The South Portlander: Dining

Beale Street BBQ seems to sizzle at its new location on Broadway, offering an expanded menu, an emphasis on locally produced foods, and a dedicated area that just handles takeout traffic.
I recently e-mailed owner Michael Quimby to ask him about the changes. Here is our correspondence:
Tell me about your expanded menu. Is Beale Street offering a new style of barbecue?
The biggest change in what we are currently offering is that we have put an emphasis on buying foods that support local producers, and producers who practice sustainable agriculture.  Most of our beef now comes from Wolf’s Neck Farms, our Chicken from Springer Mountain Farms, our Tomatoes are the Backyard Beauties greenhouse grown and vine ripened in Madison, Maine, as always we buy Maine Shrimp, Maine Crab, and Maine Haddock.
We buy cheese from Pineland Farms in New Glouster, Maine, and whenever available we order local and or organic produce.  We don’t claim to be using these items exclusive, but over 80% of the items on our menu contain one or more of these products. 
As for our core menu, we haven’t changed a thing about our BBQ, but we do have a Wolf’s Neck beef baby back rib that we are doing a little differently than we do our regular dry rub BBQ.  The beef lends itself well to basting, so we use a special Texas style BBQ baste and coat the beef ribs several times during the smoking process.  This gives them a tender, almost braised, quality.  Then, also a departure from our standard Q, we grill the beef ribs with the sauce on before we server them.  They are really a nice addition.
Other key aspects to the new menu are some new pastas and salads, and a “combo up” section which allows guests to mix and match various BBQ & grilled specialties with any other entree or large salad.
I notice that there are a few macaroni and cheese selections. Those items must be hits with families.
A lot of people really love the Mac & Cheese options, especially the Mac & Cheese topped with BBQ beef.  We’ve always featured Mac & Cheese on the kids menu, but we’ve created a few more options for those who are a kid at heart.
How is business going in your new location? Is this restaurant larger than the place on Waterman Drive?
Business is going really well.  It is a good location, and folks seem to really like the new atmosphere—not that there was anything wrong with the old design, but the new place really has a nice feel to it.  It is about 20% larger, and the bar area is greatly expanded.  There is always plenty of parking too, though sometimes at a glance in might seem we are packed full because we share parking at both ends of the Thos. Room / Beale St. BBQ building.
Has Beale Street started offering live music? If so, where or how can customers get a schedule?
So far we have only had live music on special events, and we are not sure if we will ever have any sort of regular schedule.  Maybe a subtle “local acoustic blues” night weekly or monthly in the winter months.  We’ll be sure to let you know when we do.

Comments

By BBQ Fan on 2008 07 31