The Golden Rule Bar-B-Q and Grill, Irondale, Alabama

After Ollie’s, the best barbecue place ever, closed, our family started going to the Golden Rule.

I remember that on Thanksgiving and Christmas, we often had a pork butt from the Golden Rule to supplement the roasted turkey. The Golden Rule started cooking barbecue in 1891, making it the oldest continuously operated restaurant in Alabama, and the 16th oldest in the United States. And in all that time, they never strayed from the key principle of cooking pork — direct heat in a masonry pit.

As the man said, “If pork fat isn’t dripping down on the coals, it ain’t barbecue.”

The Golden Rule has an extensive menu that you can download, but the thing to get is pork. I always ask for half and half, with equal shares of inside and outside meat. The direct heat, in addition to gracing the pork with pork fat smoke, creates a magnificent bark.

Nancy and I went to the Golden Rule on the day after I taught Bob McCurley’s Honors College class on redistricting. Bob and Babs, whom you’ve met many times before, had treated us to a barbecue lunch from Archibald’s. It was delicious.

Nancy ordered a pork sandwich, roughly chopped, with potato salad and slaw, while I ordered a pork plate with greens and fried okra. I specified no sauce on the meat, noting that there was sauce on the table. Our server said she’d bring some warm sauce on the side, which I thought was very nice. I also made a point of asking for “roughly chopped meat” and specifically declined a fine chop.

Our orders arrived. Here’s Nancy’s.

 Nancy opined that the pork was not as good as Archibald’s had been, the difference lying in the sauce. “It needs vinegar.” She thought the slaw was excellent, dressed with vinegar and a touch of sweetness. It had no mayonnaise at all. The potato salad was just a touch overdressed, a point of great sensitivity for Nancy, but she said it was good nonetheless.

And here’s my tray..

I was disappointed that the meat was chopped so fine. I could have sent it back, but like almost every other restaurant in the US, the Golden Rule was understaffed, and I didn’t want to gum up the works. I thought Nancy’s had a much rougher chop, but from the photo it appears that I was just pouting. The problem with the fine chop is that it’s nearly impossible to distribute the Golden Rule’s relatively thick sauce thinly enough to keep the pork from being overwhelmed by the sauce. That’s my issue with the otherwise commendable Golden Rule sauce. It’s admirably seasoned, with only hint of sugar. Most people love the Golden Rule sauce, and the Golden Rule does a land office business in it. It is thick, however, and a thin vinegar-based sauce works much better with a fine chop. And with no sauce, the fine chop can dry out quickly.

Back to the pork. I took a couple of bites and just loved the tender and moist smoky flavor of the freshly chopped meat. This is first class barbecue. Ever resourceful, I added some Trappey’s pepper vinegar liquid (hot peppers marinated in vinegar) to the Golden Rule sauce to thin it. That made a huge improvement in sauce deployment. It also made the sauce notably spicy, a win-win.  

I also added some Trappey’s to the greens — that’s the usual use for pepper vinegar — and I enjoyed them thoroughly. The fried okra also was excellent, the okra having been dusted rather than battered. The Golden Rule fries food well, and you might try the French fries when you go. Add some of he Golden Rule sauce rather than ketchup. You’ll thank me. On impulse — a planned impulse — I ordered a slice of coconut pie.

Ever since Ollie’s closed, I’ve been in a forlorn search for coconut pie as good as Ollie’s. Imagine Demosthenes searching for an honest man in Washington  Alas, the Golden Rule’s pie wasn’t close.

I will return to the Golden Rule. Their pork really is excellent. Next time I’ll get it sliced to avoid the chop issue entirely, and rough chop it myself. Or else I’ll bring along a bottle of Ollie’s sauce from my cache.

They still make it, and it’s sensational, the best barbecue sauce anywhere. You might want to do the same. You don’t want to miss that great Golden Rule pork.

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