While Uptown may be known for plenty of things — packs of polo shirt-wearing dude-bros and a seemingly never-ending procession of Saturday night bachelorette parties, for instance — great barbecue isn't one of them. But right on the neighborhood's edge, across the street from socialite playground Hotel Zaza, stands Sammy's BBQ, smashing Uptown stereotypes one three-meat plate at a time.
Leave it to roving barbecue expert Daniel Vaughn to make the surprising discovery: In his most recent review for TMBBQ, the BBQ Snob chronicles Sammy's rise from mediocre-but-convenient lunch spot to a brisket destination worth making a drive for. Vaughn explains: "Their old method was to smoke a lower grade brisket, hold it in plastic wrap, and cut the fat off before slicing and serving it. Now they start with a Prime grade brisket, wrap it in butcher paper, and leave the fat on."
The everyday brisket is now perfectly respectable — to quote Vaughn, it's "eminently juicy, luxuriously fatty, and pleasantly smoky" — but Friday's definitely the day to go: That's the one day a week Sammy's serves its borracho brisket, which gets thoroughly intoxicated in an overnight marinade of red wine for an extra je ne sais quoi that will satisfy even the most discerning brisket fan. (Don't sleep on the hand-breaded fried okra, either.)