Travelling to the Best Barbecue Places in All 50 U.S. States

Throughout childhood, barbecue has always been a favorite of mine and my dad's. Our favorite place to go in my home area of the San Francisco Bay was a Texas BBQ chain called Armadillo Willy's. Due to our shared enjoyment of the wonderfulness that is barbecue, we recently came up with the idea of travelling across the entire U.S. to try what every state has to offer. Our list of which places would qualify as the best were from Food and Wine Magazine: https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/best-bbq-restaurants . Now let's see what the first states on our bucket list have to offer!

The next state up is Florida. My first time in Florida was this summer, seeing family friends. One large part of our vacation was a trip to Orlando. While my mother and sister spent their day in the amusement park. My dad and I had different plans: Barbecue. Our stop was 4 Rivers Smokehouse in Winter Park.

In terms of drinks, there are plenty to be had at the restaurant. Drinks certainly are not the reason for going to this smokehouse though. The food could have possibly been the single highlight of our week long trip to Florida. First off, ordering food consists of ordering at a window, where all the food is prepared and ready for you to eat. Make sure you know what you want before going into line. After paying we were ready to dig in.

Rather than ordering our BBQ trinity, we decided to do one plate of ribs, one plate of pulled pork. Before I talk about the meats, the sides were an interesting highlight. My chosen sides were smoked jalapeno poppers and cornmeal crusted okra. Interesting choices, but both being very good, poppers were spicy for the average american palate but good in my book. Now the meat is a different story. The ribs fell off the bone easily, however they were not soggy. They had a delicious smoky taste through and through. They were very lean yet no bite felt dry. The pulled pork had a sweet and smoky taste and literally fell apart in my mouth. Words can't describe the feeling of eating some foods, and this is no exception. The sauce selection was small, consisting of a mustard sauce, a mild sauce, and a spicy sauce, however all three sauces were wonderful, being at a balance between sweet, spicy, and tangy. The okra tasted especially good with the mustard barbecue sauce. The only sad part about this eating experience was seeing an empty plate towards the end.

To conclude, as a person who has had my fair share of barbecue yet has never traveled to the south, I can firmly say that this is the best barbecue I have had in my life. If you are ever visiting Disneyworld or Universal, please make a stop at 4 Rivers for a wonderful dining experience.

I will now include a ranking of the top five places I have eaten at:

#1 - 4 Rivers Smokehouse, Winter Park FL

#2 - B.T.'s Smokehouse, Sturbridge MA