I WAS A SILLY BOY AT BILLY BOY BAR-B-Q

Well I had started the first day of my vacation out right. I got up early and went to the park and ran in circles for 30 minutes as part of my attempt to live healthier and a few days longer. Then I came home to start prepping for my upcoming Memorial Day BBQ.

Everything was going smoothly until I sat down to drink a protein drink and I turned on the television.

There was a marathon of BBQ Crawl Season 1 on so I started watching it..... On an empty stomach..... Not a good thing because...... Next thing I know I'm headed for Shawnee to try Billy Boy Bar-B-Q!


We got to Billy Boy just a few minutes before noon and the place was hopping. They serve salads, burgers, sandwiches, and other things beside BBQ and that appears to be pretty popular with the locals.

 

I however was there for the Q they have been serving for 40 years. So I slid up to the counter and ordered the combo with ribs, chopped beef, and a hotlink. It also came with fries, beans, slaw, and.........................toast.

My wife had already ordered a sliced brisket sandwich. So while I had a sneaky feeling the chopped beef would be sauced. I didn't bother asking whether it was because I was getting it regardless.

Let's just go ahead and get this toast nonsense out of the way first this time..... It sure looks beautiful the way it was served in that picture. Then you lift it up and....... DOH!!!!

It looks like this on the underside!!! ARGH!!!!! Freaking one sided toast for crying out loud!!!!!

The chopped beef is in fact sauced and so finely chopped it feels like mush in your mouth. Kind of the texture of corned beef hash without potatoes..... Now I love corned beef hash but I prefer my BBQ beef to have some texture.

The sauce gave it a good flavor and I'm pretty sure the smokiness I could taste was coming from the sauce or perhaps from some of the leftover liquid that may have been re-added to the meat.

It wasn't terrible..... Just not my thing.

The hotlink was served with some sauce on it. Appeared to be a Schwab's link or a similar brand. I liked it but it's your typical Oklahoma Q-raunt hotlink.

I did like that it was sliced up so it was easier to eat than when places slice partially through the link.

Then again the partially sliced links work well for making a sandwich with the almost toast. So either way really works for me.

The ribs were the star of the combo. They were just slightly overcooked but still had a good texture and not falling apart. The rub had just a hint of heat and they had a nice smoke flavor. I would definitely eat them again and I think they compare to some of the top ribs we sampled during the 2014 Oklahoma City Broken Rib Tour.

The sides were pretty standard. I only took one bite of the beans, because one, I'm not a big fan of beans, and two, I prefer sweet baked beans and these were more of a brothy pinto style bean.

The slaw was a slightly sweet, light and creamy cole slaw. It was sauced perfectly so that the cabbage wasn't overpowered by the sauce.

The fries were crinkle cut and served piping hot.

If you are a fan of the undercooked, over trimmed, devoid of flavor brisket that I have coined as Okie Brisket.... Well then you are going to love the sliced brisket at Billy Boy.

My wife lost a crown on her second bite so I ended up eating most of the sandwich. You may notice the brisket was sliced really thin and it took a pretty good tug to pull a slice apart. I found that if you poured a lot of their sauce on it that it was about as good as an Arby's roast beef sandwich except Arby's roast beef is more tender and flavorful.

Fortunately the sauce was good and appears to be an in house recipe. It had a unique flavor profile which is why I'm confident in saying it is house made and it definitely complemented that brisket which need as much complementing as it could get.

Billy Boy Bar-B-Q appears to be a really popular place and carries a high Urbanspoon rating but I think it's probably more for their non-Q menu than the other way around. The ribs are good and I would recommend them to anyone but I can't say the same for the beef.