Five Points Still Doesn’t Get The Drift Of Barbecue

Editor’s Note: What you’re looking at here is almost as much a review of all the East Nashville spots owned by Matt Charette as it is a look at his newest place, Drifters. But Bob’s review of Drifters depends pretty heavily on a familiarity with those other businesses, so I’ve left the whole thing intact. – JK

My EastNashvilleBlog.com foodie colleagues and I recently sampled the fare at Matt Charette’s newest Five Points eatery, Drifters BBQ. Before I get into my review of Drifters, let’s take a quick glance at all of the other Charette-owned East Nashville establishments.

Beyond The Edge: This sports-themed restaurant has absolutely the dumbest theme going in East Nashville. Its logo is of a rock climber rappelling a distorted martini glass. The theme matches poorly with its pub fare food – burgers, fries, pizza, quesadillas, and various sandwiches, most of which you can tell just gets microwaved.

Beyond The Edge does thrive as a drinking establishment with good alcohol variety and popular drink specials. This is the only reason to go. They should ditch the “extreme sports” schtick and simply call themselves The Place That Doesn’t Call Last Call Early. They should also stop trying to feed us.

Battered n’ Fried: The Battered n’ Fried portion is decked out with Boston-themed kitsch. Before the Red Sox won their “miraculous” World Series those several years ago, it was rare to see anything Sox around the South. Afterwards (and continuing still), all of the “fans” have come out of the woodwork. Nothing is more annoying than being surrounded by the bandwagon when you just don’t care, and B n’ F’s Boston fetishism is no exception. Another corny theme from Charette.

Food-wise, seafood lovers like myself will definitely try this place once. While B n’ F can sometimes satisfy a rare craving, frying absolutely everything on the menu gets old quickly. There’s not much variety, and southerners already deep fry everything anyway – which makes the Boston theme even more confusing. East Nashvillians who want a good pan-seared or baked piece of fish will get no help from Battered n’ Fried.

Wave Sushi Bar: Sharing the building with Battered n’ Fried is Five Points’ only other seafood option, Wave Sushi. I have to say that the rolls I’ve had from Wave are quite good. The taste has consistency; the problem is the portions you get for the price. There are endless sushi options in Nashville that are just as good, more filling, and much better-priced. Wave Sushi Bar is like eating appetizers for dinner. The appetizer bill is well over fifty bucks, making you wish you had stayed home and rolled your own.

Watanabe: In Riverside village is Watanabe, Charette’s second sushi zone and possibly his tastiest restaurant. Watanabe has Wave prices, but more variety, better portions, and better atmosphere. (It helps when you’re not eating sushi beneath Boston newspaper clippings.) I dropped a lot of money there on my birthday, but I had a good time and felt it was worth it. Mmmmm, sea urchin.

With Drifters BBQ, Charette has added another finger to his gradually-forming stranglehold over East Nashville, but can he up the already limited, and boring, food ante? Riverside Village’s Watanabe is delicious, but despite East Nashville’s reinvention of tattooed, bohemian yuppification a lot of people around here simply can’t afford to eat at places like that all the time. Can Drifters make its mark in Nashville’s barbecue world? This review is going to split hairs, but when it comes to southerners rating their beloved BBQ, that’s just how it’s gotta be.

This review is actually a culmination of two visits. The first being with my ladyfriend a few days after it opened and the second a few nights ago with my two foodie colleagues.

When entering Drifters BBQ you can be a bit impressed at its improvements if you’re aware of what it was previously (the Alleycat Tex-Mex Lounge). Then you’ll be slightly saddened at the fact that Alleycat’s darkened drinking hole really is gone. It is much cleaner though. The Drifters logo is reminiscent of the Harley Davidson logo (groan), implying that Drifters is gearing towards that biker market. There are even a few spots reserved for motorcycles in front of the restaurant. From a culmination of two visits, and a few times walking by, I’ve seen no bikes. Not saying bikers don’t go there, just not on my schedule.

Both visits we sat in the back patio, where a small stage has been set up against the adjacent building that has been decorated on one side by a bizarre mural that’s only about 5% interesting. There is a smoker in the back (which looks like Alleycat’s old smoker), but rather than being used to cook food it’s serving as a prop for the dining tent. This is not a good sign. USE THE DAMNED SMOKER, DRIFTERS! YOU HAVE IT! USE IT!

Sauces: We ordered our beers and food and then were presented the sauce spiel by our friendly server. There is Tennessee sauce, a vinegar-based classic that should really be called Middle Tennessee sauce since Tennessee sauces become more tomato-based when you get near Memphis and become more Carolina-style, mustard-based as you head east. Next on the list is Texas sauce, a sweet and smokey mesquite – not bad, but they don’t seem to be smoking it in the smoker. Then there’s the “Georgia” sauce, mustard based – probably my favorite, though I always thought mustard sauce was from Carolina. I can’t say I’ve ever had Georgia sauce to be honest. Finally there’s the New Mexico sauce, with a kick that I usually prefer in sauces; however, I think the jalapeno flavoring is dull. I think one of the other foodies liked it though. (There’s also a bit of Sriracha mixed in with this sauce, which is the main reason for it tasting good. – JK)

Now the culmination of foods we ordered were pork (two different times, both a little different), brisket (Jason will cover this one, I didn’t try it), baked beans, cole slaw, hush puppies, blackberry cobbler, barbecue tofu, and cherry cheesecake bread pudding.

