Since I never lived in the south, having been born in New England and spending many years overseas and out west, I was never exposed to what most southerners regard as true barbecue — meat slow-cooked and/or smoked over a fire of some sort. We had barbecued short ribs growing up that were slathered with sweet barbecue sauce and that was our idea of barbecue.
While running an American restaurant in Bangkok for five years we ran into a number of barbecue enthusiasts, some of them actual pitmasters, who educated us as to what was, in their eyes, “real” barbecue.
We never got a chance to try real barbecue until we moved to Palm Coast a year ago. One of the first restaurants we tried during our first days here was Sonny’s Barbecue. The pictures on the menu showed food that we have never seen before which whetted our appetite. And after a very satisfying meal we were basically hooked on southern style barbecue. So much so that we have been back a few times to explore as much of the menu as possible.
That in itself is a chore since we just can’t eat that much and the portions are quite large. So we’re not cutting through as wide a swathe of the menu on each visit as we would like but we’re determined.
Up until now we’ve been more than satisfied with both the style of cooking that is barbecue as well as the particular interpretation of that style by Sonny’s. What has been most revealing about this style of barbecue for us is the complexity of the flavors that can be created with only meat, heat and smoke.
And although we will have some sauced barbecue meats in the future our real love now is for southern style barbecue. Having said that, however, we did enjoy the sauced, smoky ribs that were on the Pork Three Ways dish we tried on our latest visit, that also came with pulled and sliced pork on the plate.
The dishes you see here represent a cross-section of the offerings at Sonny’s, which consist of various ways to create succulent dishes from beef, pork and chicken (and also turkey) and the side dishes that go along with them.
Sonny’s has a good selection of sandwiches for slightly lighter eaters as well as the main assortment of meats which can be ordered separately or, in some cases like the Pork Three Ways, in combinations. There’s the Sonny’s Sampler and the Family Feast too, for families and big eaters that offer some great value.
And there’s something we haven’t mentioned yet, our most important metric for restaurants, and that’s value for money. You’ll find it here and not just because of the size of the dishes but the quality of the ingredients and the expertise involved in the creation of these dishes.
You may not know much about barbecue, like us, but you don’t really have to in order to enjoy it here.
Sonny’s Barbecue, 25 Cypress Edge Dr., 386-446-5700
