Sweet Caroline’s Crab-N-Que

When first finding this place on Unilocal,the name definitely caught my eye as I love both crab and bb-​q. What kept me hooked though was checking out the menu. Almost every item listed peaked my interest. I decided to order carryout from there.
I was torn between several items. Fire-​roasted Crab & Shrimp Artichokes or Smoked Chicken? Crab Cakes or Spicy Grilled Jerk Shrimp? Traditional Lobsta Roll or The King Crab ‘N Que? So many enticing choices… such a limited appetite. What’s a poor sap like me to do?
In the end I ordered the Smoked Chicken, Lobsta Roll, and some ginger beer to wash it all down. All of their carryout orders are picked up at Moretti’s Ristorante & PIzzeria’s Carryout section. I went inside Sweet Caroline’s Crab-​N-​QUE by mistake and the hostess was friendly enough to direct me to Moretti’s. The restaurant itself looked packed so business clearly is doing well.
The staff at Morettis’ were friendly as well when going to pick up my order.
The ginger beer I thought was a little tiny for the price but the drink was good. I was overall happy with the food. I especially loved the smoked chicken wings. I want to definitely try the King Crab ‘N Que next since the name was part of the appeal that drew me to the restaurant in the first place.

Just visited this restaurant with a couple of buddies and we averaged out our ratings of the food (below) in case you’re wondering what to order. Also, pushed this restaurant up to 4 stars because of the atmosphere. Definitely comfortable.
Bacon Maple Glazed Doughnuts — 5
Andouille Sausage — 4
Creamed Succotash — 4
Pulled Pork — 4
Coleslaw — 4
BBQ Baked Beans — 4
Key Lime Pie — 3
Ribs — 3
Crab Cake — 3
Brisket — 2
Mac-​N-​Cheese — 2

Went and ate for the Wednesday BBQ feast. Had the Sweet Caroline’s platter for appetizer. Service was excellent.

I want to give a 5 for the service and a 3 for the food, but you can’t so, 3 stars it is. We went for dinner on Saturday night. They are not on OpenTable nor do they have an online reservations system but I called was able to make a reservation for 8. We arrived about 15 minutes early and the lovely hostess (Katie) advised us that they were running about 30 mins behind. No problem. We found space at the bar and ordered a drink. My bf had the blackberry bourbon smash and really enjoyed it. I simply had water at the bar. After approximately 30 mins we checked back in with the hostess, still no table. The restaurant has maybe a dozen various sized high top tables surrounding the bar and then maybe two dozen low tops between the bar and the stage. A large cluster of those are close together and right in front of the stage and it was very loud. We opted to wait for a better spot.
Once we were finally seated, our server (Maria) greeted us with a smile and an apology. She was delightful. Before we could order, she informed us that they were out of ribs. What??? How is a BBQ joint out of ribs. That was the sole reason I went there. I openly pouted.
We ordered the skillet cornbread — just ok. The fried oysters — AMAZING! Perfectly coated, seasoned and fried. just yum
We also got the shrimp appetizer (can’t remember what it was called) but it was basically sautéed shrimp in a shooter with a spicy corn relish. It was really good.
For my entrée, I got the pick 2 with brisket and pulled pork. Just ok. The baked beans were great. The mac and cheese was the worst I’ve ever had. Worse than Kraft
I also had a mai Tai. It was, pretty good but keep the cheap plastic «souvenir «cup.
My bf got 1lb king crab legs. They were big and meaty although not served as warm as he would’ve liked. His mashed potatoes and Cole slaw were hits.
We wanted to try the bacon donuts but couldn’t force more food down.
The manager did come by to greet us and we expressed our disappointment at the absence of ribs to which he replied that we may need to come earlier. They cook the ribs 16 hours so cook for the day and when they run out, they run out. I understand but I don’t understand.
At any rate, the people there are awesome. The food has its highs and lows. They need to figure out how to plan better for food quantities and based on the fact that there is live music (that is pretty good) they should expect people to diddle a bit which makes seating a challenge.
Will I go back? Yes, I likely will and they better have some darn ribs!

