Name: Jake’s Good Eats
Date: 2/28/14
Address: 12721 Albemarle Rd Charlotte, NC 28227
Order: Pit smoked barbeque plate with white slaw, Texas toast, pasta salad, Yuengling (link to menu)
Price: $12

While not a true barbecue joint, Jake’s Good Eats is a southern restaurant that serves barbecue among other southern staples like fried bologna, fried flounder, and meatloaf. It is housed in an old historic Gulf gas station and has been featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives,” so there’s that.

Now I don’t normally find myself in east Charlotte outside of 485, but I happened to be buying a bicycle via Craigslist nearby and had 30 minutes to kill. Naturally, I can’t help myself if there’s even a chance of barbecue (just ask my wife), so I stopped in to try it and have a beer.

The barbecue is eastern style with a slight kick but I found it to be too moist, almost as if it was cooked in a crock pot (whatever it was cooked in, its definitely roast pork). It certainly wasn’t cooked in a smoker, because there was zero smoke to it. Other than the slaw (a white slaw at that), the other sides weren’t really barbecue sides but were average.

It may seem harsh to judge Jake’s Good Eats based solely on its barbecue, but that’s kind of what I do. If I were judging it as a whole, I would be much more favorable as it does have a lot of things going for it in a part of Charlotte that (I’m assuming) doesn’t have much of a food scene. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend going solely for the barbecue.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 2 hogs
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 2 Hogs