Mouthing Off

A poke in the ribs: Sam Taylor's Bar-B-Q, which relocated to 435 South Cherry Street a few months ago after a decade at the Links at City Park, used to serve my favorite bones in town. Now I'm not so sure.

I stopped by Sam's new location on Mother's Day--a good pile of barbecue is a great reward for the trials of parenting--and found that my slab with the works ($23.50) wasn't the same greasy, finger-lickin' mess it once was. Frankly, it seems as though Sam has gotten too much of a good thing: His place is hopping, and the larger crowds may be making it tough for him to give the ribs the attentive treatment they deserve. For one thing, the ribs hadn't been slopped-and-mopped in the usual way so that the sauce melded into the meat's juices. Instead, the ribs looked and tasted like they'd just come out of the cooker and then someone had slapped on barely enough sauce to coat the top layer before serving them. That meant the ribs on the bottom, which were already too dry, got no sauce--and none of that sweet spiciness. And because what sauce there was didn't have time to mingle with the grease, it had a just-made quality that offered up too much heat and not enough flavor.

Most of Sam's sides were unchanged: the same familiar soupy baked beans and homemade, mayo-slathered potato salad, with Texas toast perfect for sopping up grease. But the "Links fries" ($2.50), potatoes sliced lengthwise chip-thin and deep-fried, didn't resemble the spuds I'd eaten at the Links; these were unevenly cooked and stuck together in bunches. Add slow, harried service to disappointing food, and I'm thinking bigger is not better for Sam's.

Meanwhile, there's a new 'cue joint in town: Carter's Barbecue, at 400 East 20th Avenue. Some folks may already be familiar with the ribs cooked up by Carl Carter, who's operated a mobile barbecue unit for the past eight years at various locations around Denver, including Montbello and along the Platte River by the RTD complex. Carter moved into this space a few days before Christmas, and a co-worker tells me this is the most authentic Southern barbecue available in the area. Sadly, Carter's was closed Mother's Day--he's open Tuesday through Saturday "from 11 in the morning until, oh, 6 or 6:30 and a little later on the weekends," he says--so I'll just have to try again.

--Wagner