My new favorite Chicago-​land restaurant. Great service, great food, great atmosphere, at a good price. What else could you ask for?
We recently moved to the area, and I’m originally from NC, and the food here is a very close comparison. But what really makes me happy here is the staff. When the manager comes by the table, he has a conversation, not just the obligatory «how you folks doing?» Even the busboys are happy to greet and engage you. Very pleasant and pleasing staff.
Went here once to try it out, went back 6 days later with more people.
LOVE THIS PLACE.

I’ve been searching for a delicious BBQ place since moving here and have finally found it! I had the pulled pork dinner and it was delicious. The pork was perfectly smoked and was delicious without sauce. The sauce was great too. The Mac n’ cheese is also amazing. The live entertainment was great. The music was pretty loud but I expected that. My boyfriend and I were still able to talk, no problem but at times we did have trouble hearing our server. She was great! Very energetic, extremely friendly and helpful and checked on us at all the right times. Our drinks were never empty. Overall a great experience and I would recommend anyone who hasn’t been to give it a shot.

Left the gym with my lady on a Friday night and she had a taste for some seafood. She said she had a taste for a lobster roll. At 8 p.m. in Schaumburg I had no clue where we could get a lobster roll. Went to Unilocal and found this place. They had free valet and the wait was less than 20 minutes. We decided to wait but ended up sitting at the bar as they had open seats. The place had a good atmosphere. They had a live band and several TVs. TVs had the basketball game, hockey game, America’s funniest videos and a Dale Earnhardt documentary on. There was more then plenty to watch. The bar tender greeted us, took our drink order and even went into detail about the menu. We placed our order and food (apps) was out within 10 – 15 minutes. Food was delicious, taste fresh, and was fairly priced. Will definitely be back.

Very rarely do I give full stars! This place was great, the food was good the drinks were made right and the staff was friendly and knew what they were talking about. Even the manager came by and asked if everything was good. I had the brisket and ribs both were tasty. Definitely will be going back.

The only barbeque near us, but better than any bbq we have to drive for. The place is loud and really fun. Huge bar, live music. Kind of a party atmosphere. The man who owns this restaurant has at least a few others and they all have this successful concept. Really good food and drinks are strong.
The pulled pork and ribs are both great, smokey and not too sweet but you can add plenty of their own sweet sauce if you like it that way. Their hot bbq sauce has real kick. The chicken and brisket are both tender smokey and worth a shot too. The sucotash was a surprisingly good side, but really most of them are great. Don’t go here for a quiet romantic date, but a great meal and fun time instead.

What an overall great experience. I went to finally try out this place since it’s one of the newest in town and there aren’t many unique seafood/​BBQ spots in the area.
Here are the pros:
* Food
* Portions
* Food Options
* Location
* Parking
The food is amazing and Fresh! All the BBQ’d meats are placed on a slow cooker/​roaster for about 14 hours so the meat has amazing flavor no matter what meat option you choose.
You also get to use 3 different types of BBQ sauce to perfect your flavor experience to your liking.
You also get treated to complimentary garlic rolls. These are amazing! They a baked at the restaurant and pretty much made to order. So the bread is soft and flavorful! You may feel questionable about the quantity they give (1 roll per guest) but trust me you’ll be fine.
When it comes to the actual dinner. The portions are really good and very fair for the price you pay. I went with the «Pick 2» option and I picked the pulled pork (cooked great and so tender) and half rack of ribs (Ribs were also tender and flavorful) I had more then enough to take home and the price was very decent.
Save room for desert! You have to try the Bacon Maple Donuts! Holy $hit! So good! You get donuts and bacon and it’s also dessert! What’s not to like?
Cons:
* Wait times during the Weekend
* Queuing System
If you plan of going FRI, SAT, or SUN. It will benefit you if you reserve a spot ahead of time. The wait time was longer then quoted at the host table and they seem to give shorter wait times to parties of 4 or more VS parties of 2. As we were seated (party of 2) after groups of 4 who checked in after us.
The queuing system seems to need some work. Either the system they use or the users who are using it.
All reservations are made with an app service called «NOWAITAPP» which prompts you for a phone number to book your reservation. Which in turn you get an SMS confirmation and another SMS notification when your table is ready.
We didn’t seem to get the notification that our table was ready so we are assuming the hosts were having issues with the check in system and when manual to some degree.
Will I got back? Sure! Just during a time where it’s not too busy.

