Friday, March 30, 2007

Sonny's BBQ



Ask any of my friends and they will tell you, that I love Sonny’s BBQ. About four years ago, my friend, Tim and I started going there on our lunch break occasionally. Sonny’s has a lunch special called “The Big Deal”, that has become one of my favorite lunches (or dinners for that matter). It consists of your choice of sliced beef, sliced pork, pulled pork, beef brisket, or sliced turkey (I usually get the sliced beef or pulled pork), on garlic toast (or regular bun, Tim always gets that) with a side of fries or beans. There are a few other sides, but I only choose one or the other of those two. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, your drink, which is a massive refillable cup, is included in this, making it the “Big Deal”. 99 percent of the time I get “Sweet Tea”.

I have frequented this eating establishment so often with Tim, that there are a few waitresses who usually know exactly what we are going to order. There have been times when our “Sweet Teas”, already in “To Go” cups, have been delivered to our table before we ever placed our orders.

I think the big draw for me is that “The Big Deal”, really is a great lunch special, only around seven dollars. That and the fact that I’m a “Meat and Sauce” guy. Give me some good meat and lots of spicy sauce to dip it in and I’m happy. The meat comes out dry which allows you to add your own sauce and choose how much is applied to the meal. Which brings me to the choice of sauces that Sonny’s offers. They are as follows: Mild, Sweet, Sizzilin Sweet, and Smokin. My favorites are the latter.

I definitely have a “process” to the way I go about eating “The Big Deal”. I usually always eat my fries first, as to avoid having cold fries, which are not good. Of course the fries have ketchup applied to them before they are consumed. I then take the top piece of garlic toast off of the sandwich and apply “Smokin” sauce to the meat. Put the bread back on, flip, and apply “Sizzilin Sweet” sauce to the other side. Then, pour “Smokin” sauce off to the side on the plate. I proceed to cut the sandwich in half and dip it into the sauce on the plate. Once I’ve finished half of the sandwich, I’ll pour some “Sizzilin Sweet” sauce onto the plate and dip the other half of the sandwich into it. So good!

Mix all of this with great conversation and you have a wonderful lunch! Once finished, I’ll leave the friendly waitress a nice tip and go pay for the delicious meal I just enjoyed.
I’ve had to have eaten there around 100 times by now, or at least it feels like I have. I was just talking with some friends the other day (while at Sonny’s), that I’ve probably used up the equivalent of one of the sauce bottles.

One of the tokens you usually receive at the end of a Sonny’s meal, are “Moist Towelettes”, so your hands don’t smell like a BBQ sandwich after lunch. Above are some extra towelettes that I’ve stored in the glove box of my car.

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name…or at least what you order.

20 comments:

Anna said...

Sounds like a greatplace Chad. I have to say that I really miss NC BBQ. You dont BBQ here in London....no the real kind anyway. So when I saw the page load I started smiling. :)

I like the shot you took also!

K M F said...

Nice post

Hans said...

Your story makes me hungry !

JAM said...

Sonny's is great. There's one nearby us in Palm Bay. At home we have a whole small paper bag filled with the packets of their three sauces. I use them on all kinds of stuff at the house too.

Also, the photo below of your cousin sitting in your lap looked real. I had no idea it was put together until you said so in the text. Great work.

Chad Oneil Myers said...

Anna,
Sounds like you really miss America at times.

Jam,
That's cool that you like Sonny's as well. Thanks for the compliment on my "Photoshop" work!

Coy Hill said...

Hmmm, you’re making me Hungry!

We will have to do Sonny’s the next time we come down.

ASHE said...

We will definitely have to have a shoot the next time you visit! I thought about you last night because I unexpectedly ended up going to a '76ers game in Philly - my first NBA game. I always associate you with basketball :)

Chad Oneil Myers said...

Dad,
Definitely, we'll go to Sonny's for lunch.

Ash,
That's great!

Yeah, my love for Basketball was quite apparent when we were teens.

Annie said...

I like a barbeque place in Germantown Tennessee where they serve their sweetened (and unsweetened) tea in cups that read "Tastes so good you'll want to slap yo' mamma". And it's true, the barbecue tastes that good. Sorry, Mom.

Chad Oneil Myers said...

Annie,
Ha Ha! Sounds like a cool place!

Hans said...

In Februari I had my first winterBBQ and everybody was standing around the fire mmmm I think the summer is better...

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

i love the sound of "ette" suffix..as in " Towelette" or "dinette"........
nice shot.....i shall try out Sonny's here........

Coy Hill said...

While reading your story about Sonny’s I could not help but think that you are were writing this using Lucy’s verbose techniques! Great story, but we still miss Miss Lucy!

ASHE said...

Some basketball details for you: One of Justin's coworkers gave us tickets to one of the luxury suites - it was awesome! You were right about not a lot of people being there; it looked about half full at the most. But neither the Celtics or the Sixers are doing so hot, and the Phillies were playing an exhibition game right next door, so I bet most "hometown" fans were at the baseball game. We did get to see quite a few good plays though, and a fair share of "dunks"!

JAM said...

Chad, I've put hundreds of my photos on my regular blog over the past year, but still end up checking out pure photo blogs like yours almost daily. So I started a new photo blog myself called John's Daily Digital Images if you care to go and check it out.

Thanks.

photowannabe said...

You and my husband would be best buddies. BBQ is his passion too. I like your shot. It looks like an ad for the food. Sonny should be thrilled.

Bill said...

Stop it, your making me hungry :)

culturally literate idiot said...

Sonny's real good bar-b-q. haha.
While its true that Sonny's has some pretty tasty bbq, its the small "mom and pop" places that are better. Sonny's is good for consistant, clean, good tasting food and fairly priced meals. The real adventure for a real bbq lover is trying the places off the beaten path. I really like the pictures of the moist towelettes. It looks like they have a texture. I like it.

Jill said...

I like Sonny's, too...but I also like Carolina Country BBQ. Love BBQ!

Unknown said...

Dude,

If you're feeling adventurous next time you're in Sonny's. Order the The Big Deal with cole slaw as one of your sides. While you're at it, ask for the mustard BBQ sauce (it only comes in packets or packettes, if you prefer).

Open you sandwich and sauce as usual. But before you close it up, throw on the cole slaw. I prefer the sliced pork but I'm not a autocrat.

Enjoy.