TRUE 'CUE KENTUCKY
A few dozen places in the state cook with some kind of hybrid unit to turn out respectably smoked meats, while a few places rely on nearly 100% gas and very little wood and smoke. That’s why True ‘Cue exists—to honor those smoking meats with wood.
We’ve a wealth of BBQ places grilling and smoking meats on masonry pits, wood-fired tank cookers, and big grilling grates for dipping and flipping pork shoulder slices and half chickens in the style common to a few south central Kentucky counties. You can read about all this confusion in The Kentucky Barbecue Book and follow my barbecue travels at Wes Berry’s Kentucky Barbecue Adventures on Facebook. For some videos of Kentucky’s varied regional styles, check out this YouTube channel.
According to True ‘Cue guidelines, a barbecue establishment must cook the traditional meats of its place using 100% wood coals or charcoals as the sole heat source. In North Carolina, this meat is pork; if a BBQ places smokes pork shoulders or Boston butts using 100% wood or coals, they qualify for True ‘Cue certification in the Tar Heel state. Not so simple in Kentucky, but I’ll attempt to establish some guidelines.
To qualify for True ‘Cue KY certification, a restaurant must meet the following criteria:
It must be located in Kentucky and serve barbecue on site where it is cooked (exceptions may exist for food trucks and other mobile purveyors, but a restaurant that serves barbecue cooked by another business does not qualify).
It must offer regular business hours, with barbecue available on the menu at least monthly.
In western Kentucky the dominant barbecue is pulled or chopped pork from whole shoulders or Boston butts plus, in a few counties, smoked mutton--so if a place in western Kentucky cooks raw pork and sheep with 100% wood or coals they qualify as True ‘Cue even if they cook chickens, bologna, turkey, cured “city” hams, brisket, hamburgers, blackbirds or beavers on gas-fired cookers.
In a few south central Kentucky counties, the #1 meat by far is “shoulder,” which means a pork shoulder blade steak grilled over coals and sopped with a dip of vinegar, lard, black pepper, cayenne and other goodies. Barbecue places specializing in this style and cooking over coals get True ‘Cue certification. Nearly all of the barbecue places in this small region grill shoulder steaks, half chickens, pork chops, hamburgers, hot dogs and pork ribs over coals burned down from sticks of hickory. A few use manufactured charcoal. Purists might call this grilling instead of barbecue, but for south central Kentuckians that’s what barbecue is.
The rest of Kentucky is a hodgepodge, with people smoking and grilling a bit of everything. In these places without a dominant barbecue style, those using 100% wood or coals are certified.
True ‘Cue realizes that, when it comes to barbecue, “There’s a continuum – perhaps a slippery slope – between what is undeniably and gloriously the real thing and that which clearly is not.” I signed on with True ‘Cue because I agree with their vision of honoring barbecue’s roots in wood cookery. But I’ve also many friends in the barbecue business who use hybrid gas cookers and fire them with lots of wood to produce tender tasty smoky meats, and I’m happy to eat their brisket and beef ribs when I’m a lucky dog enough to get them. My tastebuds also believe that whole pork shoulders cooked over hickory coals on masonry pits—that labor intensive work of shoveling coals under meats every 1-2 hours—creates a miracle of barbecue, a taste that can’t be replicated on a tank smoker with an offset firebox using 100% wood (and I greatly admire the deep-smoked barbecue I’ve tried from these machines). I’m thankful we’ve still a couple dozen places doing barbecue on old-school masonry pits in Kentucky, most of them west of I-65, and they clearly earn True ‘Cue honors.
But what about folks, like Blue Door Smokehouse in Lexington, KY, who use a hybrid unit and fire it nearly 100% with wood? At Blue Door, their Southern Pride cooker’s gas source kicks on at 220F and they cook at 225F, meaning their smoky brisket cooks with nearly 100% wood so long as they’re watching the temperature gauge to keep it above 220F, and I think their meats taste a lot smokier than those cooked over manufactured charcoal which burns so clean. Call it hairsplitting—which it is, and imperfect at that—for the purposes of True ‘Cue’s vision of rewarding barbecue people who do it with 100% heat from wood and coals, when it comes to hybrid cookers it’s messy determining what percentage of wood to gas places use, so it simplifies matters to exclude them altogether.
