Barbecue at Bill's actually is bodacious
Nothing fills a restaurant critic's heart with more trepidation — besides maybe a long, slow amble through a restaurant kitchen — than reviewing a place run by really, really nice folks. Truth-tellers by trade, we critics have to call the food as we see it, no matter how good the intentions.
So imagine my relief to find the food at Bill's Bodacious BBQ every bit as easy to like as the people who made it. With their ready smiles and trademark goodwill, Bill and Carol McGraw ran Bill's Bodacious in downtown Renton for four years before closing up shop for Bill to, in his words, "get a real job."
When that endeavor went south, the McGraws headed east — opening (along with their daughter and son-in-law) Bodacious in a strip mall near Renton Technical College. It's not a lot to look at — an order counter and price board under bright fluorescents with a dining room done in Early Log Cabin — but then it doesn't need to be.
No small percentage of McGraw's customers come for their fix of smoky Kansas City-style barbecued ribs ($17.50 by the slab), or chicken ($9 whole), or pulled pork ($8.25 per pound), or beef ($8.25 per pound) — to be savored with Bill's feisty Secret Weapon Sauce ($4.50 for 8 ounces, $6.50 for 16 ounces) at home.
The barbecue is classic spice-rubbed, slow-cooked KC style, but smoked over alder instead of hickory and served with a zingy red sauce that may remind you more of a classic sweet-and-sour than the molasses-y brew most often purveyed with smoked meats.
Order a meal and you'll get a cornbread muffin and your choice of two sides along with the main attraction. (Barbecued sandwiches are also available for $5.50, but who has room to sample one?)
If you're smart you'll wind up with a tin of the McGraws' impossibly delicious homemade sweet-potato pie ($3.50): a terrific finale, which as luck would have it, happens to be almost exactly as sweet as Bill and Carol McGraw.
Check Please
Ribs and chicken combo dinner: Mmmm, mmmm. Eat the chicken first — it’s smoky and savory, if a wee bit dry — because you’ll want to save the best for last. The McGraw’s fall-off-the-bone ribs are perfect showcases for their peppery dry rub and original, almost Asian-tasting barbecue sauce. With it we enjoyed two side dishes: Crisp, sweet-tart cole slaw, and a fresh and intentional serving of red beans and rice. (Somebody else’s corn on the cob, another side dish option, had been overcooked; their baked beans, sweet and substantial, inspired innumerable stolen forkfuls.)
Pork dinner: Alas, pulled pork ought to be moist; this, Bill’s least successful meat, was too dry. The sides more than made up for it. Collard and mustard greens were tenderly, respectfully cooked, while the potato salad was a revelation: Lavishly creamy, filled with terrific potatoes and crispy supporting players, and spiked most mischievously with a streak of cayenne. I could’ve eaten a pound of the stuff (available, as it happens, for $3.95).
Cornbread: So hefty and grainy you’re sure it will be dry, this oversized muffin (served with every meal) is, in fact, so moist and delicious within it’s almost creamy. Absolutely addictive.
Sweet-potato pie: Lawdy, lawdy, it’s good! Within an individual tart crust sits a perfect exemplar of the South’s proudest achievement: Flavorful and firm, and bursting with sweetness. Carol McGraw’s also proud of her mother’s peach and blackberry cobbler ($3.50), but I’m afraid I can’t get past the pie.
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