Ms. Piggies (Again)

What could be better than BBQ on a Friday afternoon?

BBQ & a live sax player tooting in the corner.

Steve & I tooled down Page for lunch so he could check out the new digs. Just when I thought they'd pulled out all the stops, here was Fred Walker & his Saxy Jazz Music Show in the corner with everything from 'As Time Goes By' to 'Mas Que Nada'.

That made it hard to talk but the food was great. I had the ribs this time (wet). They were meaty & 'fall off the bone'. Steve opted for brisket & pulled pork. I still think these guys may have the best fries in town.

We may have to give them a rest as they're getting heavy rotation, but judging from the traffic in the place, they'll still have plenty of business.

A Biggie Piggie

If Ms. Piggie's had one drawback, it was the seating. A dozen, tops, could cram into the place and a one lucky table was on the way to the bathroom.

No more.

About a month ago, they knocked out the wall to the west, added seating for about 40, moved the bathroom, and added a pair of flat-screen TVs.

Still the same great food and terrific service (I had the rib tips - mmmmmm), the improvements are wonderful addition to a great BBQ joint.

Stumpy's House of BBQ

Technically outside the self-imposed limits of the Quest, this joint is a short hop over the Page Ave. bridge into St. Charles. The location suffers from being tucked sideways into a strip mall and if you are coming from highway 94, you have to drive past SuperSmokers (something I find hard to do) to get to it. Ouch!

Brightly lit with friendly, attentive staff, the place is done up in a sports motif with mid to late-70s era Cardinal baseball cards under the plexiglass table tops (what's Hector Cruz doing these days?). Seats about 40.

Coyote & I both got the combo plus we split a dozen wings. Everything comes with a dry rub, three kinds of sauces on the side. The hottest was short on flavor but long on tang - vinegar based. The medium had a good sneaky heat & lots of flavor - the sweet was good but nothing special.

The wings also came with the dry rub; very tasty, almost a bacon flavor. This was carried over to the ribs which were very tender but lacked any smokey flavor in the meat itself. The brisket & pulled pork were just average.

On the side I got baked beans (average) and fries (excellent).

Tuesdays are 'buy one entree, get one free' so the whole shootin' match (two combos & wings) were under $20 - a great value.

On the list I'd have to put them above average, but not in the top quartile so if you're in St. Charles & SuperSmoker's is too busy, you can do a lot worse than Stumpy's.