In sum, Kentucky can be proud of the large number of barbecue places we have cooking a variety of God’s creatures with 100% wood, coals from burned downed wood, or charcoal (a very small number of places use charcoal), plus a good number of other places exist that serve tender meats with plenty of smoke flavor using the manufactured gas-hybrid cookers. However, for the sake of clarity, the following list of barbecue places cook their regionally appropriate meats using heat from wood and wood coals only.
To the best of our knowledge, these restaurants serve barbecue that meets the True ‘Cue KY criteria:
4 Little Pigs Bar-B-Que, 100 Beech Wood Lane, Benton, KY 270.527.9471
Against the Grain Brewery and Smokehouse, 401 E Main St, Louisville, KY 502.515.0174
Backwoods Bar-B-Que, 5172 Hinkleville Rd, Paducah, KY 270.441.7427
Backyard BBQ, 293 Old Edmonton Road, Tompkinsville, KY 270.407.5435
Bar-B-Q Hut, 594 Reynolds Road, Glasgow, KY 270.659.2933
Bar B Que Shack, 4687 Pembroke Road, Hopkinsville, KY 270.475.4844
Big Man BBQ, 211 N Broadway, Glasgow, KY 270.629.3322
Bully Barbecue, 1225 N Hwy 393 La Grange, KY 502.365.7784
Capps BBQ, 920 North Main Street, Burkesville, KY 270.864.9429
Carr’s Barn, 216 West Broadway, Mayfield, KY 270.247.8959
Carr’s Steakhouse, 213 West Broadway, Mayfield, KY 270.247.1111
CopperTop Bar-B-Q, 102 Cassidy Ave, Fredonia, KY 270.545.3939
Dave’s Sticky Pig, 206 Madison Square Drive, Madisonville, KY 270.326.5100
Deno’s BBQ, 600 North Highland Drive, Fulton, KY 270.472.2020
Dunn’s B-B-Q, 410 Jefferson Street, Franklin, KY 270.586.5115
Ed's Barbeque & Catering Services, 5521 Clarksville Rd, Russellville, KY 270.726.4136
FABD: Frankfort Avenue Beer Depot & Smokehouse, 3204 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, KY 502.895.3223
Good Ole Boys, 9715 Hanson Road, Hanson, KY 270.322.8370
Grill In, 1550 Owenton Rd, Corinth, KY 859.823.2445
Hamilton’s Bar-B-Q, 211 Hill Street, Burkesville, KY 270.864.9446
Hammerheads, 921 Swan Street, Louisville, KY 502.365.1112
Harned’s Drive In, 4421 Clarks River Road, Paducah, KY 270.898.3164
Heaton’s BBQ, 495 Marion Road, Princeton, KY 270.365.3102
Henry’s Boogalou BBQ, 1401 Carter Rd, Owensboro, KY 270.689.2271
Hickory Heaven Bar-B-Q, 1890 U.S. Highway 60 East, Marion KY 270.965.0200
Hickory Hill Barbecue, 2791 Franklin Road, Scottsville KY 270.622.0508
Hoskins’ Bar-B-Que, 1015 State Road 849 East, Boaz, KY 270.856.3400
The Hot Pig, 72 Aurora Highway, Hardin, KY 42048 270.703.6253
Hunter’s Hickory Smoked BBQ, 2636 N Highway 127, Albany, KY 606.387.4647
Jay Dee BBQ, 314 W Main St, Gamaliel, KY 270.457.3663
J & R’s Bluegrass and Barbecue, 1323 US Hwy 231, Hartford, KY 270.298.3036
Jimmy D’s Real Pitt Bar-B-Que & Self Storage, 5449 Scottsville Rd, Bowling Green, KY 270.781.2234
Knockum Hill Bar-B-Q, 11185 Highway 107 South, Herndon, KY 270.271.2957
Knoth’s Bar-B-Que, 728 U.S. Highway 62, Grand Rivers, KY 270.362.8580
Larry, Darrell & Darrell, 1106 Cuba Rd, Mayfield, KY 270.251.0464
Leigh’s Bar-B-Q, 9405 U.S. 60 W, Kevil, KY 270.488.3434
Moe-licious BBQ (Food Truck), Louisville, KY 502.445.8626
Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, 2840 West Parrish Avenue, Owensboro, KY 270.684.8143
