Bluestone American BBQ
Our society seems to have restarted itself; curfews are over, businesses are open and returning to an office-based workday is the new normal for many. With this ‘return to normal’ comes the very normal feeling of ‘I can’t be bothered cooking’. Such was the feeling my wife had after a gruelling day in the office, which led to the following text:
A link to Bluestone American BBQ with the simple phrase, ‘I want this’.
I was stoked. I hadn’t had the opportunity to try this restaurant for various reasons, the main one being the economic/pandemic crisis. I was equally excited to answer the age-old question, does American BBQ travel well? We may be allowed to go out for dinner nowadays, but maybe we don’t have to.
Thankfully, Bluestone American BBQ travels well. Very well indeed. For myself, I ordered their Chopped Brisket Burger with a side of Mac and Cheese and Corn Bread. My wife settled on the classic Double Smoked Brisket with Tangy Creole Slaw. On reflection, we ordered a lot of brisket. It was great, but it was a lot.
The Brisket Burger was one of the best burgers I’ve had in a long time, and like most middle-class white men, I consider myself a burger fanatic that understands the artistry of the buns like no other. The burger consists of mac and cheese, slaw, dill pickle, lettuce, mayo, brioche bun and chopped brisket.
This seems like a simple recipe for a burger, with the mac and cheese added as a flourish. But the mixture of ingredients compliment each other in the best way. The richness of the cheese coupled with saltiness of the brisket was the bulk of the flavour profile, with their good friend slaw and pickle working overtime to balance out the bite, with a tang only they could provide. And mayo was there, too. The brisket itself, while already chopped up, still had that pull apart characteristic that it’s known for.
There’s an element of the burger that people tend to forget about: a burger can taste amazing but turn to mush in your mouth. This was not a problem here. Yes, the brisket and mac and cheese were a soft and gooey partnership, but the pickle had a thickness to it that provided a satisfying crunch when you bit into it. The slaw supported its good friend the pickle in The Great Resistance to my brazen attack of its home, the brioche bun.
I feel at this point I need to point out that everything that was in this burger we also incidentally ordered as sides, so you can take my word that were you to deconstruct this burger and eat its components separately, you’d also have a solid meal.
Afterwards, I was satisfied and content. I deem this burger: damn good.
By Matthew Boehm
Bluestone American BBQ
470 Sydney Rd, Coburg
0410 842 088
The Coburg Meddler 