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Not even a minute after I first walked into Pappy's Smokehouse, the fantastic new midtown barbecue joint, I thought I was busted. I might as well have worn a T-shirt with "Restaurant Critic" in bold, bright type. Owner Mike Emerson strode right over to where I stood at the end of the long line to order, shook my hand and thanked me for visiting. I mumbled something and stared at my shoes. Time to buy a wig.

As usual, paranoia and megalomania had gotten the better of me. Emerson — look for the guy with the long gray goatee — hadn't singled me out. He seemed to know everyone. He said hello or asked how the barbecue was; he explained to a group waiting in line that the T-shirt hanging from the ceiling was from a buddy's barbecue spot in Vegas.

"His walk-in cooler is bigger than this whole place."

Emerson might need a bigger walk-in cooler soon if the crowds that have packed Pappy's since its February opening are any indication. Expect a long (but efficient) line during the lunch rush. Friends have told me tales of the line stretching out the front door.

Pappy's is one of three new restaurants in a nondescript building just east of the Loft Jazz Club. (The other two are Buffalo Brewing Co., a brewpub, and the U, a sandwich joint.) The location isn't scenic, but it's only a brisk walk away from both SLU and A.G. Edwards, a short drive from downtown and the Central West End. It's very close to SLU's new Chaifetz Arena.

"I love St. Louis," Emerson told me on the phone when I asked what led him and partners John Matthews and Brian Scoggins to this location. "Everybody goes out west [to open a restaurant]. I think our time could be right here."

Emerson is a St. Louis native whose involvement in the city's restaurant scene dates to the 1980s, when he waited tables at Del Pietro's. "When it had twelve tables and one floor," he laughs. He's also a veteran of Super Smokers founder Skip Steele's barbecuing team, which can claim numerous top-ten finishes at the annual Memphis in May "World Series of Swine" barbecue contest.

The "Pappy" of Pappy's Smokehouse is Emerson's brother Jim, who passed away six years ago. Pappy is what Jim's grandchildren called him. The eldest of eight brothers, Jim "was always a mentor to me," says Mike. A photograph of his brother has a place of honor to the left of the counter where you order. To the right of this counter, past the soda fountain, are more photos of Emerson and his friends and family hunting, fishing and, of course, barbecuing.

The restaurant is L-shaped. There are a few seats across from the counter, both individual seats along the front window and high tables with stools, but most of this area is occupied by customers waiting to order. The other half of the L has four-tops and picnic tables. An oversize picnic table is labeled "The Big Boy Table." The only diners I saw sitting there were three trim young professional women.

There's also a life-size replica of a pig. I have no idea whether you can sit on this.

The menu is straightforward: pulled pork, pulled chicken, beef brisket, turkey breast, hot links and pork ribs. You choose a meat and then (except for the ribs) either a sandwich or a platter and either regular or large. A regular sandwich brings six ounces of meat, a large eight; a regular platter has ten ounces, a large twelve. Sandwich meat is served on a soft roll, platter meat atop thick white bread. Everything, including the ribs, comes with your choice of two sides.

And now to pick a fight. Emerson does barbecue the proper way: dry. Or, as the takeout menu puts it: "Sauce is on the side 'cause there's nothing to hide." The meats are smoked up to fourteen hours over apple and cherry wood.

The results are, frankly, spectacular.

I'll start with the beef brisket. I never order beef brisket on my own dime. At best I find it just tender enough. Too often it's just plain dry. Pappy's brisket is tender — not merely tender enough, but actually tender. I'd say fork-tender, but at Pappy's you're given a plastic fork. The brisket is delicious, too, the meat's rich savor wonderfully accented by wood-smoke.

Wood-smoke lingered over — but never overwhelmed — each of the meats I tried, and it interacted differently with each. For the plump (and devilishly red) hot link, it offered an initial burst of flavor but was gradually subsumed by the sausage's peppery seasoning. For the pulled chicken, moist but naturally not as full-flavored as beef or pork, it added depth.

Unsure which meat to order? Consider that some Pappy's employees wear T-shirts that have "The Hog Whisperer" written across the back. The pulled pork and the ribs are nothing short of extraordinary. I ordered the pulled pork as a sandwich, and the meat was nearly as soft as the roll on which it was served.

