Papa’s Place – The Mecca of Barbecue

November 26, 2012

Lancaster, California – I was planning to go to a barbecue restaurant in the San Fernando Valley today but my plans had to change due to an unforeseen delay. So instead, with a lingering hankering for barbecue, I decided to give Papa’s Place a try.

Papa’s Place opened earlier this month. I had seen the sign on the building a couple of months back and was glad they were finally open.

If you are approaching from the parking lot, the front door is not where you’d expect to find it. It isn’t right off the parking lot. That is the emergency exit. The front door is off the street and set back a ways from the sidewalk. And you’ll probably think you missed it before you see the path leading to the entrance.

Once you do enter, you’ll be greeted by your hostess, who will escort you to your table. There is a small waiting area right inside the door.

It was between lunch and dinner when I arrived. The place was almost empty except for a group of four that left a few minutes later, and another couple. I was greeted and seated immediately. Soon after, a family of four came in, then another group.

A small but attractive bar frames a corner of the kitchen area. Frosted glass and decorative lighting makes it look somewhat like a private bar in the home of a high roller. About a dozen bar stools line the bar, with a flat-screen television above. It’s easy to see how this can become a regular hangout after work or for the game.

The color scheme of the interior seems to represent the different facets of the eatery, with mustard yellow for the main dining area, and red for the sports bar side. On the sports bar side you’ll see about 5 more flat-screen televisions on the wall, plus a flat, wall-mounted jukebox, something I had never seen before. The main dining area is spacious with about two dozen tables with chairs. Large windows let in plenty of light. I like the track lighting they used. Blues played softly over the speaker. Lots of napkins in the dispenser on the table, plus a few more wall-mounted dispensers around the room. A good thing because you’re going to need them.

The tables in the main dining area are covered with black tablecloths, which, in turn, are covered with rose-colored heavy-duty construction-type paper. The paper is replaced for each new diner.

The décor, in my opinion, doesn’t give the impression that this is a barbecue place. It is very nice inside, but not what you’d expect from a barbecue joint. It’s more like upscale casual dining. And therein probably lies the source of my reasoning; referring to any place that primarily serves barbecue as a ‘barbecue joint’. Note to self: Let that be another lesson about applying labels to things.

Ok, time to eat. My choice for today’s meal was the Pit Combination Platter #2 ($19.99). With the #2, your plate will have a ¼ chicken, sliced beef brisket, and two St. Louis-style pork ribs. You get two sides with the combo. Pit baked beans and collard greens got the call today. A dinner roll comes with. Today’s beverage was iced tea ($2.49).

A word about the combos: Papa’s serves also rib tips, beef back ribs, pulled pork, and catfish. Nice selection, but you can’t make your own combo for dinner. During lunchtime you can choose your own, but you can only pick from 4 meats; chicken, brisket, St. Louis ribs, and pulled pork. It would be nice if Papa’s allowed patrons to select from all of their meat offerings to create their own combo.

It did not take long for my food to come to my table. I was impressed by the size of the plate and the portions on it. I was also impressed by the rope design on the handles of the flatware.

On the plate in its own separate small porcelain container were the beans. They tasted sweet and similar to what you find in the supermarket. Not sure if that’s what they used, but that’s what it tasted like.

The greens had a different flavor for me. It was almost as if Papa’s was going for a healthier option by not using the fat from the ham hock to cook them in, yet they still added ham hock. Peppers in the greens turned up the heat a bit. No pot liquor, though. It was a taste I’ve never experienced before and I’m not sure that it worked for me. I need to qualify that by saying, as I have in many of these posts, it takes a lot for me to be impressed by greens.

As I mention often in this blog, the test of good barbecue is how it tastes without sauce. However, all the meat was bathed in Papa’s special BBQ sauce (which explains why you’ll need all those napkins). That made it impossible to get a bite without sauce already on it. I must admit the sauce was good. It was sweet, a honey or molasses based concoction. By the way, Papa’s sells their sauce if you want to pick up a bottle or two.

In order of preference, here’s how the combo breaks down: White meat chicken was a little underdone. I could see some pink in the meat near the bone. There was not very much smoky flavor. The ribs were meaty and tender, but like the chicken they did not have enough smoky flavor of its own. Moving to the brisket, we start to score a few points. Along the edge of the thinly sliced meat there’s that nice pink coloring. Biting into it revealed that it was tender and I could taste a bit of smokiness. Due to the amount of sauce on the meat, I could not tell if there was any marinade or rub used before the meat made the journey to the smoker.

(Curiously, when I walked out following the meal, I saw the large, wood-fired, trailerable smoker out back, smoking away. Looking like a narrow-gage locomotive, it sent a comforting aroma wafting out over the parking lot.)

As I was finishing my meal, the owner stopped by to see how I was doing and thanked me for coming by. She stopped by all of the other tables as well.

Papa’s does serve dessert, but I did not have any this time.

As for being the “Mecca of barbecue”, Papa’s Place over-hypes itself with that title. You can’t blame them for promoting themselves, though. While they are good and I will probably come back again, it isn’t pilgrimage-worthy. Being a newly-opened restaurant they are still ironing out a few things. I just wish the meat had spent more time getting acquainted with the smoker instead of having to rely on the sauce for the taste.

Papa’s Place – The Mecca of Barbecue – 3.5 forks. Recommended. They also cater.

Update: January 15, 2014: Papa’s Place has closed down. Their Facebook page confirms it.