We’ve all heard that Denver is the birthplace of the cheeseburger and we’ve all attempted to treat our out-of-town guests to Rocky Mountain Oysters, but for being a city with such a history so enmeshed with beef and cattle, it may be slightly surprising that Denver doesn’t have a trademark barbecue dish.

But it does have a buffet of barbecue restaurants. Denver can’t compete with Kansas City, Memphis or cites in Texas and the Carolinas but because the city is made up of people from other places, it offers a wide variety of regional barbecue influences and offers lovers of the barbecue wider opportunities to discover a special flavor. 

So, a group of five core members, and occasional others, spent numerous lunch hours over the course of several months trying various barbecue restaurants seeking out the best rib, the best brisket, the best sausage, and the best pork.

Not only was this an opportunity to break up the routine of the daily office life in architecture/ landscape architecture / interior design firm, it was also an opportunity to learn the ways of barbecue, the different processes and the tricks of the trade. The joints we tested tended to be in the downtown Denver area. Of course, we all have day jobs to do, so we endeavored to find places within a reasonable driving distance of the home office.

So first, the panel of 5 judges:

David L. is a landscape architect originally from Indiana. For David, barbecue goes beyond the meat—the main dish being the starting point of an overall barbecue experience. Dave’s looking for the twist that a good barbecue place will put into a side, into a dessert, or an assemblage of parts that will create a whole greater than the sum of the elements.

Chris S., an intern landscape architect from North Dakota, appreciates value. He is quick to evaluate a meal with the price in mind. He also is wary of short cuts; he wants to be sure the components on the plate weren’t from a can or from a mass-produced food service product line.

Valerie W. originally hails from extreme western Georgia. This architect tends towards the spicy, but the spicy better not just be a mindless attempt to test the taster’s toughness through the wanton application of heat. The heat better be for flavor and had better be an element of a larger taste experience. Val also completes the spoon test with her sauces; the sauce has to stick to the spoon, and only drip after hanging for a lengthy duration.

Janice D. is our most credentialed of tasters. Currently an administrative assistant, Janice ran a central Texas barbecue joint for several years in the mid-1990s before moving to the Centennial state. Janice has also judged numerous barbecue contests in past years, including the annual June barbecue competition in Frisco. Janice first looks at the meat, evaluating the smoke ring, and tastes the rub. She will analyze rib meat carefully for tenderness, and also watch how easily the meat falls from the bone. Janice is quick to point out that sauce is often used to disguise underperforming meats, so she is wary of overly coated meats and is careful to distinguish the flavor directly from the meat from the flavor from the sauce.

Jon D. is the committee’s most active barbecue experimenter, and he has been known to bring his latest trials into the office for others to willingly taste and evaluate. Jon is serious about the meat, and like Janice, agrees that sauce is commonly used to cover up an otherwise mediocre smoke job. To this end, Jon demands his meat served with the sauce on the side. But not to say that sauce is unimportant; Jon has spent many weekends in his kitchen laboratory concocting the next magic sauce.

Now that you’ve met the judges, here are the places we tried:

Wolfe’s Barbeque

333 East Colfax Avenue (Logan)

As this entrenched Capital Hill establishment is a one man operation, you can rest assured that there will be no miscommunication between the servers, chef or owner. You can also be sure if there is a line or wait, you might be waiting a while. When ordering, keep your questions and special requests to a minimum since there’s no time for messing around when the entire staff has only two eyes and two hands. Wolfe’s has adequate seating, some cool reads and some charmingly dated decoration.

The beef and pork items were thought to be solid, but not spectacular. The brisket offered a slight smoke ring and was slightly chewy. The homemade hot link was highly regarded with a stellar smoke flavor and “good snap on the skin.”

Two options for sauces were offered, an original tomato-based sauce, and a spicy sauce that was a little mild for the title.

Wolfe’s is an ideal choice for any barbecue-seeking crowd that has had their ranks compromised by a vegetarian. Wolfe’s offers tofu barbecue, homemade pickles, and sides that can be consumed by those disinclined to meat. The homemade sweet potato pie (made fresh every morning) was a favorite for desserts amongst all the categories.

Yazoo BBQ Company

2150 Broadway (Champa)

Situated alone on a triangular block near the intersection of Broadway and 22nd Street, Yazoo’s offers a cozy lobby where patrons press against the display case and order from the counter. Hit it at the wrong time, and you could find the back of the line out the front door. Once you get your food, you’ll have to venture to the covered front entry area, an outdoor seating area, or simply head off to where you came from to eat your grub.

Yazoo’s self proclaimed specialty, the “Bob,” is composed of chunks of chicken breast placed along a skewer and wrapped with bacon and jalapenos. The “Bob” offers a little kick with the jalapeno, but the heat is not overwhelming and just about right.

Despite what Yazoo’s says about the “Bob,” we may contend that the ribs at Yazoo’s are the actual specialty. They are excellent, with tender, juicy meat smoked just right with a well defined smoke ring at the meat’s edges.

Sauces at Yazoos are self-applied at the counter. You’ll be presented with a few options: a sweet sauce, a hot sauce, and an extra hot. The hot sauce was flavorful, but the extra hot should be used with caution as the experience bordered on painful.

