21 Nov, 2009
Johnny Reb’s Southern Roadhouse is California’s Smokin’ Hot BBQ!
Posted by: Beach Reporter In: california| dining
I was going to take a picture of my food at Johnny Reb’s but I forgot. It’s so smokin’ hot, you just gobble it down when it arrives at your table. It’s the only restaurant where NOBODY’s on a cell phone. Their mouths are too busy–eating.
When you order BBQ chicken or ribs at Johnny Reb’s, they are cooked so slow and long in wood smoke that the chicken bones turn red, and smokey flavor stays on your hands hours later, even after you wash them.
Sweet potato fries…these are the finest. Everyone who tastes Johnny Reb’s sweet potato fries leaves their own golden fries behind and bee-hives their way to my plate for more, which is fine.
Tea? Sweetened ice tea comes in big, Ball jars. It is so satisfying that you can drink a couple jar-fulls, then by-pass the peach cobbler desert in favor of this candy-flavored beverage. Other sweet drinks include peach, cherry, or mint julep lemonade.
Bitty salad…ice cold, crispy, with a slice of dill pickle on top. And it’s “all you can eat.”
Hush puppies… hot, crunchy crust, smooth inside these flavorful, buttery balls. Mighty fine.
Birthday? Kiss the pig and stomp on peanut shells, then yell “yee-haw” with the crowd.
The Elvis Shrine Photo- -he’s smiling and looking at you, no matter where you sit. He’s alive!
Bathroom? Grab the spoon handle on the door and step into a cozy room with the noise of clucking chickens, cows mooing, and pigs oinking.There’s something so comforting about farm animal sounds and bathrooms!
Before you get a bill, the friendly folks ask you if you “jaunt smo” (want some more).
“Addle doot” (that will do it,) you answer back.
“Smat ju, jeet nuf?” (What’s the matter with you, did you eat enough?) your friends ask as you wear that painful grin of over-indulgence.
Don’t undo the pants or belt buckle just yet. Pay the bill and leave a tip.
Grab a toothpick heading out the door, where the bathtub filled with flowers at the foot of the stairs reminds you that it’s time to go home to relax.
As you drive away, you notice an Indiana license plate on the car in front of yours and you ask, “Isn’t that where Ball jars that they use in Johnny Reb’s come from?” Recalling the license plates from various states hung on the walls inside the roadhouse, you turn on the country music and and slide your tongue across your teeth to dig out that piece of meat caught between them.
It is just one more reminder that it’s good to be in California, where you can get a real Southern meal at Johnny Reb’s restaurant, located in Orange, Long Beach, Bellflower and Victorville.
Cost: $8 - 25 per person. johnnyrebs.com
