I’ve never had much of a thing for eating food out of a gas station. Sure, candy and snacks and that sort of thing were fine.  But the idea of buying an entrée and sides from the same place that sells diesel fuel and cigarettes just seemed like two divergent roads careening down an embankment.  I couldn’t reconcile it in my head.  I even walked into the Marathon in Chelsea one night and smelled something incredible coming from Good Ole Boy's BBQ in the adjoining space, but I couldn’t bring myself to order anything.  I thought about it, but I didn’t.

Then I was doing some PT when I heard one of the assistants talking with another patient about barbecue.  I think her birthday was coming up and this man was gonna bring her some barbecue.  That was my cue to pick up the conversation, so I told her about thealabamabarbecuechase.com and she was immediately interested.  My next couple of visits with her produced some fun conversations as she told me about her love for barbecue and some of her favorite places.  One of those was Good Ole Boy's in Sylacauga.  The next month when I saw a sign in Pell City for a “Future home of Good Ole Boy's BBQ” location, I took it as a sign that I had nothing to fear in going to the Chelsea location.  Actually, I was looking forward to it.

The Chelsea location is no longer there, but I had already been bitten.  My experience in Chelsea was so good that I hit up the Childersburg location one afternoon.  This time, just as good or maybe better.  Consistency in excellence across multiple locations is a difficult trick.

The pulled pork is beautiful and delicious and the serving size is huge!  There’s a lovely smoke ring and bark that provides nice contrast in flavor and texture.  That’s a sign of a well-smoked shoulder.  It was crazy juicy and the smoke really comes through in every bite.  It also has an excellent chew that’s really enjoyable.  I could eat the whole thing without sauce, but after having the sauce I didn’t want to.

It's interesting to read the ingredients on the sauce bottle.  It’s a long list that sounds like they used every ingredient ever used in every barbecue sauce ever.  Yet it’s the perfect complement to enhance the pork.  It’s a blend of tomato and vinegar, sweetened with brown sugar and very well-seasoned to deliver a bold flavor that’s also easy on the palette.  It’s extremely well-balanced and I used it to help polish off my bread.

The baked beans could be listed in the dictionary for what classic baked bean flavor should be.  They were dark and rich, with an earthy flavor that could only come from molasses or another natural sweetener.  The presence of onion was obvious and the beans were tender yet held their form.  I really enjoyed them, much more so than the mac n cheese which was a baked style but had overcooked noodles.  The flavor was good and it had that lovely baked cheese topping, so naturally I finished it.  There’s a good selection of sides so on my Childersburg visit I tried something different which was the coleslaw.  Their's is diced with carrots and relish, peppery in a mayo base but still light.  It had a terrific crunch that ate perfectly with a bite of sandwich.

This is one of the most pleasant barbecue surprises I’ve had in a while.  The Childersburg restaurant has a good vibe and it was bustling.  Terrific barbecue joint!  If you’re on 280, look for their sign.  Good ole barbecue by Good Ole Boy's!

Bonus points for:

Order at the counter

Self-serve fountain drinks

Sauce on the table

Exceptional baked beans