Restaurant Review: TC's Bar-B-Que

Awhile back I wrote about my favorite BBQ restaurant, Cotten's in Jacksonville, FL. At the time I noted that the owners had changed and some of the long-time staff (Ms. Lucille!) had moved on to their own place. I finally got a chance to visit TC's Bar-B-Que a week or so ago. It was worth the wait.

I like hole-in-the wall BBQ joints, and TC's fits the bill perfectly. It's basically a long counter with four tables in front. Ragged cafeteria chairs provide the only seating. At the time, the unisex restroom was out of order, but they opened it when one of my lunchmates asked.

But the real test is how does the food taste? Ms. Lucille has the recipe for Cotten's classic mustard-based sauce and it's just as good here as there. The ribs I had on the rib sandwich plate were St. Louis cut, but I'm told they have full size spareribs also. I can say the the rib plate was exactly what I was expecting: Three juicy ribs between two slices of white bread, with a salad and fries on the side. The salad had their homemade dressing and it was excellent.

While we were eating several people came in to pick up take out. And TC's is the place all the city officials and police left Cotten's to eat lunch at. You can't get much higher recommendations than that.

Ms. Lucille doesn't run the day to day business anymore but her presence is felt. TC's is definitely the place to go for BBQ in Jacksonville.

I may have a new favorite BBQ joint.

TC's Bar-B-Que
1269 Edgewood Ave W
Jacksonville, FL 32208
(904) 765-9945

TC's on Yelp. TC's on Google+.

Restaurant Review: Cotten's Bar-B-Que

Ask ten people at random what their favorite BBQ joint is and you'll get ten different answers. Ask ten people in Jacksonville, Florida, the same question and nine of them will tell you Cotten's Bar-B-Que on the corner of East 16th and North Main. The tenth person won't be from Jax.

Fred Cotten's Bar-B-Que has been a Jacksonville fixture for decades (founded in 1944). Growing up, my family ate there all the time. They still do. And I make a point of going there for lunch at least once every time I visit. In it's heyday, you could find city officials, including the mayor, and police eating lunch just about any day of the week. You can't get much better recommendations than having the police as frequent diners.

Cotten's features pork ribs and pulled pork sandwiches, smothered in their secret recipe mustard and vinegar sauce. Our favorite is the rib sandwich plate. It includes about a third of a rack of ribs between white bread slices, with straight cut french fries and a small salad. The salad features Cotten's unique dressing, similar to thousand island. Somehow those ribs on the right were cleaned off before I had a chance to take a picture. Oops.

Cotten's is small and serves up everything on Styrofoam plates with plastic utensils, but that just adds to the experience.

As I understand it, after Fred Cotten passed on the restaurant was run by his long time employee, Ms. Lucille (it was still owned by members of the Cotten family). She always had a smile and good conversation. I remember one time in the 90s I went to the counter to order some sauce to take back with me. "You know, I came all the way from Atlanta for this BBQ sauce," I told her. Ms. Lucille laughed and said, "If you came all that way then I'll give you a bottle free!" She also warned me to keep it refrigerated "because Mr. Cotten, he gave me the recipe before he died but he didn't say how long it'd keep!"

Since then I've always had the image of Fred Cotten on his deathbed, giving out the ingredients between gasps until finally, "...and it will keep for... arrgh!" RIP, Mr. Cotten.

Unfortunately, all has not gone well for Cotten's in this century. A new owner, Billy C (pictured on the left with long time cook Johnny),  bought it in 2000. He has renamed it Billy C's Fred Cotten Bar-B-Q and added more items to the menu. Since then business seems to have been on the decline. The politicians and police have moved on to an even smaller BBQ joint opened by Ms. Lucille and her sister Ernestine in 2002 called TC's. I'll review that when I get a chance.

In spite of the recent changes, Cotten's is still the best BBQ place I've ever eaten at. If you get a chance try their rib sandwich plate with sweet tea. You won't regret it.

Recipe: Cheater's Baby Back Ribs

There's nothing low and slow about these ribs. They're simmered for an hour or so, marinated for a couple of hours, then finished on the grill. That's why I call them cheaters. But they taste great.

Ingredients:

• Rack(s) of Baby Back Ribs
• Your Favorite Pork Rub
• Mustard Based BBQ Sauce

Procedure:

Remove membrane from underside of ribs. This is actually pretty easy to do. Slide a butter knife under the membrane to loosen it. The use a paper towel to hold onto the membrane and just peel it off. I usually start in the center of the rack and work my way to both ends.


Apply a liberal amount of your rub onto the rack. Cut it into 4 rib segments and seal in vacuum pack bags. Refrigerate over night.

The next morning put your rib packs in a pot of water and simmer for about an hour. The longer you simmer them the more "fall off the bone" they are. But don't over do it or the ribs will fall apart.


After they're done simmering take them out of the vacuum packs and marinate in your mustard based BBQ sauce. This won't work with a tomato based sauce. Don't even try. If you have to use a tomato sauce go straight to the grill.

Cover the ribs and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat your grill to medium-high.

Grill the ribs for about 20 minutes, turning at least once.

You may have noticed there are more ribs shown on the grill than I had in the intermediate photos. That's because I cheated again (these are cheater's ribs, after all). I sneaked in a second rack of ribs with a maple glaze. See if can you tell which is which.

I might give out the recipe for maple glaze later.