My husband and I are no longer big New Year’s Eve people. We were back in the day, but after a while, we decided we would rather be comfortable at home. Yesterday, my office closed early which was a treat, but NYE had kinda just shown up this year and we weren’t prepared with plans of any sort. I’ve been wanting to try Sweet Caroline’s from the moment I heard about them. We took the early, non-​crowded opportunity and ran with it.
The first thing we noticed was the large bar. It’s huge and takes up a lot of the restaurant. There are TVs all over the place, so it’s hard to miss the game here. The designers must have taken quite a while to pull together all of the interesting décor. You could look at this for a long time without getting bored.
Our server was sweet, but she wasn’t overly excited to be there. We noticed that the table next to us who were seated after us, had bread immediately with their drinks and their server was practically Prince Charming. Our bread came out ten minutes after theirs. I wish our meal had been spaced out better. We were there around 3:45pm…long before the rush.
I wanted the crab cakes and the hubby wanted the chili to start. The crab cakes were actually a crab cake. It was a very good crab cake and the remoulade sauce was tasty. It was an $ 11 appetizer and I’m not sure that I felt it should have been an $ 11 appetizer in the suburbs. Don’t laugh at me because I know this will sound ridiculous, but if they had taken the same amount of crab cakes mixture and made it into two cakes, I may have felt like I had gotten my money’s worth on that one. Just my two cents. I told you it sounded crazy… The husband’s chili was good, but not what he expected. It was more like a soup with a lot of beans and some chunks of meat. He likes beans, but said it was too many beans for him.
I went with a NYE special with filet mignon and two crab stuffed prawns. I subbed out the rice and veggies for herb roasted potatoes. He chose a two meat combo with ribs and beef brisket, baked beans and ranch fries. The filet was perfectly cooked, seasoned appropriately and so tender! The prawns were dressed in a nice buttery sauce, but the cornbread/​sausage/​crab stuffing was minimal. My potatoes were very good. The filet was definitely the highlight for me. My husband was annoyed by the presentation. His dinner came on a metal tray which was fine, but the beans were in a separate container on the tray (and it wasn’t full… choose a different serving dish if you’re only going to fill it halfway please) and the brisket was on another plate sorta thing on the tray. They had poured meat juices over the brisket, so you couldn’t transfer the ribs to the plate or the brisket to the tray without making a mess. He used his appetizer plate to try the three sauces that were all too similar to appreciate the differences. They weren’t bad… they just weren’t distinctly different.
While it wasn’t the perfect meal, it was good and we would like to go back on a random regular night to see how that goes.

We’ve only been once but everything was so good I know we’ll be back. And you can’t beat their Wednesday special of ½ a BBQ Chicken & ½ a Slab of Ribs for $ 11.99! That meal comes with their «ranch fries» & some buttery garlic rolls. We all took our chicken home to have another meal (or two!) from. The BBQ ribs were very tender & come with a BBQ rub on them & then you can add sauce from their 3 different sauce options if you’d like. My only disappointment was they don’t allow any substitutions on that meal special — I wanted to try their succotash instead of the «ranch fries» but, oh well. The «ranch fries» were crispy & delicious so I was still a happy camper in the end.
The service was pretty quick & everyone was nice. When we left every employee we passed from the bussers, other servers & manager wished us a good evening.

