Barbecue is an informal food, like fried chicken or a hoagie. You can’t be formal when you have sauce dripping down your chin, unless you’re the Queen of England, and I don’t see her visiting Steve’s Rib any time soon.

But it’s Her Majesty’s loss, in my opinion, because Steve’s Rib has some of the finest, no-frills barbecue around. Well, no-frills may be overstating the case a bit. There are plates and plastic cutlery, if you need it, but there aren’t any waitresses or tablecloths or wine menus — at least at my preferred location.

Steve’s Rib is peculiar in that of the two restaurants under that banner, one is a sit-down restaurant with a hostess and bar and the other requires you to stand in line and tell the worker what you want so he can cut it and stick it on a Styrofoam plate for you. Oddly, I’d rather avoid the fancy Steve’s Rib (located in Edmond) in favor of the comfortable and guile-less location on Hefner Road near MacArthur.

The menu, which is tacked up on the wall, isn’t very complex. You can order a sandwich with a choice of meats or you can get a dinner with a choice of sides. It’s not rocket surgery. The sandwiches come in small (around $5.80) and large (around $6.80) and come with one side. Dinners are around $10 and come with two sides.

My wife doesn’t hesitate when she orders. She wants the chopped brisket, which Steve’s does up right. A lot of restaurants will serve a pre-sauced brisket or something that was chopped in a food processor instead of a knife. At Steve’s, the brisket is juicy, flavorful and still retaining those tiny strands of meat that let you know it didn’t come frozen in a bucket.

I try to branch out and I’ve found a few winners and few losers. The sliced brisket is just as tasty as the chopped, likely because they’re the same food in different forms. The pulled pork is equally juicy, though the flavor is milder and needs at least a dollop of Steve’s barbecue sauce — I like the spicy, but the sweet is good, too.

The sliced turkey is a personal favorite, especially when I’m watching my waistline. It’s not too dry and it’s full of that smoky flavor that comes from a long, slow cook in the smoker.

The ribs, usually a highlight at barbecue restaurants, are inconsistent. I’ve had some great ribs where the meat is tender and can’t wait to fall off the bone, and I’ve had some bad, fatty ribs, where the taste is bland. If I knew a way to ensure which version I’d receive, I’d order them more often. As it is, I tend to stay away.

Good, but not great, are the smoked sausage and hot links. If you’re going to Steve’s, I’d recommend you try something you couldn’t pick up anywhere else, and the sausage and links are pretty middle-of-the-road.

If the vegetable of the day is okra, order it. They fry it up right without burning the crust. The potato salad is unspectacular and the baked beans could be a little more peppery and a little less sweet, but that’s just my opinion. My wife loves the beans.

Fresh steak fries are worth getting as a side, but you might ask for a sample first to make sure you aren’t getting a soggy batch. A better tuber treat is the baked potato, which costs a little more, but is cooked really well. Forgo the sour cream and cheese, if you’re trying to stay healthy, because a little butter and onions with a few squirts of barbecue sauce make this one a keeper.

And if your sweet tooth beckons, the apple cobbler is delicious and the brownies — with or without nuts — are a nice chocolate ending to a great barbecue dinner.

There’s lots of barbeque to choose from in this city, some good and some not so great. I think Steve’s Rib is definitely worth a try and if you’re like me, you’ll opt for the no-frills version in northwest Oklahoma City over the sit-down, Edmond version. But hey, if you’ve eaten at either one, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Well, mark it down on the calendar — I have broken the lunchtime gender barrier at work and actually got invited out with the “boys club” to eat barbeque! It was a genuine high point in my career. They told Beth and I that if we went, we were going to a guys’ place and not some frilly, horrible tea room (which was fine by me since I hate tea rooms more than they do). They announced the place — JT’s Bar-B-Que — and on the way out the door, they added “Oh yeah, and there’s no ladies restroom either!”

“I think they’re taunting us,” I said to Beth. “They must die.”

Then I yelled back at them as we all loaded up in the Suburban, “Hey, it doesn’t bother me one bit to use the men’s room. And don’t think I’ve never done that before!” I did decide to spare them my rant on standing in mile-long lines to use the ladies’ room.

Anyway, we finally set off from Bethany to Del City for what these men claimed were “the best pork ribs in town!” Must be so, I thought, to drive that far with gas prices a mile high. I told them that since I was going to review the place for this site, they each needed to order a different entree so I could report on it. My suggestion was met with stone-cold silence and Chuck Norris stares from behind mean-looking sunglasses. “Or maybe I’ll just have something else and you guys can stick with the ribs,” I said. The mood instantly lightened. I was relieved, as I wanted to keep my options open for future lunch invites with the boys club (hi Kyle, Clint, Rex, Todd and Jerry).

