Restaurant of the Week: Gus’s BBQ

Gus’s BBQ, 500 W. 1st St. (at Oberlin), Claremont; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. except until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 p.m. Sundays

The Claremont Packing House got a fresh jolt of excitement when ailing standby Casablanca was replaced by the South Pasadena barbecue outpost Gus’s BBQ. Gus’s has been around since 1946 on Fair Oaks Avenue but became more of a diner until new owners took over in 2007, re-emphasizing smoked meats and boosting business.

I’d seen Gus’s neon blade sign many times and had always meant to check them out, but my only taste of the food was when they catered a friend’s wedding a year ago (deliciously). It was neat to see them come to Claremont for their second location. We don’t often get that kind of attention.

The place has been busy since its late June opening. The interior is medium-sized, with a full bar specializing in whisky, and then there’s the wraparound patio, which also has inward-facing seating to the bar. The corrugated tin of the Packing House and the neon Gus’s sign make the fit seem natural.

They sell sandwiches, burgers, salads, barbecue entrees and Southern specialties. The barbecue is, literally, all over the map, as they have Memphis baby back ribs, St. Louis spare ribs, Texas beef brisket and Carolina pulled pork.

I’ve been there twice for solo lunches, both in the middle of a weekend afternoon, and both times the restaurant had a fair number of other off-hour customers.

The first time I had a pulled pork sandwich ($13) with sweet potato fries as my side. Served with cole slaw on top, and on a light ciabatta roll, the pork was full of flavor, assisted by a bit of mustardy Carolina BBQ sauce from the selection at the table. I couldn’t have asked for a tastier pulled pork sandwich.

A week later, I returned to try ribs. They were busy enough that they sat me at the bar, which was empty but which soon filled up. I had the half-rack of St. Louis ribs ($23), with braised southern greens and mac n’ cheese as my sides.

A half-rack amounted to seven bones, with tender pork that came off the bone easily. The greens were leafier than is usual, the mac lightly cheesed and with bread crumbs on top. While a full rack of ribs is $5 more, the half-rack was plenty for one person.

This is genteel barbecue in polite, hipsterish surroundings. We might prefer the downhome funk and friendliness of, say, J&J in Pomona or Bigg Dane and Beale’s in Fontana, but Gus’s food is excellent.

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Restaurant of the Week: Bigg Dane and Beale’s Texas BBQ

Bigg Dane and Beale’s Texas BBQ, 7373 East Ave. (at Base Line), Fontana; open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and 8 p.m. weekends; closed Tuesdays

I read about Bigg Dane’s in late 2015 but only recently sought it out, after 1) remembering and then 2) learning it’s on the near side of Fontana, off the 15 at Base Line Road, a stone’s throw from Rancho, rather than a few further miles out of the way. Actually getting to Bigg’s from the freeway is tricky due to the layout of the intersection, but a couple of counter-intuitive left turns and I was in the shopping center.

There’s a smoker out front, a good sign; inside, you order at the counter and take a seat in the adjacent dining room. The menu has plates with two sides, sandwiches with one side and a few lunch specials. My first visit, I ordered brisket with collard greens and cornbread ($15).

My food was delivered on a metal tray lined with paper: two long strips of brisket, sauce on the side, a plate of cornbread and a dish of greens. It was all good.

Wanting to try the ribs, I returned the next week for the three-rib lunch special ($10) with one side, mac and cheese. The mac was dense and cheesy.

As soon as I picked up the first rib, its heft, density and smell let me know these were serious. The meat was tender but firm and came off the bone cleanly; the taste was excellent. I am no barbecue expert, but I’ve eaten at Franklin’s in Austin, Pappy’s in St. Louis and Bludso’s in L.A., and while Biggs’ weren’t at that level, nor would I expect them to be, they were reminiscent of that level. The ribs have a dry rub and don’t need sauce, and yet the thin, slightly sweet sauce on the side was quite good too.

The dining room is clean and new, a little sterile due to minimal decor. I was surprised how unoccupied it was given the quality of the food. Maybe it’s busier on the weekend. Owned by two longtime friends, it’s a family-run operation, and on one visit a young daughter was stationed at a table, coloring. Gotta like a place like that.