The rib meat doesn't fall off the bone. It almost falls off the bone. This is how I like my ribs. The crisp exterior, with the brown-to-red shading of cooked bacon, yields to tender, smoky meat with that simple porky sweetness that must be one of the top five flavors in the known universe.

On the ribs, especially, you don't need sauce, but I don't mind a dollop of barbecue sauce — or maybe even more, depending on my mood and the quality of the sauce. Again, I should make my biases clear: I prefer tangy or hot to sweet. Pappy's offers all three, and each is quite good. The original has a satisfying tang and a very, very mild sweetness. I preferred the hot sauce, which added just enough heat to round out a similar flavor.

Sides are simple and good. I especially liked the sweet-potato fries, thin, crisp and just sweet enough, and the fried corn on the cob, which has a popcorn-like flavor that I desperately wanted to slather in butter. A minor detail that impressed: The green beans were a verdant green, rather than the military olive of steam-table green beans, and still had some snap to them.

An important note: Emerson doesn't believe in reheating barbecue, so Pappy's makes only what it expects to sell each day. When it's gone, the restaurant closes. A dry-erase board lets you know which meats and sides have sold out, but if you plan to visit later in the day, call ahead.

If you're still reading this review, it may already be too late.

Write Your Comment show comments (4)

  1. Ian, I just saw this place has frito pie on the menu. I demand to know how that didn't make it into the review.

    Comment by Keegan — April 18, 2008 @ 06:36PM

  2. WHAT'S THAT EGG ALL ABOUT?

    When you walk into a restaurant there is only so much you can see and hear and learn in the short time you will eat and drink there. Some will see more than others. But there is a character and a culture and a personality to the Hunan Inn that should be revealed to the readers of the Suburban Journals.

    There is no doubt that the new owners of the Hunan Inn, near the Barn of Lucerne at Kehrs Mill and Clayton Rd, are flipping some mighty fine, delicious and somewhat different meals out of their woks. You will also see that restaurant itself is spotless and newly renovated. But there is much more to this place than just what meets the palate or the eye at first glance.

    Frank Chang and his brother, Bruce, took over the Hunan Inn in October 2006. Frank has cooked all over America, even in Alaska. He has cooked in some of the finest Chinese restaurants, learning the fine art of his craft. In Palm Springs, California Frank worked at a gourmet Chinese restaurant where he cooked for Kirk Douglas. In Los Angeles he worked for a restaurant where he cooked for Jackie Chan.

    "You don't just expect the boss to pay you big money," says the sinewy-muscled Frank. "I was supposed to be at the restaurant at 10:30. I would get there at 9:00 and call the boss and say 'I can't get in; where are the keys.'"

    Frank has also run catering operations and upscale, gourmet Chinese food kitchens.

    "I worked for one place that had ten cooks. I tried to get the head chef to teach me but he didn't want to. So one day I brought him a bottle of whiskey and then he told me what he knows," Frank says.

    Frank's specialties include House Chicken, House Beef and Salt and Pepper Shrimp.

    In one of Frank's previous jobs as head chef, a co-worker pointed out to Frank that a lot of new Chinese restaurants were popping up nearby and the competition was intense. Frank responded by making a motion like he was flipping a wok: "Then we will go to war."

    Frank has high expectations for those who work for him and he even expects a lot from his brother and sister who work with him almost every day at the Hunan Inn.

    His brother and co-owner, Bruce Chang, may even have higher expectations of himself and others than Frank has, as hard as that is for some to believe.

    The Changs come from a family that owned a successful Chinese restaurant in Taiwan. Bruce himself has been a waiter, bartender and second and third chef. The only thing he has not done in the restaurant business is head chef. He also has taken business management classes and is majoring in college in java software. In a previous job he did tech support for a small corporation.

    Bruce used his computer skills and his laptop to design the Hunan Inn's new logo, which looks like a digital egg.

    "The egg is not meant to symbolize cholesterol," jokes Bruce, who is and looks like he is in perfect health; like his brother, no fat, all muscle and not somebody who you want to get riled, although it is very hard to get him riled, thank God....just kidding...sort of. Bruce explains: "The egg is meant to symbolize newness, rebirth. We don't forget our family's restaurant traditions but we want to build a new foundation on them. We have and excel in the traditional Hunan dishes but we offer lots of new and different stuff that most Americans may not be as familiar with but which I am sure they will love." Bruce says he would also like to gradually bring in some Peking style dishes.