Great ambience lots of TV’s terrific menu but not peanut free so not safe for the allergy prone
And, really, you DO NOT offer anything complimentary for birthdays??? I’ll take my business elsewhere next year…

SO GOOD SO GOOD
I was singing like Neil Diamond by the end of the night. If you watch the Unilocal video I posted you will hear my singing talents as I belt out, «Bop Bop Bop!» & «So Good. So Good!» Look out American Idol & The Voice I’m coming for you next. Unilocalers start voting on my video now. Actually Friday nights are a lot of fun here. They have the «Live Pete Show» & he plays music from 5pm to 10:30pm. The guy is magical & smooth when he sings. I felt like I was listening to the coolest CD ever. Pete is a performer from his ultra cool jacket to the old time microphone. I could listen to this guy sing all night. In fact, we ended having a three hour fantastic dinner.
When you walk in, you will notice all of the cool antique memorabilia on the walls. My favorite item was the giant neon Blatz beer sign hanging in the middle of the room. I want this in my house. This place has such a fantastic feel inside plus they had great holiday decorations. I loved how the restaurant was like a giant loft with the bar in the dinning room. It just added to the fun atmosphere. Everyone in the restaurant could hear Live Pete playing music but it wasn’t very loud, so we could still enjoy having a great dinner conversation without yelling across the table.
When we sat at our table I notice that the chairs were incredibly comfortable. It had taken us an hour from downtown Chicago to get here and when we sat in our seats it was so enjoyable. I didn’t mind sitting down again.
We started out with some cocktails. I ordered the hand crafted blackberry bourbon smash which was fantastic. I loved how the drink wasn’t overly sweet and it was a great way to start my evening. We also ordered the Maryland lump crab cake & I will tell you it was one of the best crab cakes I’ve had in Chicago. It stands up above all of the fancy downtown joints. In fact, I liked this one the best cause it had a little spice to it. The chef hit it out of the park with this amazing opening dish. If I walked away now, I would be a happy man. There was also a side of coleslaw which was delicious with a nice spice to it. My little one started out with the clam chowder and it was phenomenal. I love that she is such a foodie.
I was in need of a second cocktail when I decided to go with the Ginger Crush. I was in love with this drink & I would be enjoying it for the rest of the night. When I find a drink I love why would I choose anything else. This cocktail is very similar to a Moscow mule but made with tequila, fresh lemon, mint & ginger. This is my summer drink! I can’t wait to come back here when it’s warmer & drink this on the great outdoor patio.
I loved the kids menu. We typically do not order off of it but my little one saw Filet Mignon on there & she had to have it. I feel sorry for her boyfriend cause she’s not going to be a fast food date. I was really impressed with the steak. It came with two petite pieces and ranch fries. They even cooked it perfectly for a child. It was done medium & not dried out. The chef knew the timing on cooking the steak & I was happy cutting it up for her. My little one also jumped into the garlic butter bread rolls. We got three for the table but for some reason I only got one bite. My little one loves bread. These rolls reminded me of the addictive buns you get at Bob Chinn’s. I wish I would have asked for another basket cause they were very good.
For our entrees I went with the Shrimp Creole which was delish. I loved all of the spices. I could have used some of that bread to soak up the yummy sauce. The sauce was made with butter, beer & Cajun spices. I wish I had a shot glass of it to toast the table. The entrée came with a choice of two sides & I went with the Mac N Cheese & the chili. The Mac N Cheese was creamy & yummy. I wished I had more. My side was a tease & I’m going to need to come back here for a full bowl. I was really impressed with the deep red chili with chunks of beef brisket. Again I can not wait to come back here for a giant bowl of this.
My wife decided to go with the fish of the day. It was a grouper with a white wine sauce, fresh tomato, avocado over green & white asparagus & a fantastic polenta. My wife doesn’t like polenta & she dived in. I’m a huge polenta fan & I couldn’t stop stealing it off her plate. She had three giant pieces & I was able to steal about 2.4 of it. I’m lucky she didn’t poke me with her butter knife. I really loved her fish & the sauce worked great on it. I wish that this dish was always on the menu cause it was a winner & I would drive out here for it.
We were almost ready to throw in the towel when we had a family discussion for dessert. My wife and I were voting for key lime pie & our little one was voting for fresh hot maple bacon donuts. Our waiter Zack who was now a part of our family was voting for donuts, so we got both. Wow those donuts are magical! What a perfect ending for dinner. We’ll be back soon with Neil Diamond at our table