We arrived to find a standing-room-only dining room and instantly went into surveillance mode, searching for someone who might be almost finished so that we could steal their table. We sent two spies ahead of the line and it worked, though we did have to split up our group of seven to sit at two tables. Lesson learned — get there early for lunch.

The line moves quickly with soup-Nazi-like efficiency. Another lesson — grab your napkins, silverware, lemons, sugar, Tabasco, and whatever else you think you might need before sitting down. The place is extremely crowded and it can be difficult to move around. However, if you do forget something, fast and friendly waiters are continually circulating to meet your every need. Nice!

As we sat down, I took an eyeball survey of the room and found that there were no other women. “Gosh,” I thought, “were they kidding or not about no ladies’ room? Would the health department allow that?” A couple of minutes later, I was greatly relieved to see about five other ladies walk in the front door. Nevertheless, I noted that we were definitely in “guy territory,” though the decor of the place belied this fact. I felt like I had been transported back to 1983 in the small town where I grew up. I was surrounded by the cutesie-country look of wooden, painted, cut-out pigs and little country-kitchen curtains. The feminine touch was nice, though about 25 years behind. It all added to the charm of the place, as did the temporary dimming of the lights every time the air conditioner compressor kicked on.

A few minutes later, our food arrived. And wouldn’t you know? Everyone except me, including Beth, had ordered the pork ribs. I had the basket of a smoked half chicken, Texas toast, and potato salad, all for $6.25. The half rib basket also runs $6.25 and the whole rib basket costs $7.95. The smoked chicken fully met my approval because it was actually cooked. Every other time I’ve eaten smoked chicken, it has looked half raw and bleeding. I know the smoking process turns it pink, which makes it look uncooked, but for those us (like Tim’s wife and me) who run screaming down the street at the sight of raw meat, this was pure heaven. I could eat and not worry about getting salmonella poisoning.

Everyone else in my party offered me a rib, but I only took one, thinking I didn’t need to eat much fatty meat. To my pleasant surprise, this was just about the leanest rib I’ve ever had. In fact, it was all meat, no fat, and extremely tasty with a dollop of the hot or mild sauce sitting on the table.

So, as the men suggested, the ribs are fabulous. I’ll give them that. On the other hand, the sides aren’t really anything to write home about. The potato salad was your average BBQ place potato salad. Too bad we can’t couple those amazing ribs up with some fantastic sides as well. That would be killer. But alas, for me at least, it seems that each barbeque place has that “one thing” they do really well, with everything else being kind of average. JTs can’t be beat for the pork ribs. Earl’s has my favorite potato salad, and I like the smoked turkey and garlic vinegar cole slaw at Oklahoma Station. Now, I know I’m opening a can of worms here by taking sides on barbeque in Oklahoma City, but hey, these are my opinions. Y’all are welcome to comment below about your favorites.

Anyway, back to JT’s, it is definitely worth a try and even a drive sometime if, like me, you’re on the opposite side of town. In addition to the baskets mentioned above which include one side, they have dinner plates which include one meat, two sides and toast, and run anywhere from $7.75 to $10.50. They also offer sandwiches, other sides, chili (in season), family paks and a carry-out menu. One of my guys also said the blackberry cobbler is delicious.

JT’s isn’t open on the weekends because they are so busy catering. If you’re interested in catering or anything else about JT’s, you can email the owners, JT and Susan Moon. They have been in business for 27 years.

What do you think about JT’s? Let us know in the comments.

When I first saw Iron Starr’s outdoor sign declaring it was an urban barbeque restaurant, I was immediately intrigued. I thought of Manhattan’s Blue Smoke, which serves its urban take on barbeque both in its upstairs restaurant and its downstairs jazz club, the Jazz Standard. Barbeque and jazz — now that’s hard to beat.

Well, Iron Starr doesn’t have a jazz club in the basement, but it’s the only place I know where you can experience the unique taste of urban barbeque in Oklahoma City. Of course, this causes me to ask, “what exactly is urban barbeque?”

I’ll give you my take — urban barbeque offers moderate portions of meat served along some creative side dishes on nice plates in an upscale atmosphere. That would be as compared to regular barbeque, where success typically means enormous piles of meat and a big roll of paper towels on the table.

Iron Starr delivers on my urban barbeque expectations with a quality that satisfies on all fronts. Their meats are very well prepared and served tastefully in moderate portions with a delicious sauce. But what really keeps me going back to Iron Starr are the side dishes. You can choose from a variety of them. They are all creative, beautiful and tasty.

