When you think about good restaurants in Charlottesville, chances are your mind jumps immediately to the Corner or Downtown Mall. Restaurants in the Belmont area, though, including Mas, La Taza and The Local, also are becoming increasingly popular. No less tasty - but not as fancy as those aforementioned crosstown destinations - is Belmont BBQ, "Home of the Crazy Good BBQ."
Near the intersection of Hinton Avenue and Monticello Road in an unimposing building, Belmont BBQ would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. If it were a nice day and your windows were down, however, you could drive blindfolded - not that I recommend it - and stumble upon this hidden jewel, if you only were to follow the delicious smell of fresh hickory smoke. When a friend and I got out of the car for lunch a few days ago, I immediately inhaled a big whiff of the wonderful aroma wafting from the kitchen.
The first positive for Belmont BBQ is that it actually has its own parking lot - although it is likely to be full during busier times. About a half mile past the Downtown Mall, Belmont BBQ is far enough from Grounds that I'd recommend driving, but you could make your visit using Charlottesville's bus system.
Second, the interior has a cozy small-town feel to it. Flyers and pictures line the wall beside various letters and awards, including CVILLE Magazine 2009 Best BBQ. Only four stools along the one counter provide indoor seating, but don't let that deter you in this cold weather. The menu, handwritten on a chalkboard, shows essential dishes. Here, the staples are pulled pork, beef brisket, ribs and the sides every barbecue joint should advertise: coleslaw, seasoned fries, barbecue beans, cheesy potatoes and beer-battered onion rings. Belmont BBQ's menu offers many combinations, from basic sandwiches to full dinner combos, and you also can order the various meats by the pound (about $8-9 each) as well as sides in pints or quart portions.
Adventurous eaters, meanwhile, can take on Belmont BBQ's new challenge: a pound of pork, a pound of brisket, a full rack of ribs and a quart of either cheesy potatoes or BBQ beans, all eaten in less than an hour. The reward? Slightly more than $55 in free food and your name and photo immortalized on the restaurant's wall. We did not have the necessary hunger level for such an undertaking, though, so we decided to stick to more modest portions.
Our lunch consisted of a four-rib meal with a choice of side (coleslaw, $7), a beef brisket sandwich ($5.50) and a large, pulled-pork sandwich ($5.50) with coleslaw. Both sandwiches included fries and the food was ready in minutes.
As a disclaimer, I believe one of the goals of any good barbecue joint is to cook meat until it is very tender - almost about to fall off the bone. It is a standard often unmet. Belmont BBQ doesn't have this problem; tender is the first word I'd use to describe its meat. The rib meat, pulled pork and brisket were some of the softest and juiciest dishes I've ever eaten, all wonderfully full of flavor and easily worth the cost.
I was even impressed by the restaurant's coleslaw, though I am not usually the world's biggest fan of that particular side. The cabbage and carrots were pleasantly crisp, not drowned in mayonnaise. The seasoned fries also were above par and provided us with a mode to try various barbecue sauces.
Belmont BBQ offers a range of barbecue sauce options to put on the sandwiches, ranging from mild (which is sweet), to Dragon's Breath (self-explanatory). My friend and I both elected the "hot" sauce, which is much more of a medium to me. One of the few downsides to Belmont BBQ is that the establishment carries only one mild sauce. The one they call "hot," however, should work for all but the most spice-sensitive people. The step up from "hot" is called "Inferno," which in the words of my friend, "is hot, but doesn't make you want to cry." The hottest level is Dragon's Breath, which turned out to be too hot for more than a sample.
Our meal was just the right amount of food, but my friend saw hush puppies ($2) on the menu and decided they were a necessity, and I would say it was a good impulse order. The personable lady taking orders brought them out to us then asked if we'd care to take a tour of the back.
Chris, the barbecuer on duty, showed us the giant smoker and explained the process for each meat. Ribs cook for six hours, brisket for eight and the pork fully cooks in the smoker for four hours before being put into the oven for a whopping 16 hours to procure tenderness, he said.
With this new knowledge, and more importantly, a satisfied stomach, I left Belmont BBQ happy to share the experience. Instead of the usual Corner, think about making the short trip down to Belmont next time you want a sandwich that will leave you smiling.
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