As many hungry jazz fans can testify, good food and good music are not naturally symbiotic. All too often, when the musicians are cookin’ in a club the kitchen staff isn’t.
Happily, no one told that to the management and cooks at Smoke Daddy, a vintage neighborhood bar-lounge that is producing barbecue good enough to set the tone deaf to humming.
White men may not be able to jump, but they can cook barbecue, and while Smoke Daddy’s ribs are not permeated with smoke and spice as deeply as the best soul-cooked ribs, they are very good. Even better are the tender and succulent pit-oven-smoked pork shoulder and beef brisket.
The pork, pulled apart into chunks and available either on a platter ($9.95) or as a sandwich ($4.95), is smoky, sensual and not at all fatty. The moist and flavorful brisket is all that it can–and should–be. Both are worthy of comparison with the legendary barbecue of Memphis and Kansas City.
Barbecued chicken breasts ($9.95) are prepared well too. But even Smoke Daddy’s moist chicken will never be in the same flavor league as pork and beef. And the turkey–the final option–is just too lean to work.
The restaurant’s other specialty is its ribs–spare, baby back and rib tips. Large meaty portions smoke over hickory wood in a $15,000 basement oven called the Little Red Smoke House. In a photo finish, the spare ribs (larger, more meaty and spicier) edge out the baby backs (finer grain, more tender, sweeter). The cost is $9.95 for a half-slab and $15.95 for a full slab, enough for two or more. Rib tips are $5.95 and $8.95.
Of two sauces on each table, the house-prepared red sauce is spicier and fresher tasting than the hickory smoke-flavored brown sauce.
Worth noting, too, are several touches that show an involved kitchen. The thin, small, skin-on French fries (side orders for $1.50, $2 and $3) are hand-cut, cooked in a combination of canola and peanut oil and absolutely delicious. BBQ beans ($1.50) and crisp coleslaw ($1.50), made with red and green cabbage, are outstanding as well, and a fresh daily vegetable special is offered, along with a special house salad ($4.95) and a vegetarian barbecue sandwich ($4.95).
Matter of Course, a catering firm, provides a selection of desserts.
This is mood food, and Smoke Daddy’s long, dark, high-ceilinged room with a surfeit of chrome, linoleum and hanging pool hall lamps exudes a laid-back, funky ambience. A pair of genuine Mickey Mouse Club ears is posed behind the bar that runs the length of one wall; barbecue aprons decorate part of that wall and photos of ’50s and ’60s jazz greats another. Tattoos and body-piercing are popular with the friendly and efficient staff.
The music, jazz or blues, begins between 9:30 and 10:30 evenings except Wednesdays and Sundays. When the musicians are not performing, there’s a classy selection of taped music.
Smoke Daddy
(three forks)
1804 W. Division St.
312-772-6656
Tues.-Fri.: 5 p.m.-1 a.m.
Sat.: 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m.
Sun.: 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.
Mon.: 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m.
Wheelchair accessible
Credit cards: A,D,DC,M,V
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RATINGS KEY: 4 forks: Top of the class 3 forks: Better than most 2 forks: Very good fare 1 fork: Middle of the road
