After watching X-Men: The Last Stand tonight, Jimi, his crew and I tromped over to Spanky’s BBQ for dinner, a spot owned by the Heartland Brewery and heavily promoted by them via outdoor ad signage throughout the city.
My half-rack order of St. Louis-style pork ribs was salty and of the “dry-rub” variety, a la that other Times Square BBQ hotspot, Virgil’s. I like ’em saucy, so they weren’t much to my liking. The atmosphere smacked of TGI Friday’s and the soundtrack of ’90s college pop-rock gave me flashbacks, and not the good kind. Also, Spanky seems keen to blacken all of his meat; like my ribs, Mike’s chicken was scabbed over with carbon. Oh, and overpriced.
All was not lost; for no discernable reason (though perhaps because we were one of the sole groups among the scattering of patrons in the cavernous dining room), the bartender had a round of his specialty cosmos sent over to our table, then followed it up with a complementary round of shots.
Spanky’s BBQ
- 127 W. 43rd St.
- (212) 575-5848
- Meal 20 of 52: half-rack of ribs (with one side and a corn bread muffin) ($14.95) and a can of PBR ($2.50).