For my birthday, we went to check out Sweet Caroline’s. There were three of us.
We ordered the BBQ Feast which serves four (but, it could actually serve five or maybe even six). The feast has four meats (brisket, chicken, ribs and pulled pork), potatoes, coleslaw, beans and cornbread. Had lots of leftovers to take home. The next day, my son took some for lunch and we actually still had enough meats for a few more meals at home. The meal overall was really good.
The three sauces they have are OK, nothing spectacular. I like a vinegary kind of sauce. Of their three, none of them were like that. In the end, they do the job.
OMG!!! That skillet cornbread!!! It is (for me), honestly the BEST cornbread I have ever had! I’m in love with that cornbread. Next time, we’ll order two! LOL
The only thing I didn’t care for is the cilantro in the coleslaw. Other than that, it’s decent. An idea, they should give you a choice of with or without it. BLAH!
The waiter was great and, the chef came out and talked to us (and even sat down). I asked about the cornbread and jokingly asked if they had any extra. Because it was my birthday, he gave me one to take home on the house (along with some of their honey & maple butter). So nice!
This place is a tad on the pricey side but overall, it’s good! I will go back again. It’s closer to me than Famous Dave’s.

Three words sum this place up: salt, fat, Sysco.
Everything was incredibly salty. Like really, really salty. Like drink a quart of water salty. This applied to the mac and cheese which was also globular in consistency, the chili which was just sort of chunks of fatty brisket in a soupy sauce, and, yes, even the coleslaw. Salty coleslaw, you say? Indeed I do say.
I had the «pick two» plate and I chose the beef and the pork. Other than salt, there were no other flavors that came through. The brisket did have some bark on it, but I assume that came pre-​applied from the Sysco packing plant, because there was no smoke flavor, no smoke ring, no color to be found other than gray, and lots of fat. It was actually fairly tender, so I guess that is a plus. The pork was, again, very salty, and not at all a Carolina style BBQ. I was just recently in NC and had some great BBQ and was hoping this place would bring me back to my summer vacation. But no. I guess there was nothing else really bad about the pork, but they aren’t even trying. They even serve their «Carolina» puled pork atop a piece of, yes, very salty, Texas toast sort of how they don’t do in NC.
As for service: we did carry out, so can’t comment on service per se. But they gave us no BBQ sauce, which actually is a thing in some Carolina BBQ places, but they did advertise each dish coming with their house BBQ sauce. And we ordered corn bread as well, but they left that off the order and we didn’t realize till we got home. On the plus side, they didn’t charge us for the corn bread.
I can’t contemplate the circumstances under which I would visit again.

We really like Sweet Caroline restaurant. After reading all prior reviews, we were not sure what to expect. Service was great and food was really good. We got here on Wednesday night before thanksgiving. Ordered crab cakes as an appetizer — it tasted really good, had big chunks of crab, tasty sauce and slaw. Ordered corn bread– very ver good: moist, with a little sweetness and jalapeños flavor, don’t forget the butter!!! We had a group of 6, most people ordered lobster bisque soup and really liked it. As a main dish, we had ribs, shrimps, and fish of the day — walleye. Everyone enjoyed their dish. Drinks and desserts were good too: tried doughnuts, peach cobbler and hot fudge Sunday. Everyone had a good time. It was a little loud, but we all could easily talk.
We gave 4 starts, because we expected a little more mix of sea food and bbq, with a little more flavor.