M&D’s Bar-B-Que & Fish Palace

2000 East 28th Avenue

This north-of-City Park establishment was the only sit-down joint we tested. It has a pleasant, casual dining atmosphere and the walls are decorated with artwork you can purchase and take home.

M&Ds is known for their catfish. Since we were on a barbecue mission, it was not evaluated as part of the barbecue survey (As an aside, the catfish was so remarkably free of grease, one could barely believe it was fried.) The meats were all tasty, tender and juicy cuts with a good rub flavor.

Three sauces were offered: mild, medium, and hot. The mild sauce was thick, stuck to the spoon, while the medium had a little more kick than you might expect, and the hot was bona fide “en fuego.” Be ready to order the milk if you order the hot, as they did not kid when warning patrons that the heat would be on.

M&D’s side dishes were appreciated by the southerners in the group. The cole slaw and southern cornbread, soaked in butter, received high marks from the judges. The sweet potato pie also received high marks. 

Big Papa’s 

6265 East Evans, Unit 1 (Monaco)

Don’t be deterred by the bland strip mall appearance of this East Evans establishment. You’ll do well to venture into this restaurant serving what they claim to be “Deep Southern Style Hickory Smoked BBQ.”

Big Papa’s offered the most diversity in sauces. They have 4 distinct offerings with their mustard based Carolina sauce, and 3 tomato alternates based on recipes from Memphis (sweet and tangy), Kansas City (sweet and molasses-y) and Deep South (vinegar). They are happy to provide recommendations as to which sauces go best with which meats.

The sliced beef brisket and pulled pork were highly regarded, with well defined smoke rings, tender texture and excellent flavor. The St. Louis ribs also scored highly with a tasty rub, a little bite and a little sweet in its honey glaze.

They also offered a wide variety of sides, including such southern specialties like hush puppies, mustard greens and fried okra.

At Big Papa’s, you’ll again have to go to the counter to order up. The food comes out quickly and finding a seat in their dining room should not be a problem. Big Papa’s also offers an easy take-out option with parking spaces up front dedicated for that function.

Brickyard Barbeque

4243 West 38th Avenue (Stuart)

Don’t take your kids to Brickyard if you are trying to keep them from writing on the walls. Decorated in the “red paint” and “black sharpie” style, this northwest Denver establishment would only offer them ammunition that writing on the wall is OK.

Brickyard’s most distinctive offering is the burnt ends. Bring up the topic of burnt ends in barbecue circles, and you might find some controversy. The ends of the meat cooked over the pit typically find themselves with a little extra char, a little extra spice, and additional work for your mouth. Perhaps those tending towards sausage or more substantial meats find these the best parts, while those seeking tenderness would be advised to order something else.

Amongst the standard menu items, Jack Sprat would have to say no to the brickyards’ beef brisket, as it was the fattiest we tested. The thin-sliced beef was significantly marbled and was so predominant that the meat was actually chewy. The pork rib platter was deemed very moist, with a solid rub. The meat came off smoothly and “left the bone slick.”

The Brickyard offers two sauce options: hot and mild, which can also be bought in jars. The sauces were competent, but not necessarily up to the level of the meat. The sides at Brickyard were generally given the thumbs-down, the portions were considered to be too large and reminiscent of what you might buy at your supermarket’s prepared food aisle.

Sweet Mama’s Barbecue

62nd and Broadway in the Conoco Parking lot.

Though I would not advise leaving your car unattended while filling up, something feels right about being able to simultaneously fill up your car and purchase barbecue at the same time.

Sweet Mama’s Barbecue is in a trailer sitting in a Conoco station in the gnarled arrangement of surface streets where I-25 enters the northern Denver area. Attached to the trailer is a smoker, which allows those lining up at the window to have a closer relationship to the smoker than any other venue we tried. So close that you’re likely to show back up at the office with an aroma that will have your coworkers thinking you were working the pit over lunch.

Sweet Mama’s offers top-notch sweet and thick sauces, tender pork ribs, and tasty beef and pork sandwiches. We felt their food was amongst the most aromatic of the locations, though we have to consider that we may have been smelling our own clothes as well as the food as we drove back. But the scent of smoke is typically a plus when it comes to barbecue, and you have to believe that the whole smoke aroma can only be a plus.

As a small trailer, there is no indoor seating, but you will be offered the unique opportunity to sit at an umbrella covered picnic table adjacent to the trailer. It’s a fine line though, as it needs to be warm enough to sit outside, but if it’s too hot, asphalt is perhaps not the best underfoot.

Conclusion

What we came to discover is that each barbecue joint has its nuances, inspired by the learnings of the proprietor, and what you’re in the mood for one day may not be what you look for the next.

One day, you may want ribs and slaw, and then the next day you’ll want a spicy brisket with a sausage on the side. Each place we visited offered a unique experience, and we are only sorry that we couldn’t try even more.

But the conclusion is that you’ll need to try it out, think about the meat, think and ask about what was done to give the pulled pork its flavor, what was done to make the beans or slaw special.

Denver is a town rife with hidden gems of smoked goodness, inventive and savory sauces, and we’d recommend getting out and trying some.

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