The Georgia Boys Georgia BBQ Review

The Georgia Boys are two brothers, Leverett and Henry Butts, natives of Atlanta, Georgia and lovers of real Southern Barbeque, or BBQ, or simply “Q.” 

Growing up in the southern suburbs of Atlanta, their initial exposure to the true delicacy that is Southern BBQ was at two long established local restaurants. Sadly, only one of which still exists today. 

The first one was, the now gone, MeLear’s BBQ on US Highway 29 in Union City, Georgia was actually the second location; it was just closer to where we lived.  The original restaurant was located in Fayetteville, Georgia on GA Highway 85 just south of GA Highway 54. 

The second one was Sprayberry’s BBQ, the original location, still located on US Highway 29 in Newnan, Georgia, and has remained pretty much unchanged since its opening on 1926. There is a newer restaurant on HWY 34 about ¼ mile east of I-85 and it is built to look like the original.

The basic BBQ plate at these restaurants was pork or beef, Brunswick Stew, bread, and pickles. At MeLear’s the bread was toasted on one side. At Sprayberry’s it was just plain white loaf bread. There were not too many side dishes as both places showcased the essence of their BBQ; the meat.

Dessert was not a mainstay at either of these restaurants. MeLears served ice box pie, lemon or chocolate, while Sprayberry’s served fried pies apple or peach and ice cream.

In early 2012, we were discussing the merits of BBQ and decided to create an informational source for those who may choose to visit our home, the great State of Georgia, and might be in search of some good quality real Southern BBQ. 

We decided to arrange the information by city rather than an alphabetical listing of the restaurants. We figured it would be easier for folks to find a good BBQ restaurant by looking at what was available where they were rather than seeing two places that look great only to find out one is located in Americus in Sumter County and the other is located in Cordele in Crisp County and the person seeking the BBQ was staying on the north side of Atlanta in Alpharetta!

Please check back often as this is a work in progress and we will be constantly updating adding other BBQ joints in different areas of Georgia beginning somewhat as a radius outward from Atlanta. 

All of our visits to rate BBQ joints will be anonymous; the staff will not know who we are and will assume we are only there to eat their “Q”. We will most likely look like regular working stiffs who cobbled enough cash together to share a combination plate. This way we get to sample what we need to, the same food you can expect to get in order give an accurate rating, without going broke ourselves!

In our opinion there really should not be too many side dishes because after all the point of going to a BBQ restaurant is to eat BBQ; not a bunch of side dishes. If that is what you are interested in then we suggest you visit Golden Coral. Accordingly, we will only rate what we consider to be the only true Southern side dishes which are Brunswick Stew and slaw.   

We hold a similar opinion for desserts in that we only consider fried pies, ice box pies, cobbler, and banana pudding as true Southern dessert dishes and these are the only ones we will rate.

BBQ sauce in our opinion is something that is added to the meat as an accompaniment. Sauce should enhance the meat and not be used as a blanket to cover and smother it. Sauce though is truly a Southern institution, like the meat, and thus will be rated as well.

The rating criteria are pretty basic but will meet the needs of someone in search of good BBQ and do not want to waste their time. 

Meat, Slaw, Pies, and Banana Pudding will be rated for taste, texture, moistness, and amount served.

Brunswick Stew will be rated for taste, texture, and amount served.

The rating scale will be:

(5) To Die For:        So good that you would kill for it and be happy to eat it as your last meal while sitting in the electric chair.

(4) Excellent:           So good that you typically will eat BBQ nowhere else.

(3) Very good:         Good but you will eat BBQ at other places too.

(2) Okay:                You only have an hour for lunch and this is the only BBQ place close enough.

(1) Needs Work:      If they get serious and study the process they may be able to make okay BBQ...maybe...someday.                                                   

(0) Insulting:            They should never even consider uttering the words BBQ in this lifetime again….ever.

In addition to the above ratings, we will provide some basic information about each restaurant including address, telephone number, website if available, hours of operation, and when possible we will provide menus and photos of the restaurant’s exterior, and the dishes we sampled.

So basically there will be: 

Three rating levels, (3, 4, and 5), that are worth your money and time                                      

One rating level, (2), that is worth your money and time; only if you have no other options available        

  

Two rating levels, (0 and 1), that are worth neither your time nor your money under any circumstances because they certainly were not worth ours!