Whether you enjoy it in your own backyard or dining out, barbecue is a popular summertime cuisine.
These four barbecue restaurants offer customers a variety of authentic dishes ranging from ribs and pulled pork to chicken wings and ox tail.
Memphis Pig Out: Pigs are the overall theme at Memphis Pig Out, which has been a barbeque restaurant in Atlantic Highlands for 23 years, according to owner Mark Strassburg.
"We used to have about 7,000 pig items around the restaurant, and now we have it down to 4,500 pig items," Strassburg said. "We have everything from pictures of pigs to a pig carousel."
The barbecue restaurant patterns itself after an actual Memphis-style barbecue, which uses hickory, dry rubs and a smoking product to give flavor to meat, he said.
"My wife, Connie, is from Tennessee, and we try to do barbecuing like they do in the Memphis area," Strassburg said. "With a Pig Out, you can take food with you or eat a lot in-house. We feel our portions are a good size for a reasonable price."
He said the dry rub is put on the ribs before they are smoked with hickory, and the barbecue sauce is added right before ribs are served to prevent the ribs from burning on the grill. A rack of hickory-smoked baby back ribs is $18.99 and a large size of spare ribs is $16.99.
Customers can order a combination of hickory-smoked spare and baby-back ribs for $26.99. All entrees include a salad bar and are served with choice of baked beans or turnip greens and french fries or rice. Memphis Pig Out also has classic barbecue dishes such as pulled pork, half a chicken, hand-cut Black Angus beef steaks and a variety of seafood options.
D&L Bar-B-Que: This restaurant's Web site invites customers to "come over and try the best barbecue on the Jersey Shore."
According to co-owner Lisa Provost, D&L Bar-B-Que in Asbury Park is unique because it has a Caribbean twist to the barbecue.
"We have Caribbean-influenced dishes like jerk chicken wings, curry chicken and ox tail," Provost said.
The slow-cooked barbecue ribs are a house specialty, Provost said. The ribs are seasoned and steamed in the oven for six to seven hours and then finished on the grill. The entree is served with coleslaw and a choice of a baked potato or french fries for $19.95.
"The tomato-based barbecue sauce on the ribs has a sweet and tangy taste," she said.
The Hickory Hog: Co-owner Maureen Cassidy said The Hickory Hog in Point Pleasant can make anything customers ask for.
"We have come up with some of the items on our menu based on some of our customers' requests," Cassidy, of Brick, said.
Cassidy's husband, Mike, has been the head chef at The Hickory Hog since its grand opening. The restaurant uses different types of wood to smoke meat such as hickory, apple and mesquite, Cassidy said. Ribs are slow smoked for approximately 12 hours.
"You can get ribs in combos, in buckets or we sell them by themselves," she said.
The Memphis Cajun dry rub ribs, priced at $20.99, is a popular dish at The Hickory Hog, according to Cassidy, and the menu warns customers, "Caution! These baby-backs are addictive."
Rib combos include barbecue ribs and steak tips and barbecue ribs and shrimp, both priced at $18.99 and served with a piece of corn bread and a choice of two sides.
The restaurant features six different ways to prepare hickory hot wings including buffalo (hot, mild or garlic), Cajun, teriyaki, garlic Parmesan, chipotle barbecue and honey barbecue. A 10-piece wing starter is $7.99 and a 20-piece is $14.99.
Ben's Extreme Bar-B-Q Smokehouse and Grill: This barbecue restaurant in the Bayville section of Berkeley has four different barbecue sauces for customers to try: Carolinian barbecue sauce with a vinegar base, New Jersey-style molasses-based sweet sauce, Mid-Western style sauce with a tomato base and spice, and a "nice hot sauce" with habanero peppers and other spices.
According to manager Joe Gagliardi, 43, of Beachwood, "The hot sauce starts out sweet in the front of your mouth and then has a nice little back bite to it.
"We don't put barbecue sauce on anything," he added. "We have them on the side so customers can taste it."
Ben's Extreme Barbeque also features four different dry rubs for ribs, pork, beef and chicken, he said.
Ben's "super" sampler special, tagged on the menu as "almost too much for just one person," consists of brisket, pulled pork, one hot and one sweet sausage, pulled chicken, four ribs and four wings for $18.99. The signature "squealer" is a half-pound angus steak burger topped with pulled pork, melted cheese and hickory sauce for $7.49.
For vegetarians, the restaurant's menu offers the "smokeabella" burger, which is a portobello mushroom lightly smoked with a choice of onions, peppers and provolone cheese for $5.99.