BUZZ:
— Fire Roasted Crab & Shrimp Artichoke Dip (⁶⁄₁₀)
— Skillet Cornbread (⁵⁄₁₀)
I ALSO TRIED:
— Fried Oysters (⁷⁄₁₀)
— Baby Back Ribs (⁶⁄₁₀)
— Pulled Pork (⁴⁄₁₀)
— Beef Brisket (⁴⁄₁₀)
— Smoked Chicken (⁵⁄₁₀)
— Kickin’ Creole Shrimp (⁶⁄₁₀)
— Alaskan Snow Crab Legs (⁷⁄₁₀)
— BBQ Sauces (⁸⁄₁₀)
So, interesting fact, this plaza is about to be dominated by the Moretti’s owner, like a one-​sided game of Risk. Steak & Shake is like a super fortified Australia, so no one’s going to be attacking them anytime soon, but Macaroni Grill is like little ol’ Europe, that’s about to get hit from all sides! Shame, because I like Macaroni Grill. And yes, this Moretti’s owner is the same owner of Snuggery. Sweet Caroline’s is a new concept from Moretti’s. This used to be the old Lone Star, and it’s been vacant forever. One random day, I went to Steak & Shake for dessert with some friends, and there’s this new shiny sign, and more importantly, a really interesting concept!
«Crab N Que.» Sounds like Seafood BBQ Fusion! I’ve never had smoked or grilled crab/​seafood. I wonder if that’ll even be good? So, a couple weeks after their grand opening, I finally got the chance to go here…
BABY BACK RIBS
Ribs were moist enough, but not as good as they could be. Good char, good smoke flavor, and mixing the Hot & KC BBQ sauce on this was pretty good. I haven’t had Champps’s ribs in a long time, but they were my favorite ribs in Chicago, although that isn’t saying much. Chicago’s BBQ scene is pretty grim, and even though Champp’s was no Kansas City, it was consistently pretty decent. Well, Champps is gone now, so it may be a toss up between these and Chili’s ribs (which I haven’t had in probably 7 years or so).
PULLED PORK
Nope. Not quite Sahara desert dry, but maybe California drought dry. Didn’t have any real good pork flavor either. However, it was edible, and that means I could put BBQ sauces on them and eat them! If you like pulled pork, no need to disappoint yourself here.
BEEF BRISKET
Definitely smokey, but also pretty dry. The sauce makes it edible, but still not great. Not worth it.
SMOKED CHICKEN
Again, dry, but not as dry as the pulled pork or brisket. This one actually can taste decent with the BBQ sauce. Nothing special though. I’d rather have the BBQ sauces here with Boston Market chicken… or hell… Costco rotisserie chicken.
FRIED OYSTERS
I’m more of a raw oyster fan, but this wasn’t too bad. For something that was just deep fried, though, it came out a little lukewarm. You get cocktail sauce and a cherry pepper tartar sauce, which was really good. That tartar sauce had a small kick to it that was very welcome too, and I found myself using that sauce for other things, like the cornbread and chips!
KICKIN CREOLE SHRIMP
Again, came out lukewarm. Jumbo shrimp with a lot of cajun spices and garlic. This was pretty decent, but the lukewarmness was killing it. Also, I could taste the creole, I could taste the garlic, but this «creole butter» was nowhere to be found. The flavor I was most hoping to see was butter, but oh well. And if you’re wondering, NO, this is not Boiling Crab. You get like 6 – 8 pieces of shrimp on a plate with sauce.
CRAB LEGS
Not bad. I love crab legs, and other than being warm, these were just par for the course.
CRAP/​SHRIMP/​ARTICHOKE DIP
Again, came out lukewarm. It was pretty cheesy, and sure, it contained all 3 ingredients in there, but something about it was just not exciting at all. After my first chip, I was bored of it. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, but nothing really popped out. Flavors weren’t really complimenting eachother, and sort of fused into something blah. The whole was somehow less that the sum of the parts.
SKILLET CORNBREAD
For something served on a small iron skillet, this was also lukewarm. You’d expect, «don’t touch the skillet, it’s hot!» but nope, lukewarm. This is just cornbread, but it does have a light jalapeño spice baked in. Didn’t really help for me.
BORE-​N-​QUE
I honestly wanted to give this place 2 stars, but the points just didn’t add up that way. A place that’s named «Crab-​N-​Que» is dying to have some kind of fusion between seafood and bbq, but there is NOTHING of the sort here! In fact, they don’t even have combinations that include both BBQ and seafood! Not only do they have an identity crisis on their menu, their restaurant layout is also just as ambiguous. The bar is huge, and is the centerpiece of the place. It’s too much restaurant to be labeled a bar, but it’s also too much bar to be labeled a restaurant. It’s basically like an Applebee’s, but with a bigger bar.
Bottom line, I don’t have any desire to come back. If I was with a group that wanted to go, I wouldn’t start a fight, but I probably would suggest a different place.

