As I’ve often said, I love Q-4-U out in West Valley. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a lot of years, and in fact I am still featured in their “Customers Say” page. I also enjoy Pat’s BBQ in South Salt Lake. The trouble is both joints are a bit of a journey from my humble home in Draper. I don’t get to have great BBQ as often as I would like.
As an aside, Goodwood is not great BBQ. They use as much gas as wood to “smoke” their meat and that makes a difference.
So having set the table, I am thus very excited to read on UteFans.net that Sonny Bryan’s is coming to Sandy. Word is they will open on Memorial Day Weekend and be located at 33 East and 11400 South, minutes from home base. I know where I’ll be that weekend, eh?
When I was doing the travel bit for SmartDial we would often end up in the DFW area and on more than one occasion would walk onto the plane carrying a gallon milk jug full of Sonny’s BBQ sauce. Yet another thing that wouldn’t happen these post-homeland security days, eh?
Sonny had a shop on Inwood. He would buy some meat and smoke it up. He would open the restaurant when the meat was done and put up the “Closed” sign when it was gone. Some days that was 11:00 – 3:00 and other days it was 10:30 – 1:30. In those days I always listed Sonny as my #2 choice for good eats behind Carolina Country BBQ in Gastonia, but then he opened additional outlets and got more “corporate” in his approach and the food lost its magic. It was still good, but it wasn’t a lot better than any other chain BBQ not named Goodwood.
Its been a decade or two since I lost the faith of Sonny Bryan’s, but based on the recent reviews and awards it may be that they have re-discovered the magic. I hope so — come Memorial Day weekend we’ll know.