There are puh-lenty of BBQ places in the Greater Atlanta Metro Area, and I'm slowly exploring all of 'em. First off, the legendary Daddy D'z BBQ Joynt.

You drive up, and it looks like just another dive. A dive painted with portraits of blues legends, true, but a dive nonetheless. Okay, yeah, a dive with giant cut-out letters over the door reading "I'm Dyin For Daddy D'z BBQ Joynt." So it ain't yer typical dive. But like it says on their website, "We ain't pretty, but we're good."

You walk in and grab a seat. The place is split into two parts, one "indoors," with a big-screen floor-model TV and some window units pumping AC in, or what I'd guess is the "porch," which has large windows propped open with planks. Nuthin' fancy. There are a few road signs, beer signs, etc. to decorate the walls (alongside more paintings of Atlanta's skyline and a guy playing a Fender Telecaster), but it's not overly-strewn with kitschy old tin signs like so many faux-dives you'll spot in these postmodern times in which we live. We opted to sit on the porch, as it wasn't too hot a night out, where we chilled with a coupla Cokes as we listened to the sounds of classic blues.

The menu covers all the bases, with the odd exception of a lack of pulled pork (it's all chopped). You've got yer ribs in various numbers (full slab, half slab, and a "rib plate" which comes with 4), rib tips, your half-or-quarter chicken (white or dark), smoked turkey, pork chops and fried shrimp for those of you who go to BBQ places to get fried shrimp (I don't know who you are, but I don't trust you). You can get Brunswick stew or red beans 'n' rice with sausage. Sides are plentiful and varied.

The wait staff is friendly and helpful. No sulking hipster types or overly-pally waitstaff that act like they want to be your best friend while you're there. Nope, just genuinely nice folks.

The appetizer arrived first. We went for Daddy D’z Famous Que Wraps. It's not often that you find the perfect combination of unlikely foods. There was the tragic accident that got somebody's chocolate in their peanut butter and their peanut butter on somebody's chocolate, and now this: BBQ pork wrapped in a slightly-doughier won ton wrapper and deep-fried, served with BBQ sauce for dipping. Fried dough *and* BBQ pork? Now THAT's two great tastes that taste great together.

Next up, the entree. I went for the half-slab rib plate with collard greens, mac and chee, and corn bread on the side.

The collards were exceptionally tasty. Cooked and served with hunks of smoked pork, and with a slightly sweet undertaste that counters the sometimes-bitter flavor of the greens and rounds out the taste nicely. I opted not to go for my usual sprinkling of pepper sauce -- that's how good they were on their own. The mac and chee is not what you'd expect; I expected a chunk of overcooked pasta in a solidified mixture of cheese and Béchamel. Nope, this was a loose and peppery concoction with cheddar. Not many places can pull this kind of approach off, but Daddy done good with it. The corn bread was one of the densest variants I've come across. More cake-like than bread-like, the 2"x2"x2" cube weighed about 5 pounds. Sweet, with corn mixed in. Great taste, but heavy!

But the ribs. Man, the ribs. Pork spare ribs that were more meat than bone. Slightly on the tough side, but not too much. Smoked nicely, with a crunchy exterior and a perfect pink smoke ring in the meat. Served Memphis-style, with a tomato/brown sugar/molasses-based sauce drizzled on top after placing them on the plate. Some folks'll tell you to ask for the sauce on the side. These folks should be avoided at all costs. If you don't walk out of a rib-eating session looking like you've just killed a brontosaurus with your bare hands, you lose. I went for the hot sauce (the wife went for mild). The hot sauce is misleadingly named -- it's not hot at all. It's *spicier* than the mild sauce, but that mainly just serves to counter the sweetness. The mild variation lacks that, and is a bit too cloying. Trust me on this, if your tongue starts burning at the mere thought of spicy food, you've got nothing to fear from Daddy's hot sauce.

I ate 'til I had to give up. And I was upset that I had to stop. And even more upset that I couldn't order dessert.

Since there's no half-points, I'm rounding up on the scoring to a 5/5. It ain't perfection, but I'd give both the ribs and the sides a solid 9/10.

It's a stone's throw away from Turner Field, so if you're in town for anything around that area, you owe it to yourself to stop in, maybe pick up some stuff for tailgating if you don't wanna eat in.

Location