Barrett’s Smoke House – Kalamazoo
4536 Stadium DriveI feel like I’ve written this blog post. In fact, I have…this is actually blog post #4 for Barrett’s Smoke House. They have two locations in town and both of them have replaced the original location with a new one.
Last Friday, I picked L up from school and had to get home in time for a repair man to fix my garage door. I only had a few minutes to stop and get lunch on the way for her and me and I’m getting a little tired of eating fast food.
I chose to stop at Barrett’s Smoke House on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo. This store replaces the the Barrett’s that used to be on Main Street in Oshtemo Township. They moved to a much bigger space on Stadium near Drake in to the University Commons shopping plaza. Barrett’s takes over the space that used to be a Bargain Books just a few doors down from At Home.
This new store on Stadium is set up a lot like the new store on Oakland. It’s a large open space with the front of the shop split between a dining area and a retail area. In the back, there’s a large fresh meat case next to the cash registers which is where you order sandwiches, sides, and smoked BBQ meats by the pound.
I’ve never been a really big fan of the sides they offer with the sandwiches, so I skipped the meal and just ordered a sandwich a la cart. I really enjoy the brisket from Barrett’s so that’s what I got. I also ordered a pound of pulled pork and a 1/2 lb of Mac ‘n Cheese (which is not an side option for sandwiches) for L. The total cost was just under $25 and it took less than five minutes for my meals to be packed up and handed to me.
When we got home, the garage door repair man was waiting for us. I got L set up with her mac ‘n cheese and took care of getting the repair man started. I was actually surprised by L. She’s been very, very picky about food lately. Getting her to eat has been such a struggle. That’s really odd because she used to be a vacuum cleaner…eating everything we set in front of her. Not so much anymore, but she seemed to really like this mac ‘n cheese. She ate about half of the container then J and I split the rest. I think the reason L liked it was because it’s not a super cheesy mac ‘n cheese. They use a blend of five different cheeses so there isn’t one cheese that overpowers the pasta. It’s just a creamy, cheesy sauce that covers the elbow macaroni. It has a lot of subtle flavor to it and not the in-your-face cheesiness that many places offer. There are little bits of bacon mixed in which also made me nervous with L, but she didn’t even seem to notice.
Once I got everything squared away in the garage, I came in to grab my sandwich. The sliced brisket is served on a fairly simple white bread bun. The meat doesn’t have a strong flavor to it, but it is so, so, so tender. It’s really some of the most tender brisket I’ve ever had and it’s always consistently tender.
The sandwich is really never enough, so I also started in on some of the pulled pork. I ordered it for two reasons. I figured J could heat some up later if she wanted it plus, I like to use pulled pork to make nachos and I had a bag of tortilla chips at home. The pork was juicy, smoky, and super tender. I actually had to stop myself from eating too much since I bought it with the intention of eating it later.
Barrett’s Smoke House has always been consistently delicious. They don’t knock you off your feet with bold BBQ flavor, but they have mastered the art of tender, juicy, delicious BBQ.
Barrett’s Homemade Mac ‘n Cheese
Classic Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich
1 lb. Smoked Pulled Pork
SW Michigan Dining 