Like a Pig in Spit

Everything else is either combination plates or meat, sold by the rack or by the pound. The half-chickens are stained brown, the color of delicious. The ham is sweet and redolent of hickory (even more so than the pulled pork), but almost needs the sweet sauce to temper it. The baby back ribs are tiny things—fatty, unevenly cut, and rubbed nearly black, but delicious. And if you get a burnt end, you're one of the luckiest people in the dining room.

But the biggest draw at Stan's is not just one thing but everything, all put together. It's the room and the smell of smoke that hangs over it like hunger as an odor; the photo of Bill Phillips riding alongside Warpaint, mascot of the Chiefs; the big black-and-white pictures of butchers and pit men and dirt-farming barflies that adorn the walls. It's the crowds that Stan's draws, all sitting hunched over their plates and eating with their fingers, and all the meats (even the brisket) taken together as an idealized rendition of the all-inclusive Kansas City style that Phillips has brought to Washington state.

Peter Mumford

Barbecue and booze? At long last, summer.

Location Info

Map

Stan's Bar-B-Q

58 Front St.
Issaquah, WA 98027

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Issaquah

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Details

Stan's Bar-B-Q 58 Front St., Issaquah, 425-392-4551, stansbarbq.com. 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Mon.–Thurs.; 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Fri.; 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Sat.; 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Sun.

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More About

• Stan Phillips
• Kansas City Chiefs
• AFC West
• Meat
• Foods

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In terms of barbecue, I have lived a charmed life. Like Stan, I've been fortunate enough to have stripped bones in places where the traditions are generations deep and the skills of the pit tenders border on magic. But now, when I find myself east of Seattle and I smell that earthy, fatty, beautiful smudge of hickory smoke and rib meat on the breeze, I'll count myself fortunate that, even in this place—more than a thousand miles gone from barbecue's capital—I can still sometimes find myself in just the right place to score some excellent barbecue without really trying.

jsheehan@seattleweekly.com

Price Check
  Pulled pork  $16.25
  Beef brisket   15.95
  Pork/brisket/link combo  $23.95
  Side of potato salad  $1.85
  The Pig    $9.95