Reviews

On January 29th, we found out the great news!

On January 20th, 2006 we received a great review from Newsday:

Tennessee ribs come 'naked' and rubbed
BY JOAN REMINICK
STAFF WRITER


There is nothing quite like barbecue cooked low and slow in a smoker. At Tennessee Jack's BBQ in East Islip, the hickory-smoked ribs, brisket, chicken and pulled pork are as down-home seductive as the Southern roadhouse ambience.

A bar in the front room draws a lot of locals here to share a brew while watching sports on television. The walls of the dining room are wood-paneled, hung with license plates and beat-up guitars. The fact that those instruments are no longer played matters not, since the kitchen turns out enough country, Western and Southern fare to rock the house.

At lunch, three of us exulted over a brisket quesadilla, the meat smoked for 22 hours to splendid depth and tenderness. Was it overkill to sandwich such meat in a tortilla with tomatoes, peppers and melted Cheddar and Jack cheeses? We were too busy devouring the dish to decide. At dinner, a bowl of pulled pork chili was firecracker-spicy, topped with tortilla chips and a melt of cheese.

Although I liked the rib tips appetizer, pieces cut from the meaty portion of spareribs, I'd forgo that prelude for a main course pleasure of Memphis-style baby back ribs on the bone. The first time I had the ribs, somebody had forgotten to finish them off with a dry rub of spices. Although they were smoky and tender, they were neither brown nor crisp. The next time, though, the ribs I got were spiced and burnished to faultlessness. I ordered mine naked - no barbecue sauce - a judicious choice. The dry rub was all the flavor the meat needed. A host of sauces - among them a South Carolina mustard-based concoction, a brown sugar and honey combo, a habanero pepper-laced number and the house original, a sweet, tomato-based sauce - were available to be dabbed on at will.

The smoked chicken hardly needed any sauce, since it was moist and redolent of its cooking process. I would rank the pulled pork - moistened, not slathered with sauce - right up there on a level with the transcendent brisket, whether enjoyed on a sandwich or by itself.

I even liked the grilled salmon, which had been marinated in the Carolina mustard barbecue sauce and flame-grilled. It was moist within, not dry and overcooked, as is so often the case with fish at a barbecue restaurant.

"Why are those mashed potatoes so darned good?" my dining companion asked after sampling the side dish. The answer was simple; the spuds had been spiked with bits of crisp bacon and swirled with melted Cheddar. Baked beans, sweet and smoky, made for another worthy accompaniment. I liked the tangy coleslaw made colorful by the addition of red cabbage. Sweet potato fries would have been better had they been served piping hot.

Although the desserts served here are not house-made, they're homespun and appropriate. I enjoyed both the tangy Key lime pie and the sweet-not-cloying pecan pie, served at room temperature and crowned with vanilla ice cream. The restaurant, however, should deep-six its aerosol whipped cream.

After a meal this good, give me freshly whipped heavy cream or none at all. 



On December 22nd, 2006 it was revealed that the readers of Long Island Press LOVE our BBQ:

In the Long Island Press' first-ever "Best of Long Island" readers' poll, we asked you for your picks for the best of what Long Island has to offer, covering food and drink, sports and recreation, arts & entertainment, politics, business, sights, people, health care and much, much more. What follows are the results, as voted upon by you, our readers, along with some of our own special picks for certain categories. 

BEST BBQ

Just a couple of years ago we couldn't have even had this category, 
but decent BBQ has finally made its way north and east to an appreciative and eager audience.

Tennessee Jack's, East Islip, 631-581-9657
Poppa Rick's Texas Style BBQ (Roadside Stand), Huntington, 631-692-6928
R.S. Jones, Merrick, 516-378-7177

On November 20th, 2006 we were greeted by an amazing review in the New York Times:

Down-Home Barbecue in a Setting to Match

By JOANNE STARKEY

Published: November 20, 2005

WE sniffed the smoky air appreciatively before entering Tennessee Jack's BBQ in East Islip. Long Island is not barbecue country, so any new barbecue outpost is cause for celebration, and here was real Southern barbecue: ribs and pulled pork that had been in the smoker for 12 hours and brisket that had been there for 22 hours. 

Tennessee Jack's, which opened this fall, looks like a joint, but I've never had barbecue worth eating at a restaurant with white tablecloths. Neon beer signs were in the windows, and patrons enter through the woody TV-dominated bar. The dining room also had its share of television sets - I counted three peeking out from various corners.

