“We all eat, and it would be a sad waste of
opportunity to eat badly.”
-Anna
Thomas
JOHNNY REBS’ TRUE SOUTH - LONG
BEACH
4663
Long Beach Blvd
Long
Beach, CA 90805
(562)
423-7327
Sunday
– Thursday 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Friday
– Saturday 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM
We really weren’t going there
today. A friend was celebrating her
birthday at a belly dance showcase held in a coffee house in Long Beach. Well, we weren’t (I wasn’t) going to miss
that so we planned to go to Long Beach along with another friend. I looked up the barbeque joints in Long Beach
that we had not reviewed (actually, most of them) and I made a list of four that
would be on our way to the coffee house
.
The closest one was Robert Earl’s BBQ,
which is a an apparently extremely popular hole in the wall, abysmally short of
parking, on the northern edge of Long Beach.
I managed to shoe horn my Subaru into a space on a side street that was
about a foot longer than it was and we went inside. Before we could order we found that, at 5:30
on a Saturday night they were already out of mac and cheese, coleslaw, greens,
and yams so we decided to go to the next place on the list. Some of the people waiting for their orders
were vocally surprised that we left just because the place was out of some
sides, but since we write this blog (something we didn’t tell them) we decided
to come back another time when we can get the full experience.
The next place was Johnny Rebs’ True
South. Physically, this place looks the
part. They have done their best to
reproduce a southern roadhouse. The
parking lot is dirt and along with the cars you typically find in Southern
California there was an assortment of old pickup trucks and motorcycles all of
which actually belonged to customers. The
interior is all knotty pine, tongue and groove planking with old license plates
and period advertising on the walls along with what appear to be photos of
their more notable customers. Most of
the seating is wooden booths with a few tables in the back where the space widens
out behind the kitchen. There are buckets of peanuts on the tables and you
throw the shells on the floor. This is
definitely a casual place.
At a few minutes before 6:00 there were
only three booths and a table open and a few minutes after we were seated in
one of the booths the place was packed solid. The hostess and servers were
cheerful, prompt and attentive which seemed to bode well. Although the menu serves for all of their
locations (There are two others.) this location only has a beer and wine
license which Sharon found disappointing since she really wanted a
margarita. She and the friend with us
ordered wine. They are the designated
drinkers so I ordered iced tea and in true Southern fashion the server asked,
“Sweetened or unsweetened”. The drinks came promptly and the iced tea was
served in a Mason jar.
This is not strictly a barbeque place
with some of the menu selections what you could call Southern comfort
food. Besides the ‘que’ they have the
appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and dinner selections you would expect to find
in the south with a few concessions to California like flat bread pizzas
(although with some truly Southern toppings). They also serve breakfast which is why they
open at 7:00 AM.
We have a ‘thing’ for fried dill pickles
so we got a half order for an appetizer.
Our friend ordered a Brisket Sandwich with Mac and Cheese as a
side. Sharon ordered a Baby Back Rib
Dinner with Mac and Cheese and Baked Beans for sides. I ordered a Carolina Combo with Sliced
Brisket and Pulled Pork with Greens and Fried Okra sides. The food arrived without an excessive wait so
between the three of us we hardly made a dent in the bucket of peanuts. To finish our dinner we split an order of
Bread Pudding between the three of us.
Fried Pickles
The Pickles arrived hot from the fryer
with a side of ranch dressing for dipping.
Believe it or not, this is something that can be done badly. Here, they are done right! The breading was crisp, not too heavy, and the
pickles were not overly salty. This is
one of those great Southern appetizers, and one of Sharon’s and my favorites. Fried Green Tomatoes are also on the menu,
another one of my favorites, Sharon not so much.
Brisket
Well, it looked good on the plate. What appeared to be a smoke ring was a bit
anemic but it was moist and not too fatty.
That is about all you can say for it.
Oh it was cooked and certainly safe to eat but not very pleasurable. Brisket should have a definite flavor that
says SMOKED BEEF. This was
tasteless. It could have used a couple
of more hours in the smoker to develop a flavor. In fact, its blandness even called into
question if they had a smoker. I’ve had
coffee shop barbeque, slow roasted in an Alto Shaam® oven with smoke flavor
added and slathered with barbeque sauce that tasted better. (Please note:
As I have said before this is not meant as a disparagement of Alto Shaam®
products. They make excellent kitchen equipment and
they do make commercial indoor smokers.
It just didn’t seem as if this place bothered to use any kind of smoker.) Our friend, who ordered a Brisket Sandwich, which
was served open faced, noted that the tastiest thing on the plate was the
bun. She did say it was a fabulous bun.
Pulled Pork
If the Brisket did not say BEEF, the
Pulled Pork absolutely did not say PORK.
After a taste I thought it fortunate that the portion on my plate was a
bit small. The taste reminded me of a
conversation I had with the Middle Eastern proprietor of a barbeque restaurant who
said, “You don’t need a smoker. Slow
roast the meat with smoke flavor and put barbeque sauce on it and no one can
tell the difference.” Yes, you can!
Baby Back Ribs
At least the Baby Back Ribs had some
flavor…not a lot but some. They were
certainly falling off the bone tender.
In fact, a piece of meat fell off of one onto Sharon’s lap. It’s hard to eat barbeque without taking some
piece of clothing to the cleaner. She
ate about half of the half rack and I took the rest home for leftovers. I had it for lunch a couple of days later and
it still disappointed.
Mac and Cheese
This is peculiarly interesting Mac and
Cheese. When it arrived on Sharon’s
plate it was cold. A taste made it seem
that the cheese sauce had too much flour in it for thickening. The portion on our friend’s plate was cold
also. We pointed this out to our server
who promptly returned with hot Mac and Cheese side orders. Hot, it was a different story. There was a flavorful combination of cheeses
and it came off as one of the better Mac and Cheese sides we have tried. However, I took one portion home as a
leftover, and noticed that cold, it again tasted too floury. Microwaved, it again tasted very good…puzzling.
Greens
This is a very conventional preparation of
greens, but it had way too much vinegar.
This would not change the mind of anyone who does not like greens. Best conventional greens are still found at
Mom’s (See previous post on Mom's.)
Beans
This is a simple bean in sauce
preparation. The sauce has a little bite
to it, not something that I would say is hot, but on the edge for Sharon. It is an adequate side dish but could use
some meat in it for more richness.
Fried Okra
It’s good! The okra was pleasantly dry and had crisp,
thin breading. It was served with a side
of ranch dressing for dipping. I have
one small complaint, it was sliced too short.
Most fried okra is cut short but here I felt like I was eating okra
pellets.
Bread Pudding
We all enjoyed the bread pudding. It was creamy, not dry, and very
flavorful. I suppose it could have used
a more traditional bourbon sauce, but in this case, that’s nitpicking.
It is rather hard to write this review
because the place is cute and the people are so darn nice. And, to be perfectly fair, we did not try the
entire experience, the other items on the menu and breakfast. But, what we review is the “que” and that
fell far short of average. I’m afraid we
have to give Johnny Rebs’ a four.
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