Lovey's BBQ

Lovey’s BBQ
Unit 1 – 208 Marion St
204-233-RIBS
July, 2008

February, 2009 People often overlook restaurants that hide in obscure strip malls along busy streets. Lovey’s BBQ awkwardly sits buried in the recesses of the north side of Marion Street. Despite the bright and attention-getting façade, motorists can easily pass Lovey’s without seeing it. The restaurant sits adjacent to a protruding building that hides all its signage well, especially along the one-way street. You must make a concerted effort to look right as you drive to see it. Lovey’s location has some advantages working for it, as it shares the strip mall with the long time tenant Vientiane Restaurant. Also, Lovey’s sits almost directly across the street from the hip and venerable Deen’s Caribbean Restaurant, and a mere block east of the cornerstone Pasquale’s.

Lovey’s promises to bring barbecue to Winnipeg—no, not the kind of barbecue where you throw a steak on the grill and slap it on the plate three minutes later. Southerners call that “grillin.” There’s nothing wrong with grilling—it’s just not Southern barbecue. Montana’s and Muddy Waters both claim to bring Southern barbecue to the north but both restaurants fall short of what barbecue should be. When I first heard of Lovey’s, I pounced onto their website to find what they offer. I eagerly anticipate their opening with hopes of experiencing barbecue like I haven’t found north of the Mason-Dixon Line or outside of the Bible Belt. Will Lovey’s finally bring true, Southern barbecue to Winnipeg?

Southern barbecue refers to slowly smoked (traditionally tough) cuts of meat over low heat. Lovey’s boasts that their pork butts spend 20 hours on the heat, 12 hours for their briskets and seven hours for their ribs. Lovey’s claims to “feed your soul, not just your body.” It sure sounds like a genuine Barbecue Belt restaurant’s swank.

If you ever visited Famous Dave’s, you already experienced a reasonable facsimile of how Southern barbecue should taste (the nearest location lies in Fargo). For the true experience, you need to continue south until you hit Kansas City. In KC, Arthur Bryant’s reigns as the master of the barbecue and many consider it the most famous barbecue restaurant in all of USA. The original Bryant’s (three locations now exist) sits in a rundown neighbourhood that currently undergoes reclamation. The interior’s beat-up tables and faded walls resemble what the neighbourhood used to look like. Most diners take a quick glance at a similar set-up and search for somewhere else. If you manage to make your way to Bryant’s food counter, you become an instant convert. The perpetual line-up out the door tells you that you’re not alone. I don’t dare to think that Lovey’s can challenge Bryant’s supremacy but I do hope that they can bring a taste of Famous Dave’s north of the border.

You enter the restaurant and you sense that Lovey’s tries to imitate Bryant’s set-up. Surrounding the walls like a border, the chalkboards tantalise your taste buds with descriptions like you’d see in Kansas. While waiting at the counter to order, you get a glimpse of kitchen activity as the chefs delicately prepare your food. By contrast, there’s nothing delicate about the way Bryant’s prepares your food. They slap meat by the pound onto your paper-thin bread and send you away. The décor looks nothing like Bryant’s; here they take a page from Famous Dave’s book and cover the walls with carnivorous propaganda. The jazzy blues music completes the atmosphere but they send a clear message (the same one that Bryant’s sends): eat and leave. The aluminium panelling, the steel chairs and the checkered tablecloths contribute to the message. The ambiance lacks the warmth that makes you want to stay, which is fine. I don’t have a problem with gorging on Southern barbecue and waddling out the door. If I want to lounge around, I’d look for a cozy place with candle light and big couches.

The service oozes with friendliness and a genuine desire to please. The pleasure seems abundant judging by the praise coming from an adjacent table that bounds with a mountain of food. My levels of anticipation and expectations continue to rise. A choice beverage would have eased my anxiety but their liquor licence isn’t in place yet. Tomorrow, they promise.

The eager anticipation rises to a crescendo as the food comes. My hopes of a Dave’s of the north quickly fade as, once again, the meal doesn’t live up to my Southern expectations. The Slow Smoked Texas Beef Brisket has a nice smoked flavour and you can easily tell that they didn’t skimp on the smoking. They did however, skimp on the serving. Expecting everything from Texas to be big, I hoped for a fair-sized serving but the brisket only features four slices of beef, which tasted considerably overcooked and dry. Similarly, I ordered the dry (without barbecue sauce) St. Louis Style Smoked Pork Ribs and found them dried out and lacking in meat. The full-slab of ribs only had five bones. The side of bannock tastes acceptable but the moist less corn bread crumbles away into bits. Both meats have good flavour; I hope that experience can adjust the cooking times and portions.

The brightest part of the meal comes from the side dishes. The coleslaw tastes fresh and crisp and the fries have a nice flavour. They prepared the potato salad painstakingly as the plentiful onions and eggs add to the richness of the heaping portion. The beans will rival any you’ve tasted, teeming with onions, peppers and smokiness. Delicious.
Unfortunately, people will come to Lovey’s expecting a taste of the South, which means a mound of luscious meat, smoked to perfection. The side dishes add a lovely touch but they can never substitute a Southerner’s craving for pridefully perfect meat. Once more, the hopes of local Southern barbecue fall into disappointment. Accounting for opening week jitters, I rate Lovey’s:

*** /5


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