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Soulard Market has been around since the 18th century. The 21st has brought it Bogart's Smokehouse, a new neighbor and a reason to raise flags and dance in celebration. Just across Ninth Street from the market and a relative of the hugely successful Pappy's, it provides several distinctively different offerings, all opportunities to taste the results of Mike Emerson and Skip Steele's immense talent and imagination at the barbecue smoker.
Prime rib, for example, and a delicious, lean pastrami, are new, as are wonderful, unusual ribs--"brûléed" with a roofer's torch-- flavorful, tender and tasty.
The restaurant emblem resembles the silhouette of an Arkansas Razorback. Lunch will provide similar proportions to the diner. The routine is familiar. Stand on line, order from the chalkboard, serve yourself a drink, find a seat and wait for a server to bring a tray.
Small (but with outside picnic tables, thank goodness) and full of Louisiana music, Emerson and Skip Steele, another 'que master long known to locals, Bogart's offers some remarkable lunches. Yup. Closes at 4 p.m. unless they run out sooner.
A sandwich or a platter, your choice of two sides, four sauces on the table. The pulled pork is pretty much like Pappy's, which is fine, but we were particularly thrilled with the ribs. Remarkably moist and tender, lightly brushed with an apricot glaze, not deeply fruity in the face of all that smoke, but with a welcome kick of pepper, they're unmissable, and their intense flavor makes sauce totally, utterly optional. On the beef side, they're making pastrami, something we never thought we'd find in a place like this. Joe, the old New Yorker, beamed at every bite. The beef manages to be both lean and tender, an uncommon pairing, and nicely spiced, so good even a light smear of mustard is unnecessary.
Fatties, fairly new on the dining scene, are just large sausages (about the diameter of a salami) cooked in a smoker. Unlike some versions, which are stuffed, Bogart's arrives as thick slices of uniform texture. At first the taste is of a good country sausage with plenty of black pepper. Then something else comes forward, a dark earthiness that raises the ante considerably. We're not sure what it is, but we surely like it, and can't help thinking how good some of this would be on a breakfast plate, whether with eggs or pancakes. Prime rib is also led to the smoker, cooked a little past medium and served with smoked onions. It's prime rib, so there's some fat to it, but it's a good combo with the spicy onions.
As to sauces, the tomato-based Sweet Megan manages to be both sweet and hot, always a pleasure, and it can be cranked up a little with the Voodoo Sauce. Mad Maddie's Vinegar Sauce gives some North Carolina kick, and to our astonishment, the Pineapple Express is great with the fatty, displaying a little heat along with its fruitiness.
Attention must be paid to the sides. Deviled egg potato salad is a resounding success, yellow and creamy, thickened with plenty of hard-cooked eggs, just a little tang and a note of dill. Pit-baked beans may well be the best in town, dense but not dry, molasses-y, and with bits of meat to raise the smokiness. BBQ pork skins are made at the Soulard Market, and the slaw was okay but not great, with not quite enough tanginess.
One employee or several seem to roam the dining room frequently checking on lunchers, and the counter folks are good about explaining the menu. Street parking only–bring quarters–and be aware that Saturday is the Market's busiest day.
Excellent stuff, extremely worthy of a detour, as the Michelin folks say.
Bogart's Smokehouse
1629 S. 9th St.
314-621-3107
bogartssmokehouse com
Lunch Tue--Sat, 10:30 - 4
Photos by Kevin A. Roberts
By Joe and Ann Pollack
