On my way to Sam's Club today, to do my part to stimulate our country's economic problems, I decided to do a small BBQ Crawl. Our friends at Ulika BBQ have a great blog at ulikabbqblog and I thought I would give it a spin and give my reviews of a couple of local estalbishments.I decided to stop by Centerpoint BBQ located at 1212 W. Main in Hendersonville, TN. It is a place I remember passing by from my childhood when we would visit my grandmother and after graduating and moving from Gallatin to Hendersonville for 12 years had yet visited until today.
As I pulled over into the parking area I had to pull around back. It being luch time the place was full and I found the last space beside their Old Hickory Pit catering trailer. There is a small smoke house located to the side of the restaurant and the smell of hickory filled the air adding to my antsyness to get inside. When I walked in the door the ambience of the small area was pretty cool. A small elevated seating area with limited table and chairs was full as I expected due to all of the cars. The long work area to my left was bustling with workers and I noticed a large flat toaster which toasts the sandwiches just before they are served. Very nice touch. In front of me a small oriental women smiled and said "May I take your order?" I ordered the pulled pork sandwich rather than the chopped and had it within two minutes.
First, the sandwich was heaping with what I call "true pulled pork", chunky with bark and obvious seasonings. The pork was bland and dry and not cooked to the degree of doneness that I prefer. The sauce was a sweet vinegar sauce which tasted like a cross between Memphis and Kansas City sauce. It helped give flavor and was certainly the culprit in the seasonings I had observed. It was confusing because I know they do smoke their product but tasted very little of the oldest spice in the world in the sandwich . Now the price tag for this delicacy was $3.49 plus tax and it delivered on size with over 1/3 a pound of BBQ , but the lack of flavor and the desire to take a drink after the first bite took away from the total experience. I hope that this was just a fluke and I caught them on a bad day because Johnny and June Cash frequented this establishment while they lived in Hendersonville and I know the "Man in Black" knew his BBQ. I do plan on visiting again before giving a letter grade, but at this point I can't give anything more than an average or slightly below the initial verbal grade at this time.
