LJ'S BBQ,

No sooner do you place your order at the counter at LJ's BBQ than you realize how serious these folks are about helping visitors to enjoy their home-cooked food. There's a roll of rough paper towels on each table for use as napkins and a help-yourself bucket of extra sauce for those slow-cooked ribs and chicken. Customers will probably need both, because the sauce is so tasty you want some-in every bite, and the barbecue is so good, you just have to get down and dirty with it. The half-rack has approximately seven ribs ($10.95 with two sides), the full, twice as many ($17.95). The chicken can be ordered as a quarter dark ($5.25), a quarter white ($6.25) or a half ($8.95), each with two sides. The choices for sides consist of potato salad, macaroni salad, BBQ baked beans, or coleslaw. Dinner platters also come with homemade pickles and cornbread. The extras are candied yams, macaroni and cheese, red beans and rice ($1.50 each), or collards in small, medium, and large sizes ($1.50-$6.50). There's also pulled pork ($4.95) or BBQ beef brisket ($5.95) sandwiches, and pork-and-beef chili, light on the beans ($2.50-$3.75). A seemingly simple menu becomes fraught with choices about how to try everything at this cash-only, BYOB establishment. They also serve spicy weekend brunch offerings.

Full review.