My Brothers Famous Barbecue

Always up to sample a new bbq place, I was happy to find them tucked in the back of the Saturday Market food carts. I had the bbq brisket sandwich (what else?) and the curly potato fries.
The bbq was better than I expected — it doesn’t look like it’s cooked there, they mix some around in their sauce when you order it and stuff it between a small bun.
It tasted ok.
The curly fries on the other hand are terrific! I shared my first order with the fam and had to go back for seconds.

I suppose I got what I paid for. The picture of the BBQ pork sandwich looked good so I ordered that. It was smaller than I expected but that was OK, it was only $ 6 and I ordered some fries to go with it anyway. It was just SO bland and slightly vinegary also, the pork had a weird texture. My second extremely disappointing experience from Saturday market food carts.

Visited their food cart at Portland Saturday Market for the first time 9÷8÷12 with a friend from out of town. We had two rice bowls, a combo plate and lime ade as well as grape ade. First of all I have really nothing bad to say about the food. Other than perhaps the price point could possibly be looked at for what you get for your $ 7.00 or $ 8.00. Ricebowl with pulled chicken and bbq sauce was delicious, nice zesty sauce that lingered at the back of your throat. Brisket combo with beans was also good. I don’t know that I noticed any difference in flavors between the meats, so it is possible everything is sauced the same. The rice bowl with just meat is $ 7.00. The combo with beans and rice and meat is $ 8.00. However it appeared that by getting beans you also received less meat. If they’re going to charge $ 1 more for the combo shouldn’t you be getting equal beans and rice and same amount of meat as a rice bowl? The beans were not particularly flavorful. I believe this was because it’s possible they did not cook them with a hamhock or pork on the off chance they had a vegetarian just wanting beans and rice. But that’s just a guess. Skip the «fresh squeezed lime ade». Both it and the grape ade were flavorless and watery. In fact the bottled water was $ 2.50 I think so your drinks at another cart (the one next door was only charging $ 1.00 for bottled water). That being said. I look forward to trying more of that brisket at a sit down restaurant. Sauce it up!

A heartfelt, if completely rhetorical question for vegetarians out there: If God truly meant for us to not eat meat, then why oh why did he make My Brother’s Brisket so much like perfect?
O ye gods! Biggups to You, for allowing the singular experience of My Brothers’ Brisket. It is a Brisket soulful enough to drop you to your knees, start croonin’ Keith Sweat style: «Make me feel so gooooo – ooo-​ooooood ins-​i-​i-​i-​i-​ide…»
My Brother’s has a very long history in No Po, dating back AT LEAST as far back as the early 80s with their vintage, savory-​ass bbq sauces. If it don’t send ya, ya got’s nowhere to go! These sauces, so far as I know, are still available in various local markets. I know Freddie’s, among other retailers, has been sellin’ ‘em for years…
When My Brother’s finally opened their own restaurant joint on MLK sometime in the 90s, I like many bbq enthusiasts was VERY excited. But trouble loomed… I do not, indeed, I cannot claim to have any special knowledge of the day-​to-​day nitty gritty of their operations, but I can say: the place seemed to suffer from some serious problems from the outset. The service was invariably apathetic at best, if not zombie-​fried; the level of cleanliness hovered at/​near «G*d-Daaaaaang“‘. But you kept going back, feeling very confident they would make good, and get it together in the end. Time churned on, and at every visit there, one marveled at how they could possibly pass even a cursory glance by the board of health. Finally, the food— even though the knowledge of their bbq skills preceded them, from/​their ubiquitous presence at big PDX events– the Bites, The Rose Festivals, etc etc — - was Just. Not. That. Great. That is to say, it simply couldn’t over power the other more immediate problems. From day one on MLK, My Brother’s looked to be fighting an uphill battle w/​the ghost of Yam-​Yam past…
‘My Brothers on MLK, of course took over the Big Uglay! The Purple, former Taco Bell store that had been the site of another highly anticipated bbq that never lived anywhere near up to the expectations– Yam Yams. It very well may be that Yam-Yam’s funky, negative juju still permeated the wall’s when My Brothers came in, dooming this venture from the start… I know that I was not alone in mourning what could have been w/​Yam Yam’s, but most definitely never was. With My Brother, this sense of let-​down was magnified all the more, for everyone that knew of their sauces for years before hand and loved ‘em. But by the end, did it surprise anyone when the restaurant folded?
Alas that was not to be the last we’d ever see of My Brothers. They have hung on, thanks at least a little to the late 2000’s surge in popularity of the food carts. They are very much alive still, and in the mix today! Thank god for «Bones ‘n’ Brew» 2011, for we had the privilege of seeing first hand that My Brother’s has more than redeemed itself. Oh my goodness, their food was terrific! All of it we tried was superb, but the brisket — Lawdy miss Clawdy how’d they ever get it so tender and juicy???
Thank you, My Brother’s, and hope to see you @ The Bite!