Snead's Bar-B-Q

Snead's Bar-B-Q (171st & Holmes Rd Belton, MO 816.331.7979): Old Fashioned Hickory-Pit Bar-B-Q since 1956 W, R, Su 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. F & Sa 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. I had caught wind of Snead's a few years back but all I could remember was "somewhere south on Holmes." After visiting them for a late lunch today, I wish we had not waited so long. Snead's serves a mighty fine dry BBQ. The flavor of the bare meat is good but it's their two sauces that really make it shine. They have two flavors of homemade sauce: a mild and a hot. Most place's sauces are made hotter by just adding more pepper but at Snead's they change out their base. The mild is a sweeter, molasses based sauce while they switch out to a vinegar base for their spicy. Both are winners and after a leisurely hour there, I still couldn't decide which was the better sauce. I punted halfway through my meal and just mixed them. I ordered their small "brownies," burnt ends, which they offer beef, ham and sausage. I split it beef and sausage and it was a good call. Pork burnt ends are my weakness but this was a great call. The beef was large chunks of succulent beef, slightly marbled but not overtly so, served with a good set of sliced sausage on 4 slices of standard white-bread sliced into triangles. Covering all of that was a mess of homemade fries. If there weren't a few oddball fries in there, I'd have thought them to be a food service bag but nope, they appear to be the real deal. Most meals come with coleslaw and pickles (also irregular enough to probably be made in house). I'm not a fan of slaw in general but I could consume mass quantities of their deliciousness. My boy ordered the combo plate of ribs and sliced beef. I only had a taste of the ribs but it was fine. Not the most amazing I've ever had but toss some of their sauce on it and I'll be sucking the marrow from it. My wife went with the "log meat on a bun" which was just the left over bits and pieces finely chopped and slapped onto a bun. I think I'll have to go with that next time as it's a wonderful mix of all their meats. She also had a salad that I wish I had snapped a picture of. It was a standard house salad with a tiny dentist sized dixie cup of finely shredded cheddar cheese. What I wanted a picture of was the enormous tureen of salad dressing it came with as my wife asked for it on the side. The building itself is long and split between a smoking and non-smoking section. There were people smoking in there but the ventilation was up to the challenge of keeping it out of our section. The non-smoking section looked to be twice as large as the smoking section and lighted with plenty of natural light. We were seated in at a window-side table which looked out over, well a backyard: grass, trees, small pond, fairly standard country setting. The room itself, besides expansive, seems the sort of place that fills up with locals after Sunday service. The walls are adorned with country kitsch one would expect but in a pleasing way. I love good service and this place delivers. We were quickly seated, asked for our drink order and our waitress checked in us periodically. My massive Coca-Cola glass never ran out of iced tea which is unusual for as much as I drink. Our food was delivered promptly and everything was correct. For me, it was a lot of the little things that really made me happy to have a meal here. Drink prices, while I do understand places need to make money, it just seems wrong to me to charge 3 dollars for a glass of tea. At the risk of dating myself, I remember when places charged far less for tea than pop (and they didn't offer complimentary refills on pop either). Fountain beverages and tea (sweet or unsweet) are just $1.40 and that's fine by me. In fact, their prices all around are very reasonable. $5.75 for their sandwiches to 17.95 for a full slab of ribs with the sweet spot around 7 dollars. I feel remiss for having been to a BBQ joint and not sampling their beans but that will be remedied with the next visit. My wife has called dibs on trying their sweet potato fries. They have daily specials which I'll also have to sample at some point. The final reason I will have to visit Snead's again is pie. I should have ordered dessert first as when we walked in, a pecan pie had been listed. When it came time for ordering dessert (to go, no way we had room for it), they were down to Lemon meringue, blackberry, chocolate, apple and maybe one other? I knew we had to walk out with at least a blackberry as it's my wife's favorite berry and I might have an inclination toward chocolate. Unbeknownst to my wife, I have already sampled both and I'm surprised I was able to stop at only a forkful of each, well maybe a fork and a half. Good, flaky crust is such a thing of joy. I had to run back upstairs and check my receipt. For a minute, I thought they hadn't charged me for our slices of pie but it's just part of the whole reasonable pricing of their food that had me confused. $41.25 for 3 drinks, 2 slices of pie, a sandwich, and 2 meat-centric dinners.