Every Friday, Roots in Alpharetta features an article on food and dining in a series I like to call Foodie Friday. This week I continue a summer series reviewing barbecue restaurants in Alpharetta.
Several years ago I stumbled into the Chamblee location of Pig-N-Chik. It was almost by accident, more of… “Hey, there’s a Q joint, let’s try it!” I was impressed on that one and only visit. It was enough to get me excited when this location opened in Alpharetta about two and a half years ago. At that time, decent Q was something we simply didn’t have here. I had high expectations.
Fast forward to 2010… The barbecue scene is picking up a bit in Alpharetta and Pig-N-Chik has become just ho-hum by my book. It’s just hard for me to get real excited about this place. I neither like it nor dislike it really. For stripmall Q it isn’t bad. They have one of these glorified ovens/smokers, not a pit. You can see it attached to the back of the building, visible from the CVS drive thru. Yet unlike a lot of other stripmall joints, they do a decent job with it. Their meat has some smokey flavor around the outside. It could use a lot more.
They serve a very thick pulled pork here. The strands are massive, several bites worth in some cases. The outside meat is done well with the right amount of chew. There is a faint smoke ring present. The inside meat is moist but lacks a lot of barbecue flavor. If you’re feeling up for it, I’d suggest ordering only outside meat, which I think they will do here.
My biggest complaint about their pulled pork is that it is almost always fatty. Every single time I’ve ordered it I find pretty big hunks of fat. Not good eats! They either need to trim their butts a little or pick that stuff out before serving.
I enjoyed my sides on my visit this week. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer, golden brown and delicious. They disappeared quickly. The stew was also decent with big hunks of pork, a lot of veggies and a peppery kick.
Their location is a bit hard to find as it isn’t visible from Windward. You’ll have to drive back behind the CVS drugstore to find them. It really is a bad spot for a restaurant, similar to Maryland’s Crab House. Nevertheless, Pig-N-Chik has managed to survive here a few years.
Something else to note about this area… The east end of Windward is mostly office parks. The dozen or so restaurants that exist here do the vast majority of their business to cubicle dwellers like myself. Many places are closed at nights and weekends. Those that do stay open don’t do a lot of business. Pig-N-Chik stays open, but I would caution against going here at off-peak times. Barbecue is best enjoyed when the restaurant is serving a lot of it. If you’re serious about trying Pig-N-Chik, I suggest going during the week for lunch.
