11/4/2005 - Mmmm, Meaty Goodness
Lucille's puts savory barbecue front and center, even in salads.
Taking someone you want to impress to a new restaurant can be double trouble. What if he or she hates the restaurant you rave about over dessert?
But fortunately for me that didn't happen when I took a friend to eat at Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que in Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga.
The aroma of hickory smoked beef, pork and chicken wafting through the roadhouse-style restaurant tamed him, along with the unusually short wait.
We sat in a comfortable booth near the entrance to Lucille's Flying Pig lounge.
The bar flies were buzzing in for cocktails, and the din from conversations and a blaring television briefly disrupted the ambience. But reading the menu distracted us, our mouths watering over entrees such as the pan blackened catfish ($17.95), St. Louis pork spare ribs (full rack $22.95) and a BBQ tri-tip ($17.95) "smoked all day until it melts in your mouth."
Lucille's dishes up foods you'd be hard pressed to find un less you're in Cajun country, too: New Orleans Gumbo ($8.95) made with a dark roux broth (a mix of flour and fat such as oil or butter), shrimp, smoked chicken and andouille sausage; and their spicy Jambalaya Me-Oh-My-A ($17.95), made with hot link sausage, smoked chicken and black tiger shrimp sauteed in a piquant tomato sauce and served over Creole rice.
Most of the salads also include meats. "People come here for the barbecue," said restaurant manager Mike Kern.
Craig Hofman, who owns the small but growing Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que chain, wanted to recreate Southern cooking in Southern Califfornia, Kern said.
"He just saw no one was doing an upscale (Southern) barbecue. Most of them were Mom and Pop operations," he said.
Chefs first enhance the flavor of the meat with rubs made from seasonings, spices and herbs, and then place the beef, chicken or pork into a hickory wood smoker that's set up in the dining room.
Guests can watch the meat go on the racks and later smell the wonderful aromas escaping from the smoker.
The meats cook at 225 to 275 degrees for two to 10 hours with the "big finish" on the flame broiler, Kern said. The barbecue sauce the restaurant uses was executive chef Chris Ferrell's homemade recipe.
"It's the smoker that creates the tenderness," Kern said. "It's fall-off-the-bone texture."
My friend ordered the baby back ribs ($20.95 half/$23.95 full rack), advertised as the tenderest and meatiest little pork ribs. He liked them!
"The ribs had a nice smoky flavor, and the meat came off of the bone easily," he said. "I got a half order - it was a sufficient serving, but I remember the waitress suggested getting a full order and taking some home."
We shared an order of Southern fried dill pickles ($5.95), a food so unheard of around these parts I'd never bitten into one. Deep-fried in a spicy flour, the plucky pickles - dipped in ranch dressing or Creole mustard - would make a nice snack when watching a football game on a cold day.
I ordered the BBQ black tiger shrimp ($19.95), which were plump and tender and tasted delicious swimming in a spicy seafood barbecue sauce.
However, I was so full from devouring warm biscuits with apple butter that I barely sampled the greens and cheese grits. I believe grits and greens, which taste like spinach to me, are an acquired taste anyway. I favored dessert.
We split an awesome, fudge-like confection called the Best Chocolate Cake Ever ($5.75), which seemed big enough for four people to share.
We agreed that the Best Chocolate Cake Ever lived up to its name.

By Carla Wheeler, Press Enterprise