Muddy Piggs Barbecue and Catering, 1240 US-62, Princeton, KY 270.365.0040
Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, 338 Washington Ave, Owensboro, KY 270.926.9000
Ole Hickory Pit, 6106 Shepherdsville Road, Louisville, KY 502.968.0585
Ole South Barbecue, 3523 Highway 54 East, Owensboro, KY 270.926.6464
Peak Bros. Bar-B-Que, 6353 U.S. Highway 60 West, Waverly, KY 270.389.0267
Pit Stop BBQ, 2393 State Route 121 South, Murray, KY 270.759.7001
Pop’s Southern Style Barbecue, 110 Kentucky Hwy 801 S, Morehead, KY 606.784.6378
Porky’s BBQ, 2031 Canton Road, Cadiz, KY 270.350.8870
Prince Pit BBQ, 100 Elm St., Bardwell, KY 270.628.0117
Prince Pit BBQ, 178 S 4th St, Barlow, KY 270.556.8914
R & S Bar-B-Q, 217 South Jackson Street, Tompkinsville, KY 270.487.1008
Red Barn Bar-B-Q, 313 South Main Street, Tompkinsville, KY 270.487.9000
Redneck Ranch Restaurant, 117 W Short Street, Clarkson, KY 270.242.1076
Red Top Bar B Que, 10388 Russellville Road, Guthrie, KY 270.483.1328
Rick’s BBQ and More, 5850 US 60, Ashland, KY 606.929.5522
River Road BBQ, 3017 River Road, Louisville, KY 502.592.7065
Roadside BBQ and Grill, 1815 N Metcalf School Rd, Knob Lick, KY 270.565.3037
Roy’s Pit Bar-B-Q, 101 Sarah Lane, Russellville, KY 270.726.8476
Ruby Faye’s Bar-B-Que, 415 S. Washington St, Clinton, KY 270.653.5302
Scotty’s Ribs and More, 14049 Shelbyville Road, Louisville, KY 502.244.6868
Shack in the Back BBQ, 406 Mt Holly Rd, Fairdale, KY 502.363.3227
Smoke Shack BBQ, 100 Holt Drive, Scottsville, KY 270.237.5629
Smokey Bear’s BBQ & Grill, 1509 American Greeting Card Road, Corbin, KY 606.523.2233
Smokey Pig Bar-B-Q, 2520 Louisville Road, Bowling Green, KY 270.781.1712
Smoketown USA, 1153 Logan Street, Louisville, KY 502.409.9180
Smokin’ This and That BBQ, 10020 Demia Way, Florence, KY 847.553.1481
South Fork Grill, 2224 Scottsville Rd, Glasgow, KY 270.659.4227
Southern Red’s Bar-B-Que, 5085 State Route 94 West, Water Valley, KY 270.376.2678
Split Tree, 115 Wilson Rd, Alvaton, KY 270.842.2268
Starnes, 1008 Joe Clifton Drive, Paducah, KY 270.441.9555
Straight from Texas Barbecue, 306 N 3rd St, Richmond, KY 859.625.2147
Texican’s BBQ Pitt, 6608 West Highway 146, Crestwood, KY 502.241.9227
The Bar-B-Q Place, 1499 Burkesville Road, Glasgow, KY 270.651.6266
Thirds BBQ, 200 College St, Bowling Green, KY 270.303.5917
Thomason’s Barbecue, 701 Atkinson Street, Henderson, KY 270.826.0654
Uniontown Food Mart, 330 Mill Street, Uniontown, KY 270.822.5005
Wagon Bones Grill, 591 West Short Street, Lexington, KY 859.523.2400
Will's Grill, 7021 Shelbyville Road, Simpsonville, KY 502.220.3258
Woodshed Pit BBQ, 1821 West Seventh Street, Hopkinsville, KY 270.885.8144
We believe that these restaurants also serve barbecue that satisfies the True ‘Cue KY criteria, and are working to verify it with a site visit:
The Grillfather, 420-A East Main Street, Mount Sterling, KY 859.432.6351
If you think you know a restaurant that meets the True 'Cue KY criteria, let us know. If you think a place on the list now cooks with gas or electricity, drop us a line at truecue@gmail.com and we’ll check it out (we don’t want to start a flame war, so to speak).