One night a family with young children sat in a booth near a TV tuned to "SpongeBob SquarePants," while in another corner a table of guys kept an eye on a sports event. On a Sunday, a big screen covered one wall and held the attention of Giants fans.


No, this is not fine dining. Tables were bare wood with paper place mats, napkins and a roll of paper towels. The knotty-pine walls were punctuated with guitars, old license plates from Tennessee and other states, World War II posters and the Tennessee state flag.


Service was as casual as the surroundings. Waitresses in jeans and black T-shirts that carried the restaurant's logo on the front and the message "Get Sauced" on the back were chatty and nice. 


Don't look for finesse, though. Dishes were announced when they were delivered, and diners had to speak up and lay claim. Debris from one course (used paper towels, for example) was not removed before more food arrived.

But we were here for barbecue, not fancy service or slick surroundings, and the barbecue was good. The pulled pork sandwich, a mountain of melt-in-the-mouth smoky meat on a soft roll, is a must. It was $9.95 and came with a choice of two side dishes, as do most entrees.


The pink and juicy sliced brisket was fork-tender and bursting with flavor. The smoked half chicken fell from the bones. A real surprise was the marinated grilled salmon in a Carolina-style mustard-based barbecue sauce. The fish flaked at the touch of a fork and put to shame many I've had at more expensive restaurants.


Then there were the ribs. We sampled three racks on two occasions. Two were succulent, flavor-packed and perfect, but one rack was dry. They are served in seven styles - with a dry rub or with one of six sauces: Jack's original, Tennessee whiskey, Carolina style, sweet, hot or dragon. 


We liked Jack's deep red original, with hints of sweetness and a slight kick. The whiskey sauce was similar; its shot of Jack Daniel's was not noticeable. The sweet was not overly so. The dragon was a great sauce that came across as sweet, followed by a spicy hit.


The sides were a mixed lot. The creamy coleslaw, made with red cabbage, was a winner. So, too, were the crisp, homemade French fries and the sweet and tasty baked beans. Skip the dry corn muffin, the stiff mashed potatoes with bacon and Cheddar, the overcooked baked potato and the watery corn on the cob.


You probably won't have room for appetizers, but there were some good ones that made use of the great barbecued meats: smoked brisket quesadillas, Jack chips (nachos with pulled pork) and big, meaty rib tips. Dragon wings with the spicy dragon sauce and a side of wasabi blue cheese dressing had wing enthusiasts calling for more. The basket of haystack onions, though, contained thin rings that were quite overcooked on two occasions.


Desserts were made elsewhere but were appropriate and good. The respectable pecan pie was served warm, not microwave hot. The Key lime pie was tangy, and the chocolate explosion, chocolate cake with a molten center, was rich and gooey.


Bring the children. They won't bother anyone, and there is a children's menu of seven tempting choices ($4.95 each). The chicken fingers earned the seal of approval from the preschoolers with us. The chicken was crunchy outside and juicy within. For dessert, head for the s'mores, a nostalgic treat for the adults and an introduction to campfire fun for the youngsters. 


Tennessee Jack's BBQ

148 Carleton Avenue, East Islip

(631) 581-9657


ATMOSPHERE Rustic roadhouse with Southern barbecue.





On October 12th we had a PRE-view in Newsday's Part II:

"Going on the notion "where there's smoke, there's fire," three childhood friends collaborated to open Tennessee Jack's BBQ, 148 Carleton Ave., East Islip, 631-581-9657, which serves slow-smoked Memphis-style "cue." Co-owner Tom Bruckner, a 30-year-old science professor at Nassau Community College, first thought of the idea after he dined at a Charleston, S.C., restaurant, Sticky Fingers. He asked his former next-door neighbor, Victor Funari (who cooked at Terrazino's in Islip), to be his chef; the "kid around the block," Danny Wiseman, would be manager-bartender. I stopped at the unpretentious roadhouse and found the juicy, smoky brisket first-rate. The pulled-pork sandwich, a mountain of barbecue sauce-dabbed shredded meat on a toasted bun, made for mighty good eating, too." -Joan Reminick

We are also reviewed in LI Pulse Magazine:

An authentic BBQ roadhouse: rustic, and DAMNED GOOD EATS. Go there for the best pulled pork, beef brisket and BBQ wings on the island. The bar is a perfect place to start and finish, a lively and friendly corner place. tennesseejacksbbq.com.