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Porkers BBQ (Downtown Chattanooga BBQ)

March 16, 2014

Porkers BBQ is a downtown Chattanooga mainstay. They’ve been around on Market Street since 1989 and are a go-to spot for Chattanooga BBQ.

Philip and I decided fourteen years ago not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and several years back (I don’t know, at least eight or nine years) we decided not to buy Christmas or birthday gifts either. It just felt forced to us to “have” to buy each other something when we pretty much bought what we wanted anyway. Philip, however, is a master of giving me awesome things for absolutely no reason, like the Vita-Mix he walked in with one afternoon or the Shun slicer he ceremoniously presented to me after I walked in from a trip to Houston without him (because he’d actually been slated to go on a separate trip but got sidelined due to a surgery). I have walked in twice in the last couple of weeks to find a great book in my spot on the couch, purchased on trade from McKay-the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book for one, and Michael Pollan’s Cooked for the other.

In Cooked, Pollan recounts his experiences learning about cooking with different elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Cooking with fire = smoking meat, and Pollan learns about traditional Carolina barbecue from a famous pit master. Now, I realize that I am not likely to find Carolina-style barbecue in the Chattanooga area (and you better believe that one of these days I’m going to make it to one of the restaurants he mentioned), but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t make me crave some smoked meat. Seeing as how I don’t have a smoker (yet), this meant visiting a restaurant, so we decided to have some barbecue for this weeks review.

Porkers BBQ has been around on Market Street (near the Choo-Choo) since 1989 according to their menu, but I’m going to go ahead and venture a guess that the visit by President George W. Bush in 2007 is their biggest “claim to fame” (honestly, I’m not sure why presidents always eat barbecue when they visit CHA but at least W was taken to a truly local restaurant….Obama was served Sticky Fingers, which I know, I know, has local ties….but it is not a local restaurant). It’s a decent-sized establishment with black and white checkerboard floors and fifties-style booths with shiny vinyl seats. We seated ourselves and a friendly server took our drink orders while we perused the menu.

Porkers BBQ is a downtown Chattanooga mainstay. They've been around on Market Street since 1989 and are a go-to spot for Chattanooga BBQ. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com

I decided to break from my usual barbecue restaurant form and order a plate instead of a potato. I really wanted smoked meat and I didn’t want anything to interfere with the flavor. The plates at Porker’s come with fries, baked beans, slaw, and Texas toast. I ordered pulled pork shoulder. The meat comes unsauced and you can sauce it yourself using the regular or hot sauce in the basket on the table. I tasted the sauce but didn’t love it and decided to eat my meat on its own. It had a nice smoke flavor with a decent amount of “bark” (the dark brown pieces from the outside of the smoked meat). I am not a huge fan of traditional barbecue sides like baked beans (beans should be salty, not sweet), slaw, and potato salad, but I did think that the baked beans were pretty good, with a stronger onion flavor than you usually find in baked beans. The dressing on the slaw was yellow so I assumed that it would taste mustardy, but it didn’t. It was pretty good, finely chopped which is how I prefer slaw (not the long shreds like you get in bagged slaw at the store). The fries were crinkle cut, from frozen no doubt, and were pretty much exactly what you’d expect from frozen crinkle cut fries…not bad but not shout-it-from-the-mountaintop awesome either.

Porkers BBQ is a downtown Chattanooga mainstay. They've been around on Market Street since 1989 and are a go-to spot for Chattanooga BBQ. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com

Philip decided to get the brisket, which, not surprisingly, was a little drier than the pork but was just as delicious. It was well-seasoned, very tender, and perfectly smoky with lots of dark barky pieces. He liked the slaw and beans also. We ordered a side of fried okra because we always have to sample fried okra at any recipe. I’ll be honest with you, unless okra is breaded the way I make it at home-tossed in cornmeal and maybe a little flour-I always assume it’s frozen. Those little jackets of breading are too suspiciously thick to make me think anything else. It didn’t taste bad but I just wish everyone would just do it themselves. If the okra is fresh, not frozen I apologize…I’d just like to see more homestyle fried okra in restaurants; it’s indeed a difficult thing to find.

Porkers BBQ is a downtown Chattanooga mainstay. They've been around on Market Street since 1989 and are a go-to spot for Chattanooga BBQ. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com

Chattanooga barbecue is something I honestly feel indifferent about. While I have strong feelings about who has the best burger, I could never write a top five barbecue list because I honestly like the meats at most of the barbecue restaurants I’ve tried locally, and Porkers BBQ definitely wasn’t any different. The meat was great, the sides okay. I loved the atmosphere and the service was quick and very friendly. They’re conveniently located for a downtown lunch crowd and they have a good menu selection (which includes breakfast, by the way).

I’d definitely go back to Porkers BBQ.

