Everett & Jones
126 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94607-3716View Map
510-663-2350

It seems lately I've been going out to eat more. Gotta keep the other sumo writers off my back! I was watching the travel channel a couple of months ago when they were doing an episode on the top 10 bbq places in the U.S. Everett & Jones was rated in the top 10 and since they were close by, I had to go try it out. Everett & Jones has several locations now (even one in Sacramento), but I had to go to the original to try it out. It's located right near Jack London Square in Oakland. It's a good place to just walk around and window shop. The restaurant is in an older building so it gives it a rustic feel perfectly fitting the type of food they serve. When you walk in, smack dab in the middle of the restaurant is this huge bbq oven (for lack of a better word) with a huge fan over it. Good thing they have high vaulted ceilings.

On to the food.
I decided to get a ribs & beef brisket combo with a side of sweet yams, baked beans and cornbread. Gotta have some lemonade with it also, of course. The portions are definitely huge. So be prepared to eat. I first devoured the brisket. With the first bite, though, I knew how the rest was going to be. E & J's smokes their meat. Which is fine (I'm not a big fan of smoked bbq), but the meat was overcooked. Even burnt to a crisp. Charcoal is not very appetizing. And then there was the sauce. I'm a very big sauce guy. If the sauce is good... you're set. But their sauce was just mediocre. MY special bbq sauce is better than that. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Top 10? Maybe top 10 in jack london square (considering they only have 6 or 7 restaurants there). =) The spare ribs did come out better though. I would recommend getting the ribs over the brisket. They didn't even have green beans or corn. What kind of bbq place doesn't have green beans or corn? They didn't even have wonder bread! Humph!




Sumo rating: 1.5 out of 4