No state in America has a higher percentage of restaurants seving barbecue than Alabama, according to a recent survey. More than 300 Alabama restaurants serve the savory smoked meat. That's enough to make a pig-pilgramage every weekend for a half decade without visiting the same one twice!
These are the dining spots that you can smell before you see them: sweet hardwood smoke wafting across the landscape, drawing diners off the highway at places they never intended to stop.
The best ones are easy to spot. Parking lots- paved, gravel, or dirt; potholed or smooth- are filled with pick-up trucks, luxury sedans, SUVs, and junkers. That parking lot is a testament to the democracy found around the checker-board clothed tables inside: Bankers sitting with farmers, Moms with children next to hunters and fisherman, teenagers next to grandads. No matter how different their circumstances, Alabama barbecue crosses all boundaries and pulls us together. So join the crowd. Ribs. Pork, sliced or pulled. Brisket. Baked beans. Coleslaw. And whatever you do, save room for dessert.