FOOD
The thought of their food makes me crinkle up my nose and shake my head left to right, mumbling gross.
The brisket was dry and cold with a lot of fat. Clams were nothing special, clam is a clam. The cornbread was saturated in oil. The sides are about the size of an old Dixie cup your mother would have in the guest bathroom. The side of Mac & Cheese would have been pretty decent, but cold and when you stuck in your fork, the entire glob of macaroni in the cup came up. The succotash was saturated in oil/​butter and cold.
We threw everything in the garbage.
Due to all the restaurants in Schaumburg, South Barrington and Hoffman Estates, I highly doubt we’ll ever visit again.

Have you ever walked into a bar or restaurant and got the feeling that you weren’t sure whether it was a bar or restaurant? That’s Sweet Carolines. While the name gives you the impression that it’s a restaurant, as soon as you walk in you find that the bar and pub tables take up over half the space. And the video gambling takes up another section. Given the history of the owners, (Fred Hoffman — Snuggery) it’s not a surprise. Arrived about 6:30 on a Saturday (about a week after the grand opening) and the wait was 45 minutes. We found that some groups walked right in and got a table without waiting. The manager seemed to recognize each group so maybe that got them faster service. Our waiter arrived and apologized for the wait — «It’s crazy tonight». If a full restaurant is ‘crazy’, that’s a problem. Maybe this was just the staff getting into a rhythm as part of the recent opening. We weren’t offered drinks or any details about the listed specials. We just got the «Are you ready to order?» The music and crowd noise is very loud. And the obligatory Neil Diamond Sweet Caroline was turned up even louder (more bar clues). The families with small children looked a little out of place. The food was ok but kind of spotty. The brisket, while juicy, lacked any smoke flavor and showed no smoke ring. The pulled pork was pretty good but had too much fat for my taste. The sausage had a strange off taste. The cornbread was more cinnamon bread. The beans, however, were very tasty. The sauces on the table were also pretty good. So there were some hits. We noticed the dueling piano players setting up (another bar clue) but we left before they started. The décor is mostly old signs, cans, etc but gave it a good BBQ joint feel. When we left about 8:30 the bar was about half full and we saw no one waiting for a table.
I think this concept would work better in an entertainment area like Navy Pier, or around a hotel area like Rosemont, but this area only has other restaurants so it really doesn’t seem to draw a bar crowd. This area has seen some big names fail like TGI Friday’s, Lone Star, and Max and Erma’s so if they don’t concentrate on the restaurant operations they will have a hard time making it.

The food here is amazing. Tried a little bit of everything. I’m a picky eater. Started off with the steamed mussles, they were perfect and the broth was great for dipping. Then of course it being a BBQ place had to try the Brisket… it melts in your mouth and with the 3 different BBQ sauces made it even better but save room for the cornbread. The corn bread was fantastic with the maple butter, it totally complimented the Brisket. Ordered the Bacon Maple Glazed donuts for dessert… I highly recommend it… salty and sweet… and they have my favorite burbon… BULLIET neat was the perfect ending to the meal.
After dinner went to the bar to have a few more drinks, Bartenders were very friendly and I like the fact they have Live entertainment and a Late night DJ.
I will definitely be back.

I’m having trouble rating this place because I had fairly high expectations, but was pretty much unsatisfied by the end of the night. It’s hard to tell if it’s due to it being opening night or if they’re going to be like this all the time. First off, the server seemed like he was still trying to figure out how and what to prioritize, which is understandable in a new environment. I ordered a drink when he first came around and didn’t receive it until after we ordered our food 10 minutes later.
We ordered the mussels and the cajun shrimp. The food wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing special about it at all. The shrimp came in a plate of juices that was just too thin to coat the shrimp, which made the shrimp taste like… just shrimp. The mussels were a bit better, but there was still room for improvement in the flavor department.
All in all, the place was alright, the service was still trying to figure things out, and the food was nothing special. I don’t think I’d come back for the food, but I might try sitting at the bar one of these days.