Piggin’ N’ Grinnin’
2114 S. Cleveland AvenueI told you. I’ve been on the road a lot lately.
I work double shifts on Friday’s in the fall and I travel a little on those shifts. A couple weeks ago, my shift took me to St. Joseph. I had a lot of time between my usual daytime shift and the task that awaited me that evening. That means, I find something local to eat.
I was actually looking at a Mexican restaurant kind of on the southwest side of St. Joseph to grab something to eat but when I started looking at the map, another place caught my eye…and that place was BBQ.
Piggin’ N’ Grinnin’ is an interesting little BBQ joint in St. Joseph Township. The building use to be a coffee drive through on Cleveland Street near the intersection with Hilltop Road. There is a little hut that is drive up only. You enter a driveway from the southside and pull up to the window to order then exit on the north side of the property.
This is not the first iteration of Piggin’ N’ Grinnin’. The BBQ joint used to be a full restaurant in Benton Harbor. Then, the pandemic hit and take out became the norm. The business closed the Benton Harbor shop and eventually found their way with this drive thru kiosk.
I pulled up to the window and the woman working told me they only had a few things left. It was a little over an hour before closing time so I wasn’t that surprised that they were running out of meat. She said they had chicken and rib tips left. Both things I like so I still had options.
I picked the rib tips and got a side of mac and cheese to go with it. The cost was a little over $15.
It’s BBQ so it didn’t take long for my order to be handed through the window. They have a little area set up next to the building with picnic tables so I pulled in to a spot to eat. I had some time before my job assignment for the night so I decided to not try to eat BBQ while I was driving.
I only got the 1/2 lb of rib tips but if felt like there was a lot more than a 1/2 lb of meat. The rib tips were different than what I was expecting. There were no bones. They were still a little tough and a little fatty like rib tips usually are but they were all edible. Some of the pieces on the top of the box were little slices of meat. Not quite what I was expecting but they were really good. Each piece of meat had a fantastic smoky flavor and a little bit of a bark. The meat came with a small cup of BBQ sauce which I used for some of the tips just so I could try the sauce but they really didn’t need it.
The mac and cheese was like most BBQ places mac and cheese. It was fine. It’s hard to mess up cheesy noodles. This mac and cheese was good but there was nothing that really made it stand out. It was a great accompaniment to the smoky meat.
I love this idea of drive thru BBQ. Piggin’ N’ Grinnin’ was great when it was a full service restaurant but this concept proves you really don’t need that. The BBQ is great on it’s own and people are becoming more accustomed to eating on the go. This idea gets BBQ in your hands quicker and keeps the costs down for everyone.
SW Michigan Dining 