The Q Spot BBQ Truck

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”
― Fran Lebowitz

 

 

Q SPOT BBQ TRUCK

Los Angeles Area, various locations around town.

818-855-9950

http://theqspotbbq.com       (Note: This link seems to be dead.)

https://twitter.com/theqspotbbq      (The Twitter page works.)

 

Sharon, the more daring part of the duo, suddenly announced “Let’s do barbeque food trucks!”  So, off we went.  Wednesday and Friday nights in Granada Hills finds a congregation of food trucks on two blocks of Chatsworth Boulevard between White Oak and Zelza.  In a carnival atmosphere you can find almost any food you desire from a seeming endless array of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches (Yes, that’s all one truck sells is grilled cheese and drinks!)  to Mexiterranean  (Mexican/Mediterranean fusion) for the adventurous.  Many of the trucks are Southern style or have soul food and have one or two barbecue items per truck, but there are a few that specialize in barbecue. 

First, we stopped at Smokin’ Willie’s BBQ Truck.  The menu here is barbecued meatballs, pulled pork and pulled chicken.  This is all served as sandwiches, sliders, or tacos.  Not exactly traditional barbecue, but we tried samples of the pulled pork and pulled chicken.  They were a bit over sauced…to the point where you could not tell the difference between the chicken and the pork.  To be fair, the sauce was great but you can have too much of a great thing so we moved on.

The only truck that had traditional barbecue last Friday was The Q Spot BBQ Truck.  They claim to have Texas style barbecue, and I won’t dispute that.   The truck was parked in front of a store that had a ledge across the façade that provided convenient seating and we decided to order and eat there.  They were giving out samples of rib tips so we had a couple of those and made our order.  We ordered pulled pork, brisket, a hot link, pork ribs, baked beans, and potato salad.  That and a couple of drinks came to a little more than one combo plate at a moderately priced barbecue restaurant.   Eating off a truck means portable food.  You expect sandwiches.

Pulled Pork

This was served as a sandwich on a fresh hamburger bun.  It was tender, not too fatty, and full of the flavor of the cherry wood smoke, which I find more subtle than oak…a pulled pork that should be the minimum standard for any barbecue establishment.  Unfortunately, there are too many places that do not do it this well.  Q Spot had one interesting little trick.  They put some French’s mustard (for all you traditionalists out there, like Sharon) and some barbeque sauce (light, not heavy on the sauce) on the bun and some sweet pickle relish on top of the sauce.  The combination of the mustard, barbeque sauce and pickle relish gave your taste buds the illusion of a Carolina style barbecue sauce.

Brisket

Again, this is served as a sandwich on a hamburger bun, but what a sandwich!   This is brisket done by someone that understands brisket.  It is moist and fall apart tender with its beefy flavor enhanced by the cherry wood smoke.  It was not over sauced so the flavor of the beef came through.  This is brisket that also stands up to the kitty test and burrito from leftovers test.

Pork Ribs

These are sold by the rib.  Bring money!  They were meaty, fall-off-the-bone tender, and just smoky enough.  They could possibly be a little moister, but that is a minor point that most would ignore.  If all pork ribs were this good as these, pigs would be an endangered species.  They come with the traditional slice of white bread, which came in handy later. 

Hot Link

The line on the menu says (Spicy).  It’s not kidding.  I warned Sharon about this one but she had to try a bite.  It turned out to be a tonsil scorcher for her.  (She still has hers.)  The link was served on a fresh hot dog bun, and if you are not used to a real hot link you will be glad for the bread.  It’s a nice fat link with good texture, flavor, and heat.  I’m not saying that it’s too hot; just know that the description is milder than the link.

Beans

These are killer beans!    They’re just beans in a sauce, but what a sauce.  There seems to be brown sugar, molasses, cayenne pepper, and a few other things that combine to make them the most wonderful, sweet and spicy beans.  Duke, from the Bush’s Beans commercials, will probably be lurking around to steal the recipe.  That slice of white bread came in handy here.  Both to help cool down the spicy part of the sauce and to mop up the sauce when the beans were gone.

Potato Salad

You know they made this one and are thankful for it.  It is potato salad the way I like it, not too creamy with distinct chunks of potatoes, combined with bell peppers, and bits of other vegetables and a touch of cayenne and herbs.  This is another side well worth trying.

Rib Tips

The rib tips were not exceptionally meaty, but tender and not over cooked.  This was where they blew it, in my opinion.  It’s traditional to sauce rib tips but they drowned these.  Enough sauce for a double dipped glaze would have been sufficient.

  OK, so it’s not a restaurant, and you may have to chase it down at lunch time, but it  has what would be damn good Que from a restaurant and not at all what you expect from a food truck.  The carnival atmosphere at food truck nights in Granada Hills was fun and with food this good we have to give them an eight.