Mr B's Catering

After moving here from the metro DC area 5-6 years ago, I have been desperately trying to find a BBQ joint like the one I loved in Woodbridge, VA (Dixie Bones.) Got to tell you that the BBQ here is BETTER, and the service impeccable. Stepping into the small area for carryout is a trip down memory lane for all those NC and AL roadside BBQ joints one finds roadside thru those states.

Thank whatever God you hold dear - I'm going next Saturday again!

My sister Lucille and her guy Rick collect pig art. In the late afternoon of October 2007 driving Virginia 340, Lord Fairfax Highway, I glimpsed a black, shining, aproned, chef-hatted three-foot-tall pig standing at the Berry's Ferry turn off. The pig held aloft a monster bar-b-que sandwich. We had to go back and get a picture of that pig for Lucille and Rick.

It was late, the light was bad for a great pig picture, plus the little guy had brand new paint making him shine like a pig angel from bar-b-que heaven. Berryville, at least the one of Mr B's web address, is a quarter mile north of White Post. Being a small town it has discreet eyes watching the comings and goings of most all taking time to slow down and stop.

A wiry guy in a yellow apron, a man of Mr. B's, came out to discretely help us understand that Berry has watching eyes. Particularly, the comings and goings around Mr. B's pig art. Someone had recently taken the original pig home, a permanent supper guest. We'd found the replacement. He told us how Mr. B had since contracted with Mongolia to have the new pig's new anchor tie off in Ulan Bator. We took our pictures.

It was late in the day, we hadn't eaten since breakfast, and we stood before a Virginia bar-b-que establishment with advertising so well known, somebody just had to have it for themselves. We went in.

Mr. B's is plain, simple and clean. Equipment for storing, cooking and serving. The grinning pig, now bibbed and licking his jowls decorates signs telling customers what's being served and the price. Mr. B's is take out. Mr. B's also has a fleet of pits on wheels outside on the lot to support catered events. The men of Mr. B's are great people. Friendly, deeply knowledable of the products they cook and serve, they promised we'd be back.

The menu is sandwiches, ribs, bbq pork, beef and chicken; the sides are potato and macaroni salads, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, fries, baked beans and cajun rice. They serve chicken, rib, fish, pork beef, chicken and ribs and sampler dinners. Picnic lunch is also available. Crab legs were a specialty that day, there was apple pie in the dessert department, and a variety of drinks in the cooler.

I'm not sure if 100% of the sides are made on site, but the bar-b-que certainly is. If you're serious about your diet, bring lots of friends to share the food wealth at Mr. B's. Instead of the pig out front, we took home bar-b-que beef and pork sandwiches, cole slaw, mac and cheese, and baked beans, spending about seven dollars a person.

We are far westerners and barbacoa where we live is never quite southern. In my formative years I lived a year in rural Texas where my palate for bar-b-que was set. No bar-b-que since has totally succeeded in making me eight years old again. I am no first violinist of food. I can't describe smoky nutty acid overtones tasting of the language of James Joyce, with notes of Hilo sugar refined through Auburn limestone, Cuban swamp molasses smuggled across the Caribbean with cylinder two of the boat's 1948 Atlas diesel running rich. I don't know where they buy their brown, airy, tasty buns, what they put in the sauce or how
long they cook with what kind of wood in the outdoor pit. The tastes made me eight years old again. We will definitely stop by for a dinner the next time we're in Berryville.

An added bonus for those of us enjoying colonial architecture and American history is White Post, a beautiful tidy community, with a fine little park and picnic bench. You can't miss the white advertising post George Washington set for Lord Fairfax who needed more travelers in his inn. Enjoy the architecture of the homes and lovely churches and let the history of the place seep into you like the flavors of Mr. B's bar-b-que. Don't forget to take pictures-only for the pig lovers in your family.

Let Larry and the guy's at Mr B's fix you some of the best BBQ in the area! I've been going there for years and it only gets better. Adding more choice's only makes it harder to decide what you want. Pork sandwich with slaw is the best. (one big sandwich) Cornbread muffins, mac and cheese, wing dings. So much to pick from, you gotta try them all. I travel from Charles Town, Wv. to get some BBQ and set at the picnic tables outside.