Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que 
WITH THEtemperature hovering in the 90s, it seemed like an excellent time for barbecue.
But withthe temperature hovering in the 90s, it seemed like an excellent time to letsomeone else stand over the hot smoke.
Famous Dave'swas the spot we chose this week, hitting the location at
After ahard day doing Gang work we were famished, so we started off with an appetizerof crispy fried Sweetwater Catfish Fingers ($7.59), which came with a littlekick in the breading and two sauces - one mayo based, the other sweet &sour. We liked the fingers, we split on the dips.
We alsoordered a cup of Dave's Famous Chili ($3.49), but we never got it - nor were wecharged for it. It must have fallen into the pit. No loss, there was plenty offood.
Withshrewd ordering of main courses we got to try almost everything: The GeorgiaChopped Pork platter ($10.99) was tasty, meaty and not overly-sauced, so wecould try all five of Famous Dave's sauces, offering varying degrees ofvinegar, sweetness, tang and heat. For an extra $1.79, we added SpicyFirecracker Green Beans to the dish, and although they didn't exactly set ourmouths ablaze, they had snap and taste - pretty good.
With twoRib-N-Meat combos ($15.99 each) we tried the smoky St. Louis Style Spareribs,the Texas Beef Brisket and the Barbeque Chicken.
The ribswere not the type by which the meat falls off the bone, but they had amidwestern heartiness to them as opposed to a
Thebrisket, however, though tasty, was a bit too fatty and the quarter chicken,though tasty, had lost its juice.
The sidedishes ran the gamut from the soggy corn on the cob - eh - to thesweet-enough-for-dessert corn muffin - delish. The cole slaw was a solideffort, not too creamy, not too sour and the Wilbur Beans had a sweet, smokyflavor and pieces of meat mixed in. Interestingly, one cup had a lot of beansand minimal liquid and another was mostly liquid with few beans. Oh, well, askWilbur for another cup.
FamousDave's only has four desserts but we could barely find room for one of them. Weopted for Dave's Famous Sundae ($4.29) - almost everything at Dave's was famous,including our waitress.
It's oneof the odd facts of chain dining, that after stuffing your face with meat andcarbs, the desserts tend to be a meal unto themselves and the sundae was noexception. For $4.29 it's a bargain - three or four scoops of vanilla icecream, another four dollops of whipped cream plus a topping - but it was toomuch even for threerough-and-tumble Gang members - and the hot fudge was more like warm chocolatesyrup.
Probablyjust as well. No one needs that much ice cream after that much pig.
The beerselection, unfortunately, was not famous. It's the standard mega-brewery swillwith a Sam Adams and Yuengling ($3.25) thrown in for a hint of trendiness.
Exceptfor the lost chili, service was attentive without being overbearing - on arecent Friday night there was even a woman making balloon animals for children- and adult men wanting to chat up a woman making balloon animals.
Unlikemany rib places, the kitchen is organized enough to get the food out at areasonable pace.
Famous Dave'smanagers also stopped by to make sure everything was satisfactory. Consideringthere was only one mild case of heartburn, it was more than satisfactory. *
