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MAC’S 4 1/2 out of 5 Location: 2511 South Blvd. Phone: 704-522-6227 Price range: $2-$18 Hours: 11:30 a.m. until sometime after midnight 364 days a year. Closed Christmas Day. Details: take-out, outdoor seating |
Mac’s famous barbecue ribs come in whole or half racks with your choice of sides – pictured here, melt-in-your-mouth mac and cheese and baked beans laced with Neese’s Country Sausage. Rebecca Koenig/CW photos |
Barbecue at its best
Mac’s delivers hogs, Harleys and more
by Heidi Edidin
The menu says “beer, bikes and bbq,” but at Mac’s, the recently
opened barbecue joint on South Boulevard just a block away from the intersection
of Remount Road, it’s all about the food.
Slave to the pig
The menu at Mac’s is simple but good with a little bit of something
for everyone. Almost everything, down to the ranch dressing, is homemade,
and the quality is top notch.
Wings are slow-cooked in the smoker and then finished on the grill, a pleasant
change from the fried variety. They come with a choice of five different sauces.
The Atomic VTX chipotle is my favorite, with wings topped with Po Po’s
red barbecue sauce a close second.
Hush puppies are slightly sweet with a crisp finish. Although they come with
a jalapeño tartar sauce, they are even better dipped in Boone’s
tomato-based homemade 57 sauce that comes with the made-from-scratch onion
rings.
The menu also includes chips and salsa, with or without queso. Both dips are
good but nothing that will knock your socks off.
Chicken tenders, quesadillas, carnitas-style tacos with pork, chicken or blackened
grouper, barbecue chicken, Texas beef brisket and even deviled eggs round
out the choices.
Don’t miss the Brunswick Stew, a traditional favorite. A little different
every time Mac’s serves it, this entrée, appetizer or side is
still some of the best Brunswick Stew I’ve had in these parts. The amazingly
tender and lean hand-pulled pork comes on a plate or as a sandwich with a
choice of side items.
The burgers are thick, hand-patted and cooked to order. The blackened grouper
hoagie and homemade black bean veggie burger are equally outstanding and make
a nice change of pace from the heavier meats. The full-flavored ribs, available
in a half or full rack, are done in the smoker just like the pulled pork.
They’re literally finger-licking good.
Side items include hush puppies, onion rings, fries, slaw and potato salad
as well as real melt-in-your-mouth macaroni and cheese, delicious green bean
casserole and great baked beans, slow-cooked with Neese’s Country Sausage.
It began on a bike
Mac’s story starts at a motorcycle rally. John Duncan, owner of Bonterra,
a Dilworth restaurant and wine bar, and its Uptown sister restaurant The Ratcliffe,
was riding his Harley in a 2004 annual motorcycle fund-raiser, Carolina Thunder.
Amid the 600 participating bikers, architect Hall Johnston and businessman
Wynn Davis, who also were riding in the event, spotted Duncan.
“They approached me about opening a biker bar in a building Hall had
over on South Boulevard,” Duncan explained. “They wanted to do
something with a Myrtle Beach or Daytona biker theme – loud music, beer
and the like.”
Duncan knew that such an operation in Charlotte would be short-lived and insisted
that the food be the focus first. With the right concept, the beer and bikers
would follow.
In searching for a theme for Mac’s, which was named after the automotive
shop that had occupied the space on South Boulevard for years, barbecue and
all the trimmings seemed a likely game plan.
Barbecue in his blood
Enter Dan Boone. Boone had been in the kitchen at Bonterra since day one.
As a sous chef on the line, Boone made all of Bonterra’s sauces and
did a good deal of the prep work for other dishes. At home and on his days
off, Boone made pork barbecue.
Boone comes by his culinary talent for barbecue quite naturally. While his
dad, the late Porter Boone, was not a professional chef, he was a master at
barbecue, and his son inherited his talent for the craft. Boone always had
wanted to open a barbecue place of his own. When Duncan approached him with
the new concept at Mac’s, he jumped at the chance.
From pulled pork to pimento cheese
Most items on Mac’s menu are from Boone’s family recipes. “Good
barbecue, to most people, is what you grew up with. This is the way my family
always made it.”
Mac’s manager Thomas Wickham decribed Boone’s homemade sauces,
which come to your table in a six-pack container, as unique.
“The sauce has a little bit of everything. It’s not Eastern Carolina
barbecue or Lexington-style or South Carolina barbecue. … It’s
just Boone’s barbecue.”
And it is some of the best around.
The secret is in the smoke
Next to Boone’s style and talent in the kitchen, Duncan attributes the
secret of Mac’s flavorful success to the large industrial smoker in
the kitchen. “It’s a $20,000 piece of equipment and it smokes
about 300-400 pounds of pork at a time. We dry rub the pork butts with a special
blend of seasonings and let them sit for 24 hours. They go into the smoker
at 10 o’clock at night and slow-cook on the rotisserie, self-basting
until 10 the next morning. All we have to do is pull the meat out and chop
it up.”
During the day, the smoker is used for the chicken wings, racks of ribs and
beef brisket.
Bikes and beverages
As for the bikers and beer, Duncan is delighted to see his hopes for Mac’s
becoming a reality. Most customers come to Mac’s for the food and relaxed
atmosphere. Yes, the late-night crowd is there for beer and camaraderie, but
it’s the ’que that keeps them coming back.
Currently Mac’s has two Harleys on display. The first belongs to Duncan.
A 2005 Springer Classic show bike designed after Harley’s 1942 poker
bike, the showpiece has been entered in the Daytona beach bike competition.
The second, a 2005 Harley Sportster, appears at Mac’s courtesy of the
United Way of Charlotte. It is signed by all current members of the Carolina
Panthers and will be raffled later this month. Raffle tickets for the bike,
$10 each, are available at Mac’s or through the United Way.
The listing of beverages at Mac’s is still being tweaked, but currently
160 different beers from around the world and several varieties of wine are
available from the full-service bar. Duncan is adding on a list of 10-12 wines
by the glass as well.
At the moment, seating inside consists entirely of bar stools, both at the
bar and at tall tables around the restaurant. Booths will soon be installed
as well. Outside, you’ll find picnic tables both in the sun and in the
shade.
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Mac’s executive chef and master barbecuer Dan Boone poses before industrial equipment that smokes 300-400 pounds of pork to perfection each night. |