A Friend Indeed

Moogie's Bar B Que
79 East Spring Street
Cookeville, Tennessee

Moogie's is a drive-thru joint in Cookeville, TN, just east of Nashville. I had my buddy Ty along and we got up to the window and placed a simple order, just a barbecue sandwich. The fellow at the window asked if we wanted to make a meal deal out of it...but wait...that's a weekday special. All three of us put our heads together and figured out it was a Saturday, and as such we were cautioned not to work too hard and handed out a sandwich and a sweet tea.

Out front there are two or three little picnic tables and I settled in to what is a fine example of the Q I grew up on. Smoked pork on a fluffy whitebread pillow of a bun topped off with a tomato based sauce. Pulled pork, smoky and juicy, balanced by that sweethot sauce. A fine sandwich, like an old friend. Like drinking Budweiser, not some sweet-assed heffewiezen micro-job. A sandwich you can count on. One that would bail you out of jail, if it came to it, and not try to get it on with your sister.

As I was enjoying my sandwich, a gentleman emerged from the smokehouse and made his way over to us with what looked like a dustpan. In it were a half dozen wings, just smoked, and he piled them up on my tray, told me to enjoy them, and walked off. Turns out this was Mr. Moogie himself, who's been in the bbq business since he was fourteen, and he's now in his sixties. As for those wings, after they're smoked so they'll keep, they're stored til an order comes in, then dropped in a deep fryer to heat and crisp em up, and finished off with a sauce of varying heat, depending on the customer's tastes. Mr. Moogie says he likes to give folks a chance to have them fresh out of the smoke, so if you're sitting around as Ty and I were lucky enough to be, you'll probably get a little treat as well.

So, if you're in Cookeville, pull in for the pork and stick around for the friendly. Even if it's not a weekday.