BBQ Crawl - Stop 3: The Barbecue Pit in National City

Our third destination was actually reversed. Originally it was to be Huffman's on Imperial Avenue but we knew that Huffman's did not have public bathrooms (which several of us were in dire need). Plus the Barbecue Pit was a larger venue that definitely had public bathrooms. We headed south on 805 and went to Filipino-Land (otherwise known as National City) by heading west on Plaza Blvd. The Barbecue Pit will be on your left before you hit Price breakers and Highland Ave.  Although there was a lot of parking, it was already pretty crowded, unless you wanted to park closer to Price Breakers.


See? Pretty spacious. There's a major old school vibe in here. Very ethnically diverse too. Plus there are various large animal horns and antlers and taxidermied heads mounted on the walls for your viewing pleasure. If you like that sort of thing. Don't you like your food staring at you?

You order at the front and take a tray. You can't order slabs of ribs here. Everyone decided to order their own dishes this time. I'm waiting to see the other bloggers' takes on their food.

Lots of choices. Prices are decent. Cafeteria'ish here.

Playing around with my settings....

C and I shared a ribs plate and sausage sandwich (a la carte).

The old school looking desserts on ice in the display window; this is by the cash register. As you can see, one of the choices was jello with some sort of suspended fruit (fruit cocktail from a can?).

The combo plate came with three hearty ribs and two sides (coleslaw and beans). The cole slaw was chopped very fine.I like mine in shreds. Glad it wasn't vinegary. The beans were definitely not on par with Coops. The beans were bigger and darker and the sauce not as tasty. It wasn't as sweet as Barnes' version either but then, everything at Barnes was supersweet!The rib was nicely smoked very meaty (they smoke their meats Texas style). The bbq sauce came on the side (not picture) and tasted standard.

Our sausage sandwich with sauce. One of the slices fell on the floor; I was bummed. I didn't want to do the "5 second rule" here (or anywhere for that matter). What a waste of meat!

By this time, everyone was getting full but despite that, the majority wanted to "power on" and end at Huffman's. At least for dessert.  Kirbie was kind enough to gift everyone a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of mine (and it's already been devoured eaten) but it was a pretty big and thick cookie with nice ribbons of chocolate within. Dennis also played Santa Claus by giving every fellow blogger a wrapped "surprise" - they were Japanese food miniatures. I kept mine unopened so that TC could enjoy it. It ended up being not just "one" piece comprising the toy but several tiny pieces - a bowl, tiny shrimp, a little platform and something else. I think there was a also a wrapped piece of gum (chiclet size) in there.

View from the west windows...This is also near Chuck E. Cheese (one of the yucky locations). Price Breakers is like a store with everything in it but for cheap. The quality wasn't that great but I remember it being like an indoor swapmeet.

Across the street diagonally from Barbecue Pit is Yardage Town. That place has been there FOREVER! My mother used to buy her fabrics there when we were young. Now this was the 70's, okay so my younger sis and I wore a lot of "pantsuits", mini shift dresses, and these long muumuu type dresses with ruffles. I remember wishing I could have "normal" store bought clothes like everyone else. The only one who didn't wear homemade clothes was my brother. He got to pimp out his Garanimals, Hang Ten, and Toughskins while my sis and I would rock the nerd girl look.

These outfits are rather Brady Bunchesque...welcome to our world of sartorial splendor!

I remember, not too fondly, our endless boredom waiting for my mom to select the fabrics that would soon become  our funky freaky garments . Some of those bolts are probably still languishing in that store. I am dead serious in saying that this place hasn't changed in over three decades. Good ol' mom would also buy her patterns here or leisurely look through the patterns books which were hopelessly out of date ("Simplicity", "Butterick", and "McCall's").

Tunics and bellbottoms. Someone just kill me now, please!

We would sometimes hide up and down the aisles until we got into trouble, which meant getting yelled at. I have a pretty good repertoire of bad phrases in Tagalog...

I used to enjoy looking at all of the sewing notions (buttons, decorative lace, flowers, frog enclosures, etc). As we grew older and my mom started working more, she had less time to make our clothes. I think both my sister and I breathed a collective sigh of relief. There is a notorious green flowered dress that we both had that was the same fabric as our curtains! My brother found it hilarious.

Those short dresses were the worst! I hated wearing the tights as well! May as well show everything!

My sister and I should have been grateful for her handiwork, but we were actually embarassed. I know it sucks to admit that but hey, it was my "not-so-secret shame" because we HAD to wear those clothes. She felt she was saving us money but I felt it was more trouble for her to make these clothes for us. Bell bottomed polyester pantsuits with a matching sleeveless "smock" top with pockets. My mom made all of our special occasion dresses (birthday, Christmas, New Year's, Communion). To top it off, we both sported short bowl haircuts with bangs. No nice long hair like the other girls. Not suprising to me that there are NOT a lot of photos of us smiling wearing those outfits. Well, there were a few forced ones but for the most part, I am scowling a lot in those old square Kodakchromes!

Well, that was a painful trip down memory lane! It sucked being a kid (fashionwise) in the 70's!

Who else ate at The Barbecue Pit?
Hmmm! I couldn't find any local bloggers who ate at this location, so here are a few reviews:
yelp
SD Reader (January 5, 2006)

Even though I linked it before, in case you didn't read the previous post, here is Kirbie's take on the Barbecue Pit (with better photos)!

[update on 7/23 - C's all inclusive post on Stops 2-4 here] and Mary's round up as well as Leanne's!

Official site of The Barbecue Pit

Last stop...dessert at Huffman's!