We drove an hour out of the city today to visit Buster Rhino's, an authentic southern BBQ joint. Darrly Koster, the president of Buster Rhino's, was hosting a private tasting night. He served a seven course meal and gave a talk about southern BBQ while we were eating.
Buster Rhino's restaurant is actually inside of a meat packing plant in the middle of an industrial park. They started out making food to sell to other restaurants, but decided to open up a restaurant in the front of the plant to service the other warehouses and factories in the area. There is absolutely zero decor. It's like sitting in the break room at an automotive factory. The tables are black with mesh tops, the floor is a gray non-slip surface, the ceilings are high and the lights are florescent. But we city folks love a good hole-in-the-wall. We love to have a dirty little secret to drive for an hour to visit. That's why (I think these are the numbers that Darryl gave us:) over 50% of Buster Rhino's customers are from Toronto and less than 50% are from the small town where they're actually located.
Anyway, their focus is definitely on the food. And that's fine with me!
Course 1 - Pig Candy. Description from the website: "Pig Candy is a slice of bacon that has been cooked to slightly crispy then covered with a sweet mixture of sugar and spices. It is then cooked again until the sugar has melted then it is cooled down. The end result is a product like you would never imagine." This was good, but not quite as candy-like as I'd imagined.
Course 2 - Smokin Jalapeno Bites. Description from the website: "These are commonly referred to as ABT's in the Southern BBQ world, unfortunately calling something this in the restaurant business isn't conducive to people actually trying them (Atomic Buffalo Turds). Smokin Jalapeno Bites are Jalapeno Peppers cut in half length wise, cored, stuffed with a cream cheese mixture then wrapped in a succulent piece of bacon which are lovingly BBQ'd until the bacon is done. The most common response we get from these little morsels of goodness is...OMG!!!" These looked pretty sloppy, but they tasted great. I can't handle a ton of spice, so I was ready to pass on these, but I tried one anyway because Darryl explained that jalapeno peppers vary a lot when it comes to spiciness. Out of the three that I ate, one was almost unbearably spicy, one was slightly spicy and the other had almost no kick at all.
Course 3 - Bacon Explosion. There's no description of this on the website, so here's what I remember Darryl saying about it. The bacon explosion is bacon that is pan fried and cooled, then wrapped in a sausage, then wrapped with more bacon, then smoked to perfection. I could only eat half! I knew that there were still 5 more courses to come and I didn't want to ruin my appetite for what was next...
Course 4 - Pulled Pork Slider. The website says: "Pulled Pork in the Southern US is called "BBQ", so this wonderful BBQ sandwich comes with a side of coleslaw. If you want to truly try it Southern Style you will put the coleslaw right on the slider. Pulled Pork is our Signature product that we produce and sell the most of. We slow smoke this product for 16+ hours with real cherry wood which produces a nice sweet smoke taste and wonderful smoke ring to it." I did put my coleslaw onto my sandwich, and it was better that way. I'm used to really sloppy, saucy pulled pork sandwiches so it was a nice change to actually taste the meat in this one.
Course 5 - Beef Brisket Slider. From the website: "Our beef brisket is by far our most under rated product by our customers. The usual pattern is a customer orders pulled pork for months, then we convince them to try the brisket. 99.9% of the time we get this look of amazement and the words "why didn't I eat this sooner". Brisket is probably the toughest product we have to cook correctly. Luckily I was taught by a Texan that knew exactly how to make a killer Brisket. It comes with a wonderful side of Sweet Potato Salad." The sweet potato salad was good, especially after so much meat! I've had the brisket here before, so I knew what I was in for. I love the brisket. It's even better with some of their home made BBQ sauce.
Course 5.5 - Koolicke. A pickle brined in cherry Kool-aid. Darryl just had a couple of these sitting around and passed them out to the people who wanted them. It tasted pretty good! Sweeter than a normal pickle. Darryl explained the process of making them: Buy a jar of sweet pickles (the kind with garlic doesn't marry well with the Kool-aid), drain and reserve the brine. Mix a package of Kool-aid and a cup of sugar in with the brine, then put the pickles back in and let them sit for a couple of days.
Course 6 - Southern Dry Rub Ribs and Hushpuppies. From the website: "Three bones of our amazing ribs and sought after hushpuppies. These two products we constantly sell out of at our restaurant and we believe you will understand why once you have tasted them. The dry rub that is applied is my families secret recipe from the Three Time State Champions Smoke Shack BBQ Team. You can either eat them as a dry product (as most of our customers do) or you can smother them in one of our three homemade BBQ sauces." These were like no other ribs I've ever tasted. Ribs here in the city are mostly the super saucy kind. And I do love me some super saucy ribs. But the dry rubbed smoked ribs were completely different. And they smelled like a campfire! Hushpuppies are like deep fried balls of corn bread. I can only eat half of one before I've had enough. They're incredibly salty, although I'm sure that's why most people like them.
Course 7 - Smoked Mars bar with house-made vanilla ice cream and smoked caramel sauce. No description on the website, but Darryl told us that it's incredibly hard to smoke chocolate because of its low melting temperature, but it holds smoke incredibly well so he loves to experiment with it. Basically, they freeze the chocolate bars and smoke them for a couple of minutes. The smoke taste did come through, but after eating the super smokey ribs it was hard to pick up on it. The ice cream and smoked caramel sauce was a nice refreshing finish.
