Highways 1 & 306
Colt AR (870) 633-0541

Greg and Jim's chopped pork barbecue is merely outstanding. Great smoke, great sauce, plenty of browns (outer pieces).

Their barbecue beans though are the best I've ever had. I asked the cook, "My mother's recipe," That makes the recipe at least a hundred years old. A local added, "That recipe is older than all of us." It's got meat in it - I didn't ask what kind. And "all sort of other things." No way I was even going to get a hint of the recipe.

I was staying in Forest City. Headed to Colt, a few miles away, for diner at a restaurant that looked interesting. It never happened. When I pulled into the restaurant's parking lot I smelled barbecue. Looked across the street, saw the big sign. Kept going and parked next to a pickup truck with a dog waiting in the bed.

Inside it is mostly a grocery. There's a deli case and counter on the right, for ordering and a row of booths along the left for sitting and eating. In between, groceries.

The first three booths were filled with locals. Seemed like a regular late afternoon get together. The conversation ranged from squirrel hunting to swamps to tractors leaking oil. Can't get much deeper into the South.

It is a discovery like Greg and Jim's that keeps me looking. These places are out there they just have to be found.

April 2009