BBQ joint: Hog Stop BBQ in Council Bluffs, Iowa

Hog Stop BBQ in Council Bluffs, Iowa is just off I-29, almost on the banks of the Missouri River and just on the other side of that waterway from Omaha, Nebraska. 

(Updated December 2017 based on reader feedback: Hog Stop moved to 2327 South 24th Street, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Thanks for the tip!)

The first thing I noticed was the word BBQ, which any Kansas Citian far from home reads with both delight and dread. Delight to see a favorite meal offered far from home, dread at knowing most people don't do BBQ quite the same way we do it back in KC. Which is to say, there is always a chance it won't live up to expectations. 

Walking in on Sunday evening around 7:45 after packing up from the Omaha Summer Arts Festival, I noticed the hours: this restaurant almost never closes. Many days they're closed only between 2 and 6 AM, possibly playing to the casino crowds at the nearby riverboat casinos. 

Inside there is a bar, pool table, and about a dozen tables in the dining room. The decor is clean with a country flair; there is a steer's head and horns mounted near the pool table and country music playing overhead. TVs mounted around the restaurant/bar were showing the NBA finals and college baseball (this is the land of the college World Series, and it turns out people without specific loyalties actually care about college baseball). 

For dinner, I ordered the two-meat BBQ platter. Why get one when you can have two? I chose shaved pork, shaved briscuit, spicy BBQ beans, sweet potato fries, and the house specialty, corn bread. 

The first bite of the buttered and honeyed cornbread was a little tough, but then I got a surprise: corn! This shouldn't be a surprise; it's the restaurant's "famous" cornbread in a BBQ joint in Iowa, where corn grows everywhere from farm rows to the governor's ears. Hopefully my kernels came from the fields; they didn't taste waxy, at least. The cornbread was heavy, but delicious. This is the country home-made variety that I'll be wanting next time I make my own recipe, which doesn't come close to this goodness. Maybe that's why it's famous.

The shaved briscuit and shaved pork were true to their name: paper thin shavings. The briscuit had an edge of fat that is almost requisite with this dish, no matter what city you order it in. For cooking, the fat helps seal in juices to keep the meat tender and perfect. For eating, I prefer the meat rather the fat. In KC you can ask for your briscuit "lean as" (possible), and the cook will trim away  the fat before serving it. I didn't try that here. The fat wasn't much, but it was consistent. The best thing about the beef briscuit was the wonderful smoky flavor.  Before drenching the meat in sauce, I always test the flavor as served. Many, if not most, BBQ joints hide poorly smoked meats behind sugary sauces. This beef easily stood on its own; smoky and tender. Wonderful. 

The sliced pork had a more subtle smoked flavor. Where the beef had smoke that came up and smacked me in the chops; the pork was more seductive. It took its time and came on slowly, making me wonder at first if it was there at all. But by the third or fourth bite, that smoky seduction had me firmly in its grasp. The meat was sweet and delicious, and plentiful. The combo of two meats was more than enough to fill me up, even after skipping lunch and loading out of a big show. 

The spicy BBQ beans had a nice flavor, but like a lot of items labelled spicy in America, they were moderately warm rather than flaming spicy hot. The sweet potato fries came waffle cut; usually a sign they weren't fresh cut. They had a nice taste but went soggy within a few minutes. The fries were the only part of the platter I didn't finish. 

The servers were friendly and prompt. A great many restaurants I visit could take some lessons in wait staff service from the attention I got at the Hog Stop BBQ. 

Bottom line: this is definitely a BBQ joint worth visiting again! No dread. All delight.