    Bruce correctly points out that there are quite a few Chinese restaurants in the Chesterfield and West County areas. The competition is fierce. In order to win that war the Hunan Inn has to be a bit different in it's menu offerings, not the same old same old.

    The third foundation holding the Hunan Inn up strongly is Judy Sze, the sister of Frank and Bruce.

    Judy mainly works in the kitchen as both the second and third cook but sometimes she waits on tables. And sometimes she comes out of the kitchen to peek through the ornate divider decorated with meticulous and flowing Chinese art. That way she can see the people up front without them knowing they are being watched. Although sometimes they notice her watching and they walk back there and giggle at her. And she smiles back mischeviously when they do.

    The workers know they can joke around with Judy to a certain extent because she is one of the warmest, generous and genuine people anyone will ever meet.

    One waitress at Hunan Inn that has worked with Judy for a long time in other restaurants says Judy "has a very big heart."

    The customers certainly realize this. Her light shines brightly and sincerely. Hunan Inn has many regular customers who always ask if she is there and want to see her and listen to her infectious laugh.

    Here is a story that kind of shows Judy's character: She was shopping at the Korean grocery store. She bought some sort of Korean cake that is very popular to those who know about it. It was the last of these types of cakes that the store had. She bought five of them, all of them. She wasn't paying close attention but she did notice two gentlemen playing with her kids. One was older, perhaps in his seventies but in very good shape for his age, and bald. As she was getting ready to gather her children and leave the store she overheard the two gentlemen asking the store clerk for the same cakes that she had just cleaned them out of. The clerk told them they were all out of those cakes.

    "I felt kind of bad," Judy says. So as she was packing her car with the cakes the two gentlemen walked by her. She stopped them and offered them two of the cakes. They insisted on paying her for them but she just as insistently told them not to pay her.

    Finally, the younger man said to her: "Do you know who Joe Garagiola is?"

    Judy shook her head no. "Who is he?"

    The young man tried to explain who is uncle was although Judy knows as much about sports as she does about politics, which is very little. "Joe Garagiola is that guy over there by the car." He pointed to the bald, older man.

    Joe brought over a bunch of sports memorabilia that he personally signed and gave them to Judy. He also gave her some toys for her kids.

    "Call me if you need anything," Joe said as he gave Judy his card.

    Later on at the restaurant Judy says, "Bruce told me I should invite him and his family to the restaurant." She then laughed mischeviously. I don't think though that she will do that because it might make her "feel bad." Like she was using Joe and his family.

    So these three people are the bedrock of the new Hunan Inn. But more than that they are three very decent human beings doing their best to make money but to make money as the best and most moral people they can possibly be. It's quite a story isn't it, and most people will not know that story because all Frank, Bruce and Judy do is work very hard in a very small, relatively unknown and unfortunately- hidden restaurant in the middle of West County.

    But that just shows what you can find when you open up a new egg.

    Comment by scott — April 22, 2008 @ 01:32PM

  3. WHAT'S THAT EGG ALL ABOUT?

    When you walk into a restaurant there is only so much you can see and hear and learn in the short time you will eat and drink there. Some will see more than others. But there is a character and a culture and a personality to the Hunan Inn that should be revealed to the readers of the Suburban Journals.

    There is no doubt that the new owners of the Hunan Inn, near the Barn of Lucerne at Kehrs Mill and Clayton Rd, are flipping some mighty fine, delicious and somewhat different meals out of their woks. You will also see that restaurant itself is spotless and newly renovated. But there is much more to this place than just what meets the palate or the eye at first glance.

    Frank Chang and his brother, Bruce, took over the Hunan Inn in October 2006. Frank has cooked all over America, even in Alaska. He has cooked in some of the finest Chinese restaurants, learning the fine art of his craft. In Palm Springs, California Frank worked at a gourmet Chinese restaurant where he cooked for Kirk Douglas. In Los Angeles he worked for a restaurant where he cooked for Jackie Chan.

    Comment by scott — April 22, 2008 @ 01:45PM

  4. Bobby Flay was in the house of Pappy's BBQ today for lunch. lucky enough to meet the guy and his very lovely wife who seeemed to enjoy some great BBQ ..

    Comment by missouriman — May 8, 2008 @ 11:31PM

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