Joe Grate's Bar-B-Que

[randomness]

We kept passing this place everytime we went up Dixwell on our way north from campus. We'd heard rumors they did good barbeque, and we kept meaning to try it, until one fine summer afternoon when we finally did. Should've gone sooner.

Joe Grate's Bar-B-Que
1559 Dixwell Ave.
Hamden, CT 06514
tel: +1.203.230.1408
fax: +1.203.230.1436
Tu-Sa: 1100-2100
Su: 1100-1800

I described Joe Grate's to myrt_maat as the best barbeque in New Haven. Naturally, she was sceptical, because it is Connecticut, after all, and she's had her share of good barbeque back home in Oklahoma. When I went on to mention that it was one of those places run by an old black man that used to be a garage in a neighborhood that wasn't the greatest, she nodded and said that those were good signs. (Dixie's, in Bellevue, WA, is another bbq place that fits that description. I think Dixie's was a truck and RV repair shop.)

Well, the barbeque--as well as the rest of the homestyle cooking--is pretty good. It's easily the best in New Haven, which in this case isn't damning with faint praise. He started out with a smoker in a parking lot, and the place is still as unpretentious, with checked tablecloths over card tables and friendly staff. You can have the BBQ pork ribs, the BBQ chicken, the chopped BBQ. They also do whiting fillet, smoked beef brisket, and smoked or fried pork chops. All dinners are $8, and include two sides and cornbread. The sides can also be ordered separately for $2, and include potato salad, hash and rice, collard greens, candied yams, mac and cheese, baked beans, and string beans. Desserts (peach cobbler, sweet potato pie, or banana pudding) are also $2.

They also cater, and they say they smoke whole turkeys to order.

We need to check if they're still there as a Chowhound post says he was "closed all summer after a car ran through the front of his restaurant" but he has still been doing neighborhood parties. So we'll see.

Which now reminds me I should write up Dixie's.

Comments

if it's still there...

[kateorama.livejournal.com]

you should check out Bub's BBQ in Sunderland, MA (near Amherst).

XO

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

You lie. There are no neighborhoods like that in Bellevue.

Hell, are there neighborhoods at all in Bellevue? Seems like they tried forestall that kind of thing at the design phase...

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Okay, for Bellevue it's an iffy neighborhood. For chrissake, the place is a former auto-repair shop in an industrial area. :)

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

It's right where 520, I-405, and Northup Way all intersect - I think this is what suburban planners refer to as a "lost cause"... :)

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

yes! joe grates is amazing, i remember it well (among the many things i have tried to forget about new haven :) ). i particularly recall the peach cobbler among the desserts.