Tip, if you walk into a joint and they offer multiple styles of bbq and/or sauce turn around and walk out.
If they ain't confident enough to hang their hat on just one Q then they ain't worth trying.
True. I don't mind if they have two or three different levels of heat in their sauce, but the base sauce needs to be the same. Straight mustard base is my least favorite, but a place that specializes in just a a good mustard sauce is preferable to one who tries to have a mustard based sauce, a tomato base sauce, and a vinegar base sauce. Usually they will excel at only one style. Same with the method of how they cook their meat: BBQ, smoked, or grilled. Usually they are only good at one. I only BBQ well, not the best griller or smoker... but these definitions are somewhat controversial in themselves. I grew up going to small joints that focused on beef brisket, and boasted a thinner sauce that was a blend of tomato, vinegar, and mustard, Usually only had one bottle of sauce, not two or three, and the sauce was basted on towards the last third of cooking to caramelize on the outside of the meat. Being a thinner sauce, it could be applied earlier than a thick sauce without the danger of burning. It was not an overpowering sauce, like the thick, glorified ketchup you find nowadays. If you felt you wanted more flavor, you could always add some more sauce after the meat was cooked. I could never understand putting slaw on a perfectly good BBQ meat, as some miscreants do... but to everyone their own. What did you grow up on, and what is your favorite today... ought to open up a can of worms. I also love the Texas style of brisket, with no sauce till after the cooking is over, it's a close second to what I grew up on.
