Pittsburgh has its fair share of sketchy neighborhoods and Homewood is unquestionably one of them. But, according to a friend the neighborhood also has the best BBQ spot in town. So, with potential bodily harm awaiting us, we headed to The Dream BBQ restaurant Brooklyn NY, which can easily be spotted from a distance because they do their smoking right on the street in converted 8 gallon drums.
When we arrived, all they had left to serve for the night was ribs and in fact this was perfect because that was what we came for. I ordered half a slab with a side of mac and cheese and a side of baked beans (because everything else was a vegetable). I also got the hot BBQ sauce to go with it. Then I watched as each rib was masterfully separated and placed in a styrofoam container for my consumption needs.
As expected, the ribs were nothing short of awesome. Their smoky flavor was just the right amount of intense and while they weren’t your fall off the bone ribs, they were plenty juicy. In fact, the only area I felt the ribs were lacking was the sauce itself, which tasted kind of like a doctored up KC Masterpiece. KC Masterpiece in itself is, of course, not terrible. I just expected something more from a place like this.
As for the sides, the mac and cheese was certainly the better of the two. Then again, when you are comparing mac and cheese to baked beans, you’ve done something terribly wrong if the baked beans win. In this case, nothing was done terribly wrong, although the mac and cheese wasn’t particularly special either. It played a nice backup role to the ribs and would have served as a good buffer to a hotter sauce.
Now, the inevitable question of whether The Dream BBQ is the best in Pittsburgh must be approached. Previously I considered Wilson’s to be the best and much of this is due to their amazing sauce. The Dream BBQ cannot even hope to compete based on sauce, but in the end the ribs themselves are simply tastier. As an unvegan, the victor has to be the meat. Nonetheless, if I could bottle up some of Wilson’s sauce and bring it to Homewood the world would be a much finer place to live in.
