Great Meat: Slowly Smoked -- Slowly Served

Most Friday nights a group of us who all went to high school together in Lansing get together for dinner. Each couple picks a restaurant for the group for the week. Tonight it was Mary’s and my turn to pick. Our daughter and a few others had recommended Meat at 1224 Turner Street in what is now called Old Town in North Lansing. To all of us it is still Northtown where the venerable Freddie’s Doughnuts once purveyed their most delicious pastries. With a name like Freddie’s, how could it have been bad? So, back to Meat. The name says it all. Meat is what they do and, boy, can they do meat. We have done BBQ in a number of Lansing eateries. Among them have been Smoky Bones, Hall of Fame, Famous Dave’s, and Finley’s. Ratings of each place varies quite a bit among our troupe. The strongest consensus has been that Finley’s has the best ribs among the aforementioned places. So, I was surprised and happy to hear a mostly unanimous great rating for Meat’s meat. The ambience has a definite Lansing vibe. Down home, unpretentious, friendly and not too concerned with details. The dining room is very small and dark. Even more noteworthy is that it is very cacophonous. There was no music playing, but the small crowd (and it was full) was very noisy. The acoustics are either meant to be loud or they haven’t considered that people like to converse over great food. The most disappointing part of our visit was the speed of service. It took us an hour to receive our food. This did not bother me, much, since I was there to fellowship with my friends. I had a couple of Summer Blond Beers on tap and relaxed. Not everyone in our group was quite as laid back about the glacial pace of food delivery. This slow pace may explain the large numbers of people who came for carry-out orders. There is an outside area for eating, but my wife is, along with a few others of the group, averse to the alfresco thing, even though the weather was as nearly perfect as a perfect Michigan summer evening could be. We had a group, so we chose a long picnic table indoors which barely accommodated our membership. It was 1 of those tables which needs people on both sides to prevent the teeter-totter thing from dumping people on the floor. The selection of this table by the owners was definitely meant to create the feeling of a country kind of place short on fancy furniture and long on good food. They succeeded. On top of the table was the obligatory roll of paper towels and a collection of plastic squirt bottles of sauce. The sauce was delicious, the bottles were unmarked, again displaying the low concern for detail. The 1 fork provided was wrapped in a paper towel with the tines not wrapped. This seemed to defeat the purpose of the wrap: just saying. 3 of us had brisket, 3 of us had ribs and 1 had a burger. I, personally, had burnt ends with brisket. I have not had better. The meat was far better than any brisket I have ever had, in the north, south east or west. My wife had ribs which I volunteered to sample. They were perfectly done. Wonderfully smoked and seasoned, extremely tender, just like the brisket. Meat offers a relatively small number of sides. They apparently do not have a fryer which is ok with me. This means no French fries, deep fried pickles or any of the other customary sides served in most rib joints. Again, this is ok and provides incentive to be creative with other things. They are making progress on this, but may be able to kick it up a notch. They have Macaroni and Cheese as an entrée or a side. I did not sample this dish, but it was reported as being a little dry but well-flavored. None of us had macaroni and cheese as an entrée. The entrée is a build it to order with lots of things to add like mushrooms, onions, bacon and other good stuff. The side is served straight up. The Cole slaw is very unimpressive – not bad, just unimpressive. They serve a bleu cheese dressed potato salad which is a credible attempt. The flavors are very good, I would personally prefer a little more dressing, but this is not a criticism. I did enjoy it. Each entrée comes with a modest sized piece of corn bread. It is a sweet style cornbread and has no added items such as jalapenos or sweet corn as is the tradition in some southern places where I have dined. It is in the middle of the pack in my view of cornbread which I have eaten. It is certainly, to my taste, far better than Smokey Bones offering, but not as good as Famous Dave’s. I have a friend from West Virginia who makes her own in an iron skillet with a little bacon grease which is to die for. Hers is not sweet. I prefer the less sweet variety. Speaking of sweet, Meat does not offer dessert. I don’t consider this a negative. They are obviously concentrating their efforts on the meat. They have this down. They cannot make it better. Clearly making good BBQ is their passion. The rest is what they have to do to get people to savor their smoked perfections. Go there for the meat and beer. Have a couple sides to round out the meal. Plan to have a long meal time and enjoy your company. I would rate it overall a very respectable doughnut short of a dozen. The meat gets my highest and rarely given baker’s dozen (13 out of 12).