Rustic Hog Barbecue
104 Main StreetI thought for sure I wasn’t going to stop for lunch on my way home from Mackinaw City. I really just wanted to get home. I had eaten the free craptastic hotel breakfast before leaving town so I figured that’d be enough to tide me over until everyone got home from school and work.
That was the plan anyway.
I took a different route than what I took there. Stopping in Cadillac for lunch seemed to throw my route off. I have driven to Mackinaw City several times and I was thinking something looked different. The drive home was a little more familiar.
Something clicked when I pulled in to Lake City. The last time I drove to Mackinac Island for work was two years ago in September. I had passed a little seasonal BBQ stand and since it was after Labor Day, it was closed for the season. On this trip, I was driving through after Memorial Day….so it had just opened.
Rustic Hog Barbecue is actually a food truck that they built an enclosed patio around to turn it into a little restaurant with seating. The small BBQ joint is right on on M-66 or Main Street in the small county seat of Missaukee County. I parked along the busy highway and kind of played Frogger trying to get across the street…the whole time the smell of smoker fired up somewhere behind the building was taunting me.
The restaurant runs just like a food truck…because it is basically a food truck. There’s an order window with a dry erase board showing that days menu. You order at one window then someone calls out your name from the other windows once your food is ready.
I ordered a Beef Brisket sandwich and a small side of Mac ‘n Cheese. I passed on the drinks because I was going to stop at the Wesco up the street before I left town and I wanted a bigger bottle of Pepsi. The total cost was just a little under $15.
I took a seat in the small but cozy dining area while I waited for my food. The structure is built to look like a barn and there is a hodgepodge of seating options from picnic tables to solid wood fourtops with mismatched kitchen chairs around them.
It really only took a couple of minutes for my order to be called out. I grabbed the two trays of food then looked quickly at their sauce options. They had all of the usuals. Sweet, spicy, orgininal, etc. in an old metal bucket near the pick up window.
I started with the brisket first because I just couldn’t wait. The sandwich is thick cut slices of smokey, juicy, tender brisket on an Artisan roll. I can’t be 100% sure but the bread looks and tastes exactly like some rolls that I buy from Walmart every so often. They’re actually really good and a good choice for this sandwich. The rolls is dense and soaks up juice from the meat. The sandwich is served naked and I left it that way. The brisket had a delicious salty crust and that was all of the flavor it needed. The sandwich comes with chips and a pickle spear to round it out as a meal.
The small order of Mac ‘N Cheese is just the right portion size to go along with a sandwich. It’s a thick, creamy cheese sauce with macaroni noodles and a toasted bread crumb topping. Like so many other BBQ joints, this would have been a delicious Mac ‘n Cheese as an entree but having it as a side is just a bonus to an already delicious meal.
Rustic Hog Barbecue nails the new traditional BBQ. The meat, the sides, and surprisingly, the atmosphere. This isn’t a rundown road house serving up one or two meats. This is a modern food truck experience that put a twist on what’s becoming a common experience and turning their small space in to a unique little restaurant.
SW Michigan Dining 