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Restaurant of the Week: Blue Fire Grill

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Blue Fire Grill, 5670 Schaefer Ave. (at Benson), Chino

A colleague had recommended Blue Fire Grill to me a few years ago, but I had never seen it and, my knowledge of Chino still tentative, couldn’t picture where it was. The fact that I hadn’t been there nagged at me, though.

Then one evening last month, I was downtown, and hungry, after the end of an early council meeting and thought, Where is Blue Fire Grill? I mapped it and realized it was only a few blocks away. So off I drove.

It’s in an unusual location, an office park, and my eyes weren’t looking high enough to see the sign, as I figured out the location by the address only. The blank exterior is enlivened by the potted landscaping. (On my way out, I asked the server why there wasn’t a sign, she said there is and finally I saw it.)

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Inside, the main dining room wasn’t being used (it was early on a Wednesday). The half-dozen customers were all enjoying the wine bar. Yes, the wine bar. I sat at a table and requested a menu.

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Blue Fire’s menu is mostly barbecue, with a couple of salads and seafood items, plus pizza. (Yes, pizza. And a wine bar.) They do catering, which might be a big part of their business and made me more confident about ordering. I got the Texas brisket ($18.50), which comes with a salad and two sides; my choices were cornbread and mac and cheese.

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The salad was above average and had a flower as a garnish. It might have been edible but just as I was finishing, the entree arrived and I relinquished my plate.

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As for the main event, this was a lot of food, and pretty good: tender brisket, tasty and piping hot mac, with blueberry cornbread in mini-muffin form and a container of apple butter. The barbecue sauce was sweeter than I’d prefer, though. I ate all the mac, half of everything else and took the rest home where I got a second meal out of it.

Blue Fire wasn’t my favorite barbecue, and being the only diner was disconcerting. But the experience was fair. Plus, maybe you’re interested in a wine bar…?

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Restaurant of the Week: Lucille’s BBQ

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Lucille’s BBQ, 12624 N. Mainstreet (at Eden), Victoria Gardens, Rancho Cucamonga; also 4611 Chino Hills Parkway (at Ramona), Chino Hills

Lucille’s, a barbecue chain, was one of the original tenants when Victoria Gardens opened in 2004. And it’s still there, while adding a location in Chino Hills. Did you know the Signal Hill-based chain is owned by the same people behind the coffee shop chain Hof’s Hut? The gauzy story on the Lucille’s website about its origins under “Lucille Buchanan” is actually fiction, as the company admits. Ha ha!

I don’t feature chains here very often, but when there’s only one or two local locations, I’ll do it. In this case, a group of friends was celebrating a couple of birthdays recently at the VG, so I was there anyway. It was a Saturday night and the place was jammed.

Lucille’s is colorful and corporate-kitschy, with neon signs outside and quaint-looking advertising-type signs inside: “Good choices: FDR & BBQ,” “Was one mint julep the cause of it all?” The booths have coat racks and hanging lamps reminiscent of mid-century diners. But many employees wear earpieces to receive orders from their BBQ Overlords, or maybe Memphis, so it’s not quite cozy.

The food’s pretty good, actually. One of my friends swears the jambalaya is the best he’s ever had. My experiences there have been solid. The menu has barbecue, Southern specialties, sandwiches and salads.

That night I had a decent half-rack of St. Louis ribs ($24, below) and two sides: cheesy grits, boring, and collard greens, surprisingly good. When you’re done, they give you a hot towel, like at a Japanese restaurant, and that’s a nice touch, and better than Wet-Naps, for cleaning sauce off your hands.

I went back for lunch a few days later to try something else, getting a pulled pork sandwich ($12, below) with more of those greens. It was a meaty sandwich and I ate some of the pork with a knife and fork. This was a good choice.

There’s an adjoining bar, the Flying Pig Lounge, where they have a band every night playing blues. Otherwise, the sound system has blues, of the sleek B.B. King and Eric Clapton variety. They probably don’t know who Peetie Wheatstraw is.

