on topic: to The Pit!
The veggies were great!
Not a typical buffet can-opened checklist of vegetables with a long forgotten connection to the soil. These veggies were fresh and well prepared. We spoke with a lady refilling the creamed potatoes bin, she said “I love new potatoes, eat ’em like candy. Hate peeling them though, But I guess candy has a wrapper anyway”. She shrugged off her potato peeling burden as a necessary evil to produce food to the glory of God.
We didn’t bother saying that spuds do not need to be peeled, are better tasting and have 75% more nutrition when not peeled. We may be food snobs but we know how ‘not’ to shut down a conversation.
She saw that we loved food and told us about her beans.
Not a butter bean but a form of Lima bean, known for its buttery flavor, thick juice, and firm yet yielding texture.
When she talked I imagined being her old farmer husband, coming in from the field in overalls, saying Grace over a fortifying meal after a hard days work.
I loved her because of her BBQ, potatoes, and beans.
So much so that I forgot all about Brunswick Stew while in Brunswick, GA. Oh well, gotta go back.
How often do you get to speak with the person that actually prepares your food – prepares as in “peels”, not “drops the frozen package into the fryer” or “sets the microwave timer”?
It’s comparable to talking with a trusted mechanic versus talking to a cashier at a shopping center auto parts place.
She came around the table to make the “everything alright?” check-in. She’s the owner and has that worked-hard & got-it-together air about her. You know she was a farm girl just by looking at her, no makeup, long white hair pulled back with a ribbon, denim work shirt, some dressy form of blue jeans, dressier than Levis or Wrangler.
She probably puts on Wranglers when she’s off duty. Which is never, she runs this food and fun duplex.
The bowling alley was slow mid-day Wednesday but they get school groups and there’s a military training base nearby. Be warned, this is not a BBQ joint, it’s more bowling alley. But the food is great!
She has her market base covered. Gotta love a successful businesswoman.
They have flyers at the GA Welcome Center, that’s how we heard about this unexpected pleasure.
The Pitt and The Strike Zone
Exit 38 off I-95
Brunswick, Georgia
Exit 38
Turn toward the West (sunset side of I-95),
it’s right there on the right (northern side,
back toward Florida, facing South of the Border & North Carolina)
279-0903 The area code might be 912
