This 96-Year-Old BBQ Joint Is One of the Best to Ever Do It
Fresh Air Barbecue's original Georgia location has excellent pork, Brunswick stew, and slaw, all housed in a blast-from-the-past building.
This week’s guest article is written by John Tanner, founder of John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog. John is based in Washington, D.C., and has been writing about barbecue joints, events, and notable people in BBQ since 2015.
Wow! Now that’s what a barbecue sandwich should taste like.
That was exactly what I said to myself after taking the first bite of my sandwich at Fresh Air Barbecue in Jackson, Georgia, located southeast of Atlanta. Fresh Air has been there for 96 years now, and has spawned outposts in Macon and Athens. I wanted the original, and I am so glad I did. Here it is.
Now, doesn’t that look like a place with good barbecue? There’s some outside seating and an old-time interior.
Inside, things are pretty quiet at 9 a.m. as you walk up to the counter, but the stacks of plates and towers of plastic containers foretell a busy Friday ahead.
The menu is off to the side, and yes, those are current prices. Honest. The ravages of inflation have driven the price of a sandwich all the way up from $3.79 to $3.99.
There’s table seating opposite the counter, and more seating in the room beyond, with another dining room beyond that, and maybe more all the way to Tennessee.
Way down at the end of the building there’s a larger dining room that fills the brick addition. Fresh Air is huge, but the dark wood maintains the warm rustic feel throughout.
After chatting with the lady pictured above, who is, by the way, a delight, I ordered a small sandwich, slaw, and Brunswick stew. I think they accept credit cards, but you won’t need much cash in any event.
Here’s the pork sandwich.
You can see that the pork came between two slices of white bread, and I’ll pause to note how surprisingly fresh the bread was. It used to be that commercial bakeries dotted the landscape (and smelled delicious) and supermarkets sold fresh bread every day.
The bakeries themselves had a side space that sold “day-old” bread for half price. Today’s supermarket bread is loaded with preservatives and lasts for weeks, but it never, ever tastes really fresh, not even on the day it’s delivered. This bread was perfectly fresh, and the difference in flavor and texture was remarkable. The same was true at Vandy’s.
Back to the pork, the star of the show. It tasted, as I said at the outset, the way barbecue should. It was freshly cooked and chopped with bits of outside meat, and it had that exceptional richness that you can only get with direct heat.
One of the best sauces around lightly dressed the meat. Fresh Air has two sauces on the tables, Mild and Hot, and both are vinegar-based with terrific seasonings. I bought a bottle of each, which I hardly ever do.
One odd thing is that Fresh Air cooks hams rather than the fattier shoulders or butts, and I honestly don’t see how they keep the meat so succulent. My experience with ham barbecue, even in a wonderful restaurant, has been unfavorable. The Fresh Air ham was right up there with the best. Amazing.
The Brunswick stew was the co-star of the meal. There was a freshness to the vegetables in it, and to the meat as well, that gave it a lively feel, if that makes sense. I added some hot sauce on the recommendation of the wise lady at the counter, and that took it up near the platonic ideal of Brunswick stew.
Be sure to order some slaw. It was fresh and refreshing, delightful, really. It’s right up there with the great slaws of North Carolina.
Fresh Air definitely is an all-time great BBQ joint. No question. Add it to your “To Eat” list and start making plans to visit immediately. Order the pork, Brunswick stew, and slaw, and get ready to go back for some banana pudding or pecan pie.
John Tanner
Founder, John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog
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Kansas City Magazine has recently released an issue dedicated to barbecue, with articles about many of the best joints in town. These include:
A deep dive about Harp Barbecue in Overland Park, which it calls KC’s Best Craft Barbecue
A profile of Smoke ‘n’ Seoul, which it says is KC’s Best BBQ Food Truck
A fresh look at Slap’s BBQ, its pick for Best Competition BBQ in town
A write-up of cross-cultural BBQ joints in KC that are “straying from KC-style ’cue and making something uniquely delicious.”
Ten months after a devastating fire, the iconic Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, North Carolina, has fully reopened. “[We are] finally back in action — smokin’, sizzlin’, and servin’ up the same juicy tradition you know and love on our BRAND NEW PITS!!!,” the team announced on social media.
And here are five great BBQ spots in Charleston, according to our friends at American Weekender:
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