Barrett’s Smokehouse – Portage
9942 Oakland DriveL is finally getting to that age where she needs her own bed. We’ve done a lot of co-sleeping over the last few years and the bed we have set up in L’s room is mostly only used when she’s mad at us or wants “privacy” while watching something on the iPad.
We’ve looked around at prices for a new bed and really didn’t want to spend the kind of money that we had been finding. Somewhere along the line, J noticed Seat-N-Sleep in Portage. We liked the prices there a little bit better and headed over to see if there was something we liked.
After doing our shopping, we still had a little over an hour until I needed to go to work. J suggested lunch and I was in the mood for brisket.
I had thought about heading to the new Barret’s Smokehouse on Stadium Drive, but we were in Portage and we haven’t been to Barrett’s Smokehouse there since they renovated.
The “new” Barrett’s Smokehouse in Portage actually replaced the old Barrett’s Smokehouse near the corner of Oakland Drive and Shaver Road in Portage. The last time we were at this Barrett’s location was in 2010 not long after they started doing lunch at their small shop. Since then, we have visited the Main Street location that just closed and moved to Stadium Drive several times.
This new shop in Portage is called a renovation, but there is nothing I recognize from the smaller shop that used to sit on the site. The new building is much bigger with a large seating area. Except for the seating, the space is set up kind of like the old Main Street store. There’s a large butcher shop area next to the order counter. The menu hangs on a wall behind the cashier. There are coolers along the wall with frozen meats and drinks and pantry items including their home made BBQ sauces fill in the retail area of the store.
J and I each went with a different sandwich for lunch. She ordered the Southern-Style Pulled Pork Sandwich and made it a meal with Country Baked Beans w/pork sausage and Three Cheese Macaroni salad as sides. I ordered the Classic Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich. I passed on the meal because as much as I love Barrett’s meats, I’m not a huge fan of their side selections. I tend to go with fries or macaroni and cheese with BBQ and neither are side options at Barrett’s.
There wasn’t really anything L wanted, so we chose to take our meals home so we could get her something she would eat. The cost for our food, with an added bottle of Pepsi and a fountain Coke, came to just under $20. It took less than five minutes for our food to packaged up and handed to us.
As is the norm, our lunch was delicious. J’s sandwich was so tender and juicy that it was hard to pick up. She ended up doing the knife and fork thing. Her pulled pork came topped with a house made cole slaw and BBQ sauce. As delicious as their meat is, J is a sauce person and they go pretty light on the sauce that’s included with the sandwich. I happen to love it that way because the meat is always so tender and smoky, but J’s a sauce fan so she had to add a little more.
My sandwich was perfect without sauce. It doesn’t look like much, but the Classic Beef Brisket sandwich is incredibly tasty. The brisket is so tender it feels like you’re biting through a stick of butter. It’s served on a simple white bun which is such an add contrast to the smoky, tender meat, but it works…and it works well.
I’m not really mentioning the sides because I didn’t eat any of them and J didn’t really say anything. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not really a fan of what they have, but J always likes them and has said good things about everything she has had in the past.
Barrett’s Smokehouse is such a simple BBQ place, but it’s the kind of simple places that packs a lot of flavor in to their offerings. Kalamazoo is a little lacking when it comes to BBQ, but Barrett’s fills a void and does a helluva job doing it.
Southern Style Pulled Pork
Country Baked Beans w/Pork Sausage
Three Cheese Macaroni Salad
Classic Beef Brisket
SW Michigan Dining 