We don’t have a lot of true Southern restaurants out here (J&J’s in Pomona is my favorite), making Lucille’s a credible barbecue spot by default. It’s a cartoon version of the South, sure. But so what? Cartoons are entertaining, and as chains go, Lucille’s is benign, and even fun.

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Restaurant of the Week: Dickey’s Barbecue Pit

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Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, 9670 Haven Ave. (at Trademark), Rancho Cucamonga

Dickey’s opened recently in one of the new buildings just north of the aloft hotel at Haven and Fourth. It’s in the same modern-minimalist style as the hotel with steel and big windows. The interior is done in orange, burgundy and chocolate; you order at the counter and everything looks clean and shiny.

Of course, a purist will argue that barbecue should only be consumed in a shack with a corrugated tin roof and a smoker out back that looks like a piece of a steam locomotive. I can empathize, and you are hereby directed to Red Hill BBQ, across town but a world away in ambience.

But back to Dickey’s, which if it has a barbecue pit, as the name indicates, it’s probably tasteful and scrubbed clean twice daily. They have six meats — brisket, Polish sausage, pork ribs and the like — and prices are for a sandwich with zero, one or two sides or for a plate with two sides and one, two or three meats.

I got the pulled pork sandwich with two sides ($8.59): cole slaw and mac and cheese. The meal arrived switfly. Some would say the pulled park was too fine in texture, and perhaps that a 4-oz. portion was too small. But I enjoyed it, and with the two sides, it made for a filling meal. It’s convenient to our office and I would go back. *

Drinks come in one size only, in a yellow plastic 32-oz. cup, for $1.99.

Free with each meal are pickles — serve yourself from a giant jar — and soft-serve ice cream, a nice touch. And kids eat free on Sundays.

Dickey’s is a family-run chain started in Dallas in 1941, according to its website. The original Mr. Dickey probably never guessed his descendants would one day have a restaurant in Cucamonga.

* Update: I’ve gone back repeatedly, largely due to the convenience factor. The restaurant’s gas oven did a terrible job on the rib plate the one time I made the mistake of ordering something more ambitious. Go to a real BBQ joint (i.e., an actual barbecue pit) if you want ribs. Stick to the sandwiches, which are pretty good.

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Restaurant of the Week: Famous Dave’s

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Famous Dave’s, 11470 4th St. (at Richmond), Rancho Cucamonga

This is a Minnesota-based barbecue chain that recently opened a location across from Ontario Mills. The large-ish dining room has a high ceiling with rafters, wavy tin trim and silly signs, such as, in neon, “Eat like a pig.”

I like barbecue as much as the next person, but I’m not one of those people who know the difference between the styles of St. Louis, Texas, Memphis and wherever. What I can tell you is that I went in for lunch on Tuesday and ordered the Dave’s Favorite Burger ($8.99) with a side of slaw. How could this Dave resist?

The burger took a while but the server said that’s because the beef is ground only when ordered. It’s not this Dave’s favorite, but it was a darn good burger, a fine pile of beef chargrilled medium well until crunchy. Too much barbecue sauce, though. Oh, and the slaw was above average, dry and crisp.

My friend had a pulled chicken sandwich ($7.49), quite tasty, and a side of sweet potatoes with brown sugar on top. I’m not a sweet potato fan but I could have eaten more than the bite I sampled.

Is Famous Dave’s better than Lucille’s, the chain at Victoria Gardens? Is it better than the local places, like Joey’s or Red Hill BBQ? Ask an aficionado. But I’d eat at Dave’s again. Or any of those places, for that matter.

Weird trivia: Famous Dave co-founded Rainforest Cafe and is a former assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

* April 2012 update: I returned for a St. Louis-style pork rib half-slab combo with corn muffin and two sides, cole slaw and baked apples ($18). For corporate barbecue, it was all pretty tasty. The restaurant’s kitschy ambience is, like Lucille’s, too styled, and the atmosphere too loud and quote-unquote fun, but the food almost makes up for it.

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