The Pork (the kicker): The pork, as I’ve stated before, is not smoked. It is oven roasted for 16 hours. When I first tried the pork on my first visit it wasn’t sloppy (which is good), but was slightly crisped. It wasn’t quite dry, thankfully, but those crispy bits tend to be a lot better when the pork is smoked; smoked barbecue’s crispy bits tend to be from a rub and can pack a good flavor. The oven roasted crispiness with Drifters’ pork seemed to not offer any real additional zing to the meat.

On the first visit, the pork did retain a satisfying flavor. But during our second visit the pork was a lot soggier, which is a problem. It would seem to be an attempt to keep it from drying out, which is understandable, but sometimes sogginess can reduce flavor. Sogginess can also leave a weird taste similar to dry meat; while the meat isn’t actually dry, it becomes a bit bland due to over-moisturization. Anybody can cook pork, but nurturing it helps to toe that fine line. If you’ve ever tried to cook pork or brisket, you know these can be easy mistakes to make. Drifters gets an average rating for the pork the first go-round, a sub-par rating for the pork a second time around.

The pork-plate portions are not what barbecue fans are used to. But in Drifters’ defense, these are actually reasonable in terms of the amounts of food people should consume. I just can’t picture a biker being thrilled at a barbecue joint eating his beloved pork with even the slightest bit of pretentiousness. The pretentiousness isn’t extreme, but it’s there; for just one example, the sides in the plastic little ramekins may be a bit too adorable for a barbecue joint. The “high end” aspect of Drifters doesn’t mean anything when the “low brow” barbecue joints are serving consistent meat every time. You could serve your barbecue from a bathroom for all I care – so long as the meat is perfect every single time, I will always come back.

Brisket: Nobody who’s ever spent time in Texas eating real brisket would be satisfied by this offering. First of all, it’s not even true barbecue; our knowledgeable waiter told me that like the pork, the brisket is slow-roasted all day long. While I appreciate the work that goes into a slow roast, you should call it what it is – a roast. Maybe you could get away with passing it off as brisket in some other part of the country where people don’t know anything about barbecue, but doing this in a town like Nashville where there’s already so much good barbecue around is borderline shameful. So far as slow-roasted beef goes, though, it’s got decent flavor. Unfortunately, much like the pork it was on the soggy side. – JK

Baked Beans and Coleslaw: The baked beans were tasty. The cole slaw was cole slaw. I’ll let my colleagues handle the sides in more detail, due to lack of specifics regarding these foods in my memory banks. (The baked beans had more than enough bacon to satisfy the soul, and their sauce was well-seasoned; I found them to be the best part of the meal. The cole slaw, though, was so drowned in mayonnaise that it lost any other attempt at flavor. Skip it and go for something else if you have the choice. – JK)

Now for the good news…

BBQ Tofu: My vegetarian ladyfriend was thrilled to be able to eat something at a BBQ joint. Drifters wins big points for this. Dry rubbed rectangular cuts with a decent spice, the crispy edges work well for tofu. This option does distinguish Drifters from all other BBQ joints. Satisfying for veggie-heads who aren’t into the flavorful wonders of animal flesh.

Hush Puppies: Spot on! Served with a tasty, white Alabama sauce, these were perfectly shaped and not too greasy. These are the style of hush puppies I always liked growing up. Well done.

And the best news of all…

Dessert (Blackberry Cobbler and Cherry Cheesecake Bread pudding): On the first visit, I topped off my very typical barbecue dinner with the blackberry cobbler. One thing I should say about the desserts: while the dinner was of average portion, the desserts don’t hold back on immensity – so make sure you share. This won’t be a problem seeing as my blackberry cobbler was very delicious. The amount of cooked fruit and crust were very well-matched, and the crust itself was perfectly flaky throughout every bite. It was easily the best thing I ate that evening, though I’m not used to eating blackberry cobbler without seeds. Growing up, all the cobbler I ever had was from hand-picked wild blackberries; country folk don’t bother straining out the seeds, and us youngsters didn’t seem to care. The seeds weren’t present at Drifters, and that’s good; a country kitchen is one thing, but a restaurant should make sure they get those pesky things out.

Dessert on our second visit also didn’t disappoint. They were out of the cobbler so I gave the Cherry Cheesecake Bread Pudding a try. Hot damn! Another big portion that looked heavy as a brick, but had a very delicate texture. Much like the cobbler the ingredients were very even throughout. Whoever is making the desserts at Drifters is on their game!

So all told, Drifters isn’t a complete failure. Some items on the menu are well done, but they lack heavily where it counts most – in the meat department. This place is a barbecue joint, after all. You’ve got to get that pork right or you just wont draw in the barbecue aficionados. I recommend you get your meat somewhere else, and then stop by Drifters for the bad-ass desserts.

With its kitchen staying open until midnight, Drifters is probably the second-best place to get some food at Five Points after 10pm – but that really isn’t saying much. Food is never the pull for Five Points; it’s the drinking that brings us in. If you’re drunk enough it doesn’t matter to anyone what you shove down your gullet. Unfortunately, Five Points relies too much on this. The only good food there comes from those who keep it simple and sweet: I Dream of Weenie, Mas Tacos Por Favor, and Pied Piper Creamery (not a suitable dinner, but still pleases).

I will be giving Drifters one more shot in the near future. I’m still curious about the Danish Rub Baby back Ribs, but they’d have to be damn good if they hope to move Drifters’ meats out of mediocrity.

Other posts that may interest you:

1. King Solomon’s Gyros: Friendly, Fresh and Cheap
2. Spicehead Paradise: Nashville’s Third Annual Hot Chicken Festival Recap
3. Market to Table: Dang Good Eastside Pork Chops