My favorite is the dutch oven potatoes. It’s sweet potatoes with an amazing combination of heat and sweet that defies description. I also like the whole green beans. Seems pretty mundane, I know, but they cook them just right, leaving the color and crispness intact, and combine them with some red peppers and garlic for a little extra flavor. Speaking of flavor, the seasoning of everything is really superb. Oh, and the cornbread — perfectly moist and flavorful. Most people I’ve ever eaten with try the fancy mac and cheese. I’ve had a bite of it off someone else’s plate and it is good as well. It just seems that you can’t go wrong with any of their sides. They even offer a vegetable plate where you can just choose a bunch of sides for your meal. I’d do it, but I always seem to want some meat, too. Decisions, decisions.

The atmosphere at Iron Starr is superb. They’re in a quaint, old building near Crown Heights, and what a nice job they’ve done inside combining deep, rich woods and colors with pleasant art adorning the walls. It’s comfortable, not stuffy, but still sophisticated. I always feel myself relax a bit when I walk into the room. That might be because we always leave the kids with grandparents when we go. Nah, I’m sure it’s the atmosphere.

Finally, my wife said she would disown me if I didn’t mention the chocolate cake. The thing is, I’m not really a big dessert eater. I choose to spend my calories on the savory rather than the sweet. But, I can tell you from the few bites I’ve had off of my wife’s plate that Iron Starr has a very good chocolate cake. I do have a problem with it, though. It costs $8. Granted, it’s big enough to serve six people, but that’s the problem. I don’t normally dine with six people. So, it seems a bit much to get an enormous $8 slice of cake when it’s just the two of you, especially when one of you doesn’t eat much dessert. That said, my wife would tell you it’s a steal at $8.

Speaking of pricing, I’ve known some people who feel that Iron Starr is a little pricey in general. Honestly, though, I think that comes from the normal expectations associated with “barbeque.” You just can’t go to Iron Starr thinking it’s going to be like Earl’s or Bad Brad’s just because it has the word “barbeque” in the title. It’s a whole other level and one worth the extra cost. Chocolate cake aside, the cost really isn’t even that much higher. You can spend $10-15 on a dinner at Iron Starr but you can get pretty close to that at Earl’s. Overall, you may spend a little more at Iron Starr, but you get an elevated experience that is well worth it. Plus, here’s a hint, my wife and I often split a dinner and it is plenty of food for both. We do the same at Earl’s.

So, the food is great and it’s carefully presented on nice plates in an upscale yet comfortable atmosphere. That says urban barbeque to me. But, just to be thorough, I asked Keith Paul, owner of A Good Egg Dining Group (the company behind Iron Starr, Cheever’s and Red Prime Steak), how he defines urban barbeque. Here’s what Keith had to say:

“Urban BBQ – in one word: “citified.” We combine elements of fine dining with true smokehouse flavor. The menu offerings are truly unique: bacon-wrapped quail, excellent salads and fresh seafood. These all make our concept stand apart from the normal BBQ joint.”

Well said, Keith.

However you define it, I don’t know of another restaurant in Oklahoma City that offers it. If you know another place you’d like to mention, or if you’d like to offer your own definition of urban barbeque, please leave a comment.

What was once a poor man’s meal has become a rare delicacy in the world. Though my own granddad may have bought it for a nickel at the general store each week, it’s not something one sees regularly anymore. Yet one place dares to serve it, not apologizing for its brazen attempt to bring back what was once thought extinct. Ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking of thick-sliced, moist, smoked bologna!

Just past the quaint, but well kept, downtown Yukon grain elevator and old-fashioned brick buildings is the best “west side” barbecue anyone could ask for. Standing in stark contrast to the over-smoked, dried-out meats of other BBQ joints in west Oklahoma City (I won’t name specific places, but one rhymes with Moklahoma Nation), Yukon’s Bad Brad’s serves up moist, tender cuts of bologna, turkey, chicken, and ribs. They carry the standard BBQ love affairs – beans, potato salad, baked potatoes. It’s not innovation, but execution that makes Brad’s stand out amongst the masses. Their food is, in a word, delicious!

If you can get past the kitchen staff’s love of chaos (somtetimes slow) and the waitstaff’s precocious, direct attitude, you will love the home cooking that Bad Brad’s brings to Oklahoma. On top of that, it is actually more affordable than most BBQ restaurants in the area. Most meals are under 10 dollars. Try the cobbler a la mode, in multiple fruit options. Brad’s is worth the drive. Just take historic Route 66 through Bethany. Who knows? You might see something new…