BARBEQUE WHERE SMOKE IS NOT LEGAL

BARBEQUE WHERE SMOKE IS NOT LEGAL

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

This includes a re-review of DR HOGLY WOGLY’S TYLER TEXAS BBQ.

DR HOGLY WOGLY’S TYLER TEXAS BBQ

8136 Sepulveda Boulevard

Van Nuys, CA 91402

818-782-2480

http://www.hoglywogly.com

Sharon and I went to Dr. Hogly Wogly’s for our regular Friday lunch last week.  (She has to get out of the office once a week.)  I had been intending to re-review Dr. Hogly Wogly’s anyway since my last review was in 2012 and the last couple of times we went there for lunch were disappointing.  (More about that later.)  

As I was paying the check for this visit, I looked up and saw the SCAQMD (South Coast Air Quality Management District) permit displayed on the wall behind the register with all the other required business licenses and permits.  I wondered, aloud, that there must be stiff requirements for that permit.  Our server replied that this was the reason that they were stuck in this small location.  They can’t get a permit to build another barbeque pit in another location.

I went home and Googled the AQMD rules to see what they were up against.  As with most regulatory agencies the rules were rather labyrinthine but I found the rules for wood burning devices and found that while there are rules that would prohibit me from using my barbeques at home on “no burn days” there seems to be exemptions to these rules for restaurants.

(1)    The provisions of this rule shall not apply to wood-fired cooking devices designed and used for commercial purposes.

This would seem to apply to the rule stating that no one can install a new wood burning device in any new construction permitted after 2009.  So, her remark was puzzling.  I checked the county and city requirements for barbeque restaurants and could not find any air pollution rules that applied to wood burning barbeque pits and stoves that would keep this restaurant from moving to a new location.  One reason is that, apparently, there are no practicable engineering solutions to reducing emissions from a wood fired barbeque.  A bit more research revealed another reason for the exemptions. 

Back in the 1990s the AQMD tried to enact rules that would have required barbecue restaurants to install expensive exhaust scrubber equipment or change to using gas fired grills or pressure cookers and liquid smoke.  Barbeque restaurant operators were faced with citations from the AQMD and some installed expensive equipment that broke down and caused more fines from the AQMD.  It seemed that the temperature and grease from wood fired barbeque pits were more than conventional restaurant charbroiler filter systems could handle.  The AQMD attitude was that there was one rule for restaurants and since these are restaurants they will be covered by it.  When the AQMD put out figures that the 50, or so, barbeque restaurants produced as much pollution as thousands of cars the barbeque restaurant owners called them on it. The AQMD had to admit that they really had not quantified how much the barbeque restaurants contributed to the air pollution in the area.

Then it got really political.  Many of the barbeque restaurants are operated by African-Americans.  The discussion became about discrimination against ethnic cuisine.  Is barbeque an ethnic cultural cuisine, regional cuisine, or American cultural cuisine?  Is it barbeque if it isn’t smoked?  The AQMD drew protests from African-American politicians.  The debate raged, back and forth, between environmental controls, race relations, and what constitutes barbeque.  Finally, a state assembly person, Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), sensibly said, “It is crazy that they're even going to all this trouble, for 50 little companies. Just think of how much money and how much time is going into doing this. It's regulation for regulation's sake, with no real impact."  That seems to be where it ended.  Which still begs the question, why did the server say they were stuck at that location because they could not build a new pit barbeque anywhere else?  I’m going to call the SCAQMD and inquire myself.

DR. HOGLY WOGLY’S  BBQ --- Again!

I did say that the last few times we went to Dr. Hogly Wogly’s were disappointing.  The disappointment was that lunch time portions seemed to be smaller than they had been. This time the portions were what we expected.  Sharon ordered a Two Beef Ribs lunch and I ordered a Pulled Pork Sandwich.

Beef Ribs

One rib was all that Sharon could finish.  The rib was tender, tasty, very meaty, and not the least bit stringy, just as we had experienced in 2012.  The other rib and some of the steak fries that were with it came home as leftovers.  Sharon was still full after work so I had the other one for dinner.  I microwaved it along with the steak fries and it was great.

Pulled Pork

It occurred to me that I had never ordered Pulled Pork at Dr. Hogly Wogly’s.  The sandwich arrived on one of their fluffy buns with coleslaw on it.  The portion was more than enough.  In fact, it overflowed the sides of the bun.  And, it was so wet that I could not pick it up and eat it as a sandwich!  When I pointed it out to the server that what I had was a knife and fork pulled pork sandwich she told me that they put a big splash of the cooking juice on it before they put it on the sandwich.  She said that many people order the bun on the side and assemble the sandwich themselves.  Really?!!  The other thing was that the pork was not as flavorful as I expected.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but not what I expected compared to the other meats here.  I have had better pulled pork. 

What happened here?  My guess is a change of generations, a new generation of servers and a new generation in the kitchen. Dr. Hogly Wogly’s is still destination barbeque, but considering the pulled pork we are going to have to down grade them from a 10 to a 9. 

Sharon and I are getting back into the barbeque groove.  There are at least three places we intend to visit and review (or re-review) in the next couple of months.