Aldie Country Store

We stopped on our way home because we had read an article in WashPost about this establishment. My first impression was that the store was dirty. The food is all the way in the back. The cashier/cook/salesman was trying to push the ribs. He gave us a taste that was very good.  We ordered one slab to take home. The cost was about $22 for one slab. He kept pushing us to buy more buy the slabs are really big so we decided on only one.

I am glad we only had one. The meat on the rib was tough, tasteless and clearly old meat. It tasted like lighter fluid and were very greasy. I ate one rib and felt sick (I was sick the rest of the night). I ended giving my dog some of the rib meat but it looks like it also made her sick.

I will avoid this place. For good barbecue go to Willard's, Carolina Brothers or Famous Dave's.

Having a clean place to serve food is pretty important to me.  Smells sooo yummy driving by this place, but trust me, keep driving.  Food isn't even good.  If you're looking for some good BBQ check out Willards BBQ in Chantilly.

We've driven past this place many a time when heading out to Middleburg or our favorite winery in Aldie.  There's always a smoker going on, one of those huge black machines that cooks up the meat and belches tons of smoke that smells delicious.  We finally decided to stop to check it out.

Was surprised to see that the Aldie Country Store is run by a young, hyper man who is cook, chief and bottle washer all at the same time.  He literally darts from place to place, running out front to check on his BBQ ribs and then sprinting back again to help a customer, all the while preparing an order for someone else.  It was exhausting just watching him.  

One thing I didn't like was his constant, aggressive sales pitch while you are trying to decide what to order.  He is pushy, but as soon as you say no he does stop.  A minute later he's back at it, trying to push something else.  It was kind of annoying.  He did give us a small sample of the rib meat and it was good.  But I didn't need a whole rack (or half rack for that matter) since we just wanted a few sandwiches for a picnic at the winery.  He was pretty insistent that we should get the ribs and I had to be rather firm in telling him no.  But who wants to do that every time?

By the way, there is an article on his counter from The Washington Post.  Apparently, the guy was a chef in his native country but he is forbidden from tasting the BBQ meat he cooks for religious reasons.  

The BBQ beef sandwiches we got were good, but I don't think I'll go back.  The store looks dirty, and I was a little worried that the food would make me sick.  It didn't, but it's not really worth another trip to tempt the fates.