Ridgewood Barbecue
900 Elizabethton Hwy.
Bluff City, TN 37618
Sherri and I made a trip to Ridgewood BBQ this past Friday afternoon. As always, there was a large crowd even at 1PM but didn't have to wait long for a table. We ordered a starter of the BBQ beans for me and she ordered a bowl of their famous Blue Cheese Dip which comes with a bunch of saltine cracker packets. My beans were really good and actually hot this time. The last time I got them they were barely even warm which was pretty unusual. I do think I could eat them straight out the fridge though as they're that good!
The pork BBQ sandwiches and an order of fries we ordered were wonderful as usual but biggest letdown of the meal was the Blue Cheese Dip. I don't know what they've changed about this but what we got was nothing like we've had in the past. While it looked pretty typical and there was lots of cheese crumbled up into it, it was noticeably missing the larger chunks of blue cheese. I'll have to say that while pleasant, it didn't taste anything like what I had there for many years. It tasted more like some sort of ranch dip than blue cheese. In fact, I didn't taste any blue cheese at all! I'll have to say that Chef G.W. Clisso's Smooth Tastin' Chunky Bleu Cheese Dressing (Pound, VA) that's used by several area restaurants has a much stronger blue cheese flavor than what we were served Friday. I'm really disappointed with this!
We brought home about a half pint of it that we packed in ice and later that evening my blue cheese fanatic son had a taste of it. He also thought it tasted more like ranch and none of blue cheese. I'm hoping this is just a mixing anomaly and not what they're now settling for to serve. If so, I'll just buy G.W. Clisso's at IGA or Ingle's grocery stores.