Porkers BBQ is located at 1251 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open Monday, 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Tuesday-Friday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday 7 a.m.-5 p.m. You can call them at 423-267-2726. They don’t have a website but you can check out Porkers BBQ on Facebook.

Do you have a Chattanooga barbecue favorite? Tell me about it!

Other area restaurants: Meeting Place, Public House, Urban Stack, Blue Orleans, Southern Burger, Tupelo Honey

Porkers BBQ on Urbanspoon

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Filed Under: By Location, By Type, Downtown Chattanooga, Restaurants, Southern & Barbecue Tagged With: barbecue restaurants, downtown Chattanooga restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 13 Comments

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Comments

  1. jason says

    March 16, 2014 at 9:21 am

    If the brisket was dry, they don't know how to do brisket.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      March 16, 2014 at 11:32 am

      Didn't say it was dry, just drier than the pork, which is to be expected since pork shoulder is a slightly fattier cut than brisket. He ate it without sauce so it definitely wasn't dry.
      Reply
    • Chattavore says

      March 16, 2014 at 11:38 am

      That said, it wasn't the best smoked brisket I've tasted, but that was in Texas...so not a fair comparison.
      Reply
      • Jason says

        March 16, 2014 at 9:42 pm

        then you would know that a good brisket is smoked with a good 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fat cap on it. That allows the fat to melt down into the meat. it should never be dry. mine is usually more moist than pork shoulder. and, if i'm looking at the picture right, the brisket was shredded?? not sliced?
        Reply
        • Jason says

          March 16, 2014 at 9:44 pm

          as a side, i haven't found good brisket anywhere in Chattanooga, yet. (besides what I smoke in my backyard.) I have grown to love good brisket, given my pork-based Memphis roots!
          Reply
          • Chattavore says

            March 17, 2014 at 4:17 pm

            This was shredded. I haven't had a lot of brisket around town but do make it a fair amount at home (braised, not smoked, though).
      • Ron says

        February 10, 2015 at 11:56 am

        Try Backyard BBQ 11210 Dayton Pike Soddy Daisy, TN open Tuesday thru Saturday 11:00 am till 7:00 pm. They came from Texas they do brisket right!!
        Reply
        • Chattavore says

          February 10, 2015 at 6:16 pm

          Thanks, Ron! I need to add it to my list!
          Reply
  2. Tom says

    March 17, 2014 at 1:53 pm

    @Jason, I've had brisket many times at Porker's. Often it is sliced but sometimes it is shredded. Why? I guess I should ask but I haven't. I enjoy both well enough though definitely prefer it sliced.
    Reply
  3. Vanderbilt Wife says

    March 23, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    I'm partial to Nooga-Q, but it IS across the street so that helps. ;) Their beans are excellent - more barbecuey than sugary - and I like the meat and sauce. I threw up Sticky Fingers once and that was the end of it for me.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      March 24, 2014 at 4:25 pm

      We don't do Sticky Fingers. (1) It's not really local; (2) it's not close; (3) my husband doesn't like it; (4) I can take it or leave it. I like other places better. I didn't try the beans at Nooga-Q. I'll have to get some next time. I am determined to learn how to do barbecue-real barbecue-at home!
      Reply
  4. tiffanymerritt says

    March 25, 2014 at 6:36 am

    As someone who lived in Memphis for 10 years, I'm a tough critic when it comes to BBQ, and nothing in town has blown me away yet. But I do have a local favorite: choo choo BBQ on Ringgold Rd. We have tried Porkers twice, simply because it is so close to us (we live in Southside). But I think we are throwing in the towel at this point. The meat was too fatty for our taste. The sauce too spicy. The slaw too...I don't know...vinegar-y? The beans were quite good, though if you don't like sugary sweet beans, then those will also disappoint. All in all, it's just ok, in my opinion. Nothing to write home about.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      March 25, 2014 at 4:20 pm

      I like the Choo-Choo BBQ out here too, Tiffany. Here is my thought on barbecue in Chattanooga: it's just an amalgam of what is traditional from other places. We don't have our own "style" here and it seems to me that any shredded meat that has sauce on it qualifies as barbecue, which we both know is so not the case. Not that I don't like sauced meat....but it's just not Chattanooga's "thing" and that's okay, but I wish someone would bring in an authentic style from somewhere. I did a top seven list for Chowzter and really felt like since it's the South I should include barbecue, but even though I like most of the places in town fine nothing stands out. I'm determined to learn how to do it myself this summer.
      Reply

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About Chattavore

Hi, I'm Mary! Welcome to Chattavore, a destination for people who want to feed themselves and their families well every day! Life can be crazy, which means that getting dinner on the table can be a challenge (more often than not!) and my mission is to take all your favorite recipes and figure out how to serve them on a Tuesday.

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