City Barbeque makes it with a “Q,” which also stands for quality

Bill Pemberton and Greg Welch

Bill Pemberton is from West Texas, where -- as he puts it -- “they eat barbecue more than they eat hamburgers.”

When he and his family moved to Central Indiana from Dallas about 15 years ago, they would put a lot of miles on their car in search of good barbecue.

“We basically spent two years driving all over the state trying to find barbecue and finally just quit. We’d ask, ‘Where’s your smoker?’ and they’d say, ‘Smoker? We don’t have a smoker,” said Pemberton, who today manages the City Barbeque location in Avon, Ind. We first met when at City's Greenwood location.

City Barbeque (Greg says this is the correct spelling – “Ours is with a ‘Q’”) first opened in 1999, when Rick Malir and other members of an award-winning barbeque competition team founded the first location in Columbus, Ohio. The team has been a winner at the Kansas City Royal Barbeque competition.

Today, the Dublin, Ohio-based company operates about 25 locations across the Buckeye State and in Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina. 

An Orange Nehi goes well with this.

Smokin’ selections for the Super Bowl in Indy

Thanks to the Super Bowl and many hospitable Hoosiers, our nation is discovering what a great destination that Indianapolis can be for sports, entertainment and food. This is a city that is vibrant year-round with many things to do outside the month of May, which is devoted to a 500-mile race.

It’s also becoming a place where barbecue lovers will find many choices as well. If you’ve been a previous visitor to this column, you’re already aware of places such as Squealer’s, Hank’s Smoked Brisket, Pa and Ma’s Barbecue and the first Indiana location of City Barbeque.

Unlike Memphis, Kansas City and other cities, Indianapolis does not have its own style of barbecue, but there are many here who take pride in showing their influences from all points south.

Here is a short primer to other places you might like to try, whether you’re in town for the Big Game or just looking for some great joints in Indy:

-- Black Diamond Barbecue, 6404 Rucker Road, was opened on the north side in June 2007 by two people who loved cooking ribs in their backyards in the dead of winter (people after my own heart). They serve up the usual selection of ribs, chicken and beef brisket by keeping things simple. Don’t leave without having some pie! They can provide catering for large groups.

-- Judges Tip of the Rib Bar-B-Que, 2104 W. Michigan St., also has the distinction of being a juice smoothie bar. Viewers of the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis voted Judge's the best barbecue place in the state. Obviously, that’s debatable but it’s nice to see a joint that also does BBQ Meatloaf and Smoked Salmon. Don’t wait until the weekend to go to Judge’s – it’s not open on the weekends.

-- King Ribs Bar-B-Q, has three locations, but my favorite one is located at a former car wash at 4130 N. Keystone Ave., which makes it easy to take the barbecue with you. Other locations can be found at 3145 W. 16th St. and at 56th Street and Georgetown Road. If you’re looking for something different, try their barbecued pigs’ feet.

-- Papa Roux, which has locations in the City Market downtown, 222 E. Market St.; and on the east side at 8950 E. 10th St. While Po-Boy sandwiches and stews make up most of its New Orleans-style restaurants, they produce a smoked pulled-pork sandwich that weighs more than a pound. Happily, they’ll serve it to you on bread that is gluten-free.

-- Bar-B-Q Heaven, one of Indianapolis’ oldest and most established joints, 2515 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St., does a strong carry-out business and will let you place your order online. A second location can be found at 877 E. 30th St. They have an expansive menu that includes rib tips, turkey ribs and pigs’ feet and the best in soul food sides. Take home a bottle of their sauce! Bar-B-Q Heaven also has a direct tie to the game. It is an official contract recipient in the NFL's Emerging Business Program and is participating in the NFL's Emerging Business Challenge. For more information, visit the Emerging Business website.

I could mention several places, such as Garrett’s Smokehouse Barbeque, the Pit Stop Barbecue in nearby Brownsburg and Big Hoffa’s Barbeque), but I want to keep this article brief and whet your appetite for future columns.

And visitors, please don’t judge us adversely because Famous Dave’s is here too.

Carry out from Hank's Smoked Brisket in Indianapolis

When he was a manager at General Motors’ Allison Transmission factory, Hank Fields used to ship parts all over the country. Today, he makes barbecue lovers from coast-to-coast happy when he ships beef brisket made in his smokehouse on Indianapolis’ near north side.

Just a couple weeks back, Fields (pictured here), owner of Hank’s Smoked Brisket, shipped some of his meat to someone in Arizona, following other orders to people in Washington, D.C. and California.

But most people simply stop by the carry-out restaurant located at 3736 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., and take it with them. If you want to eat it there, you’ll have to take it out to the car.

That’s probably as far as it goes for some people, who can’t wait to eat it before getting home. He estimates that 98 percent of his customers walk out with brisket.

"They get other items, you know ribs, baby backs, spare ribs, chicken, sausage links. They get all the other meat, but you can always betcha they’re going to walk out of here with some brisket," Fields said proudly. "We don’t try to attest ourselves as being the best in the state of Indiana, but we do pretty decent."

We first learned about Hank’s Smoked Brisket from a fellow customer at Squealer’s north side location, who told me, "If you want good brisket, you’ve got to go down to Hank’s."

Originally from Henderson, Texas, a city of about 12,000 people about 120 miles east of Dallas, Fields moved to Indianapolis in February of 1973. He has been cooking barbecue only for about 10 years.

Surprisingly, he did not grow up in a family that barbecued. Instead, he developed a taste for the stuff in friends’ smokehouses while he was growing up.

"There were people around in the surrounding community who used to do smoking," Fields explained. "They had their own smokehouse and everything. They would just leave it hanging out in the smoke house, go out and cut what they wanted off it and eat what they wanted to eat and leave the rest of it hanging.

"See, here we don’t worry about brisket going bad or anything when we smoke it," he added. "Matter of fact, occasionally I might leave a couple of them out for a day or two before I put them in the cooler, and they just get better with age. But for the most part, the brisket only lasts around here for about three to four days -- they gone."

He started out selling barbecue at football games in Indianapolis, using a smoker he had built in Texas. It also was a period of testing out and refining his recipes and technique.

"I started out in a trailer, smoking meat and going out to football games," he recalled. "After that, it was all basically trial and error, finding out what works. It took a few years to find out how it works, what makes it work and what makes it come out good."

In 2004, he opened Hank’s Smoked Brisket in a building he had constructed that also houses a barber shop and beauty salon. "I more than likely perfected it now, but it still gets better," he said of his brisket, which is smoked eight to 12 hours over mesquite wood.

During the year-end holidays, Fields also smokes and sells turkeys and rib eye steaks, which he said "probably are better than the brisket."

During our visit, we ordered brisket, baby back ribs and the chopped pork. Helping to seal the deal was the delicious brisket samples that his right-hand employee, Brenda (pictured right), sliced for us. She makes all the deserts and the potato salad.

In its July cover story about the Circle City’s BBQ, Indianapolis Monthly noted, "Other barbecue joints feature brisket, but few give it the front-and-center attention that it gets at Hank Fields’ Texas barbecue takeout … Fields' signature cut is obviously treated with respect, dressed only with a mild, slightly tangy sauce he says is 'suitable for old men.'"

While I might disagree with the magazine’s assessment of other places featured in the article, not so with Hank’s Smoked Brisket.

Fields has never done competitions and says he never will. "My competition is for you to go somewhere else and come visit Hank," he said plainly.

For many other places in Indy, the competition may be for honorable mention, particularly when it comes to brisket.