Buckingham Brand Smokehouse Bar-B-Q – Springfield, Missouri

Located with freakish convenience directly across from Bass Pro in Springfield, Missouri is Buckingham Brand Smokehouse Bar-B-Q.  Although Springfield is physically close to both St. Louis and Kansas City, barbecue culture isn’t really present here.  As the sign above indicates, the place is filled with awards, and that wood isn’t for show.  There’s a whole house adjacent to the restaurant where the cooking goes down, the restaurant is just for serving.

above – Brisket sandwich, potato salad, beans and ribs.  Michele always goes for brisket, but I have trouble eating brisket outside of Texas and Jewish delis.  It’s good, but what I’m looking for in brisket is thicker cut and moister than what passes for brisket in other places.  The brisket at Buckingham is good, but it definitely needs sauce, otherwise I find it too dry.

The best way to describe the style of BBQ at Buckingham is “sweet”.  The ribs, beans and potato salad all have a candy quality, not a false sweetness, but a deep, well seated sweet.  So if you like your beans sweet, this is the place to eat.  I’m working on developing an understanding and appreciation of potato salad, and the salad at Bucking ham has great spiciness, but there’s more sauce than I’d normally like.

Those ribs were delicious.  Simultaneously crispy and falling off the bones, they were sweet and had excellent marrow.  They also have the sticky-sweet quality that the beans have, and it really works here.

above – My jumbo pulled pork sandwich, in progress.  This is why I return to Buckingham on every visit to Springfield.  Great big chunks of moist pork, shredded but not stringy, on a white bread bun and doused with a sweet-hot sauce.  Pig heaven!

The Damage – Buckingham is affordable from a barbecue standpoint, a sandwich and two sides is about $6-8, depending on the size of the sandwich.  Ribs are pricier, but they’ve got a combo where you can get a non-jumbo sandwich with a side of two ribs and two sides for $8 – not bad for indecisive days.  They also have a drive thru.