Around a year ago, Claremont, NH picked up a BBQ place on Mulberry Street. I would never have even known this place was there, except for taking a wrong turn a few months ago, so it had been on my chronic “I should check that out list.” Last weekend, as we were coming back from our trip to Bennington, we passed through Claremont again, so I figured we’d give the place a try.
Inside, the place is mostly a bar (with a good selection of draft beers, and a very good selection of bottles), with a few booths as well. The menu sports your basic variety of BBQ meats (ribs, chicken, pork, and brisket) and your typically appropriate sides (cole slaw, beans, cornbread, etc).
I opted for the brisket dinner with coleslaw and corn bread. The brisket was nice and tender, but otherwise, I was disappointed with it. There was little smoke flavor, and the sauce was more like sweet ketchup than a good BBQ sauce. The cole slaw was very good, however, with some nice cranberry notes.
I wanted to like this place, but, unfortunately, like 99.99% of New England BBQ places, it left me pretty disappointed. The people here are trying hard, but the sauce was sweet and not spicy, and the meat, while tender, just wasn’t smokey. I wish I could get some really good BBQ places up here just so people would know what they are missing.
