Hatfield's BBQ & Blackjacks Beer Garden

Just to put it out there. This is not the original Hatfield's that was rated in Texas monthly. It is only blackjacks beer-garden and a feeble effort on BBQ service. Hatfield's the real McCoy is now located on Market street about halfway between business 35 and the 35 Bypass. I will do a review on it next but for the record it rocks and if you want the real thing head a couple miles south west of the impostors!

I will start off on a positive note and say that if you like pork ribs, you are safe here. They were perfectly cooked and came off the bone easily but only when bitten into. The Texas Monthly article said they cook on indirect heat but there was a clear absence of smoke at work on the ribs and instead it had the taste of coals. Either way, the ribs were good. Not great but good. I also had beans and baked potato salad, both of which were pretty good. The brisket was terribly undercooked. Not just a little bit. They missed the internal sweet spot by about 15 degrees. There was also an absence of flavor in the crust and there were chunks of unrendered fat from being undercooked. Texas Monthly claimed that they smoke their briskets for 18 hours. This is clearly not the case here. Yes, everyone has off days. I've had briskets miss the mark before. Only difference is that I would NEVER serve them. There may be a rumor about some behind the scenes issues and Kenny Hatfield not being there anymore. The sign out front said pitmaster George so there is probably some truth to the rumor. A true pitmaster would never serve meat that misses the mark by 10-15 degrees. Also, a supervised kitchen would not put out rock hard, undercooked "baked" potatoes. Hell, if the potatoes weren't done, a trained staff would have informed the customers or take it off the menu board. Epic "Top 50" collapse here, folks. Do yourself a favor and keep driving if you're in Rockport. On a side note there was some brisket that was fully cooked. It just happened to be added to the beans. Also, service is SLOW SLOW SLOW so don't go there in a hurry.

In my quest to try all Top 50 BBQ restaurants I visited Hatfield's last week.  I had the brisket, pulled pork and potato salad.  Here's the lowdown:

Pulled pork - Decent but nothing great.  Some tough pieces but mostly tender.  Just nothing out of the ordinary.

Potato salad - This was the best thing here.  It's more like a loaded baked potato salad.  Unfortunately, it's not good enough to make up for the meats.

Brisket - This is what truly matter and Hatfield's fall way short of even being decent.  We ordered the moist/fatty brisket but even this was not very flavorful and was pretty tough.  We threw away the last 4 pieces after continually questioning why we were still eating it.  Big letdown.

The atmosphere is pretty neat but again it cannot make up for the poor quality BBQ.  I wouldn't go back for seconds.