My Brother's Bar-B-Q

THIS PLACE IS GONE!

“The way I saw it, one of the single greatest advantages of being in a relationship was that you got to eat off the other person's plate.”
― Nicole Peeler, Tempests Fury

MY BROTHER’S BAR-B-Q

21150 Woodland Hills, CA 91364-2103

818-348-2020

11:00 AM to 9:30 PM Monday through Saturday

4:00 PM to 9:30 PM   Sunday

http://mybrothersbarb-q.calls.net/

Being able to eat off the other person’s plate is also one of the advantages of doing reviews of barbecue restaurants with a partner.  You have to get a good sampling of the que.  For this week’s sample we decided to go return to an old barbecue standby in the San Fernando Valley, My Brother’s Barbecue.  I remember going there shortly after it opened in the 1950’s.  It is still there, owned by the same family.  It always has been one of those places where the staff is consistently pleasant and helpful.  Someone once told me that this is a place that you go for the waitresses, and that was meant in the most polite and respectful way.  We were looking forward to it.

It is a typical sized barbecue place, seating about 50 customers.  The interior doesn’t seem to have changed much from my early memories.  The Southwest Ranch décor is to the 1950’s barbecue restaurant as “Restaurant Designer Roadhouse” look is to the contemporary barbecue place.  I suppose that sometime in the future they will both be restaurant design cult classics.

The menu looks as though it came from the 1950’s also.  Only the prices have kept pace with inflation.  To get a good sampling of the que I ordered a Combo Ribs and ¼ Chicken with pork ribs and barbecued, all white meat chicken and Sharon ordered a Combo Plate: Tri-Tip, Ham, and Pork.   The sides were French Fries, BBQ Beans, Baked Potato, and Cole Slaw.  All combos come with a thick slab of garlic toast and a generous side of sautéed sweet peppers of different colors, red onions, and mushrooms.  I also ordered an a la carte Texas Smoked Sausage.

Pork Ribs

The ribs were a bit chewy and not at all smoky.  The texture and lack of smoke flavor gave me the impression that they were parboiled before they were put on the grill.  While this technique is an old standard for taking somewhat fatty ribs making them less greasy and cooking them faster it has been, for the most part, left behind by contemporary barbecue.  It just doesn’t let the whole flavor of the ribs come through.   I don’t like saying this but they seemed average, coffee shop ribs.

BBQ Chicken

The chicken was flavorful and while done through a bit on the dry side.  While it was edible it was chicken not quite done right.  I can remember my mother making chicken like this because she was afraid of having bacterial contamination from undercooked chicken.  Chicken does not have to be dry to be done.

Tri-Tip

At least it was not sliced too thin.  What I didn’t expect was to find grill marks on the sides of the slices.  You expect a whole tri-tip to be slowly barbecued in wood smoke and then sliced to be served.  This seems to have been lightly smoked then sliced, grilled, plated, and barbecue sauce put on it.  If this is the way it was done then it tastes surprisingly good as long as you ask them NOT to put the sauce on it.  It’s hard to mess up the taste of a decent piece of tri-tip.  This is just not barbecued tri-tip.

Ham

Ham is not what I have seen in contemporary barbecue restaurants.  This is not barbecue, but a really good ham steak.  No complaints here except for the sauce on it.

Pork 

This seems to be roasted, not barbecued.  It was not an especially flavorful piece of pork, but it was hard to tell because it had an old style barbecue sauce on it.  When I say old style I mean that it was way too sweet.  Sharon described it as tasting like tomato sauce with pickle relish in it.  It wasn’t, but that’s how it tasted.  As a leftover it was simply OK and with the sauce wiped off it passed the kitty test.

Smoked Sausage

I would go there just to order the smoked sausage.  This is one of the best tasting smoked sausages I have found.  The presentation, however, is a bit weird.  It is listed on the menu as a side order, but comes in a plate with a generous side order of the grilled vegetables.  It is also sliced lengthwise like pickle spears.  Still, despite the strange presentation, this sausage is wonderful.  The spices are great, spicy, but not overly hot.  There is a slight after bite, but not enough to put Sharon off of it.  We have no problem recommending this.

French Fries

OK, these were as good as it gets.  They were hot and crispy…thoroughly done but not overdone.  They serve a generous portion of fries done as they should be with no funky oily aftertaste.

Garlic Toast

This is done the way steak houses did it in the ‘50’s.  A thick slice of white bread is slathered with garlic butter and parmesan cheese and put under the broiler or salamander.  What I had, and most of what I saw on other people’s plates was just right.  Of course, Sharon, who hates the smell and taste of burned bread, was served one that was almost blackened Cajun style.

BBQ Beans

These are perfectly acceptable beans…good beans with a not too sweet sauce. 

Cole Slaw

This is a conventional creamy cabbage slaw.  It was not too wet and probably would have made a great topping on a pulled pork sandwich if they had any pulled pork.

Baked Potato

What can I say?  They know how to make a baked potato.  Sharon did not eat all of it and I took the leftover home, diced it, added the diced, leftover ham and some of the grilled vegetables, a beaten egg, and fried up the whole thing for breakfast the next day.  Delicious!

There is a definite nostalgia value to My Brother’s Bar-B-Q.  When I was a kid, this was barbecue.  It does not come from the barbecue tradition but from the restaurant management tradition. There are barbecue places in this area that are nearly as venerable as My Brother’s that come from the regional barbecue tradition, and they have continued to refine their product in the contemporary barbecue mode.  This is what we have come to look for in barbecue.  A couple of steak houses in the San Fernando Valley live on their 1950’s nostalgia.  It works with a steakhouse, but not for a barbecue restaurant.  I really hate to have to say this because all the people there are so nice, but we give it a five.