The Hardhat Cafe (BBQ)

The Hardhat Cafe is a local restaurant that I pass all the time. It was a gas station/convenience store at one time, and still has the island for the pumps out front. The only advertisement that I have seen is "BBQ on Saturday". Well that is enough to get my attention. So I had to try it. Since then, I have been back several times, mainly because it is so close to my house. The restaurant offers a small buffet or one can order from the menu. The buffet (at least on Saturdays) has fried chicken, BBQ pork, BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, hushpuppies, corn, rice, tomatoes and okra, cabbage, green beans, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, slaw, potato salad, and banana pudding. I think they have a loaf of bread too. The fried chicken is good (how hard is that to mess up) and the sides have a good flavor without being oversalted or have too much grease added. The atmosphere is a little lacking, and the restaurant is decorated with industrial safety equipment, as the name implies. The workers are friendly though and the service has been good for me.

They have three BBQ sauces, a mustard based sauce, a spicy red sauce, and a normal red sauce. The mustard based sauce is sweet and rivals any mustard based sauce I have ever had. I really like it. The red sauce is pretty normal, fairly thick and sweet and tangy. The spicy red sauce is thinner and has a lot of pepper seeds in it. I am guessing it is vinegar based.

The BBQ pork is chopped to about an inch long. It does not have a very strong red color so I am guessing that it is cooked on a gas grill. It does not have a strong smoky flavor either. It is, however, very juicy and has good taste. It appears that most of the undesirable parts of the meat were removed before it was chopped so it is very appealing. In my opinion, it is some of the best non-smoked, cooked over a gas grill BBQ I have had.

The BBQ ribs are pre-cut before hitting the buffet. They use the full ribs, not the baby back ribs. The red sauce is basted on the ribs and is sticky and sweet from the cooking process. The meat is pretty tender and has little bit of a red color than the BBQ pork. I guess this is from spending more time on the grill, but could be due to the sauce being mopped on it. The ribs are excellent. Every one I have tried has fallen off the bone. They could use a better cut of rib or either cut the ribs better, but that is sweating about the small stuff.

I have eaten there last weekend and the weekend before, as well as a couple of other times. I plan to eat there again.