Julian's BBQ Beer & Wine

The promise of jazz music while eating BBQ sounded great. Is this Hayward getting cool? It this possible? Is this the beginning of a new hipster mecca?

First of all, I have to say the idea is great. I came on a Friday and the band was ON POINT. I only wish more people were coming in for a drink or something to enjoy these guys. They were so talented and I didn't even get the name. They really made our night and if I could, I'd give them 10 stars for being such a fun band. I didn't know ANY of their songs, but they made everything sound well rehearsed when I knew, they were playing off the tops of their heads. Real. Talent.

Now to the food. We ordered an appetizer of lumpia. Wait... lumpia at a BBQ place? RIGHT. that's what I was thinking too! The cook is actually filipino! Anyways, The pork lumpia we initially ordered ran out. :( so we got the chicken lumpia. It was weird because the vegetables inside of the lumpia were definitely frozen. I understand that a lot of home cooking has things like this, but I had lima beans in my lumpia. Weird. I didn't like that quality of our order. The dipping sauce was great though. I'd skip out on the lumpia next time

We had all 4 meat dishes that were offered (other than the special: chicken).
We had one full serving of hot links and a sampler platter of spare rib, pulled pork, and BBQ beef.

The hotlinks were outstanding. It was compared to the best linguisa someone has ever had. I am afraid of hotlinks just because spiciness usually overpowers the flavor but I believe the hot link was great

The pulled pork was pretty good! I liked that it wasn't heavy on the sauce but my fellow meateater thought it was a weirdness he wasn't used to. I thought it was good.

The BBQ beef was good. I thought that it was perfectly flavored and the extra sauce put it over

The spare rib (notice that there was only one) was not very good. I didn't think it was flavorful at all and it was more of a chore to eat than a pleasure.

We had two sauces. I had a sweet sauce and  i didn't like it. We also had a spicy sauce which had the right amount of spiciness. It was good and complemented the items that we got that weren't as flavorful.

We got the cornbread side (awesome!), baked beans (awesome!), potato salad (i thought it was okay but my eating partner thought it was really good), and cole slaw (nothing too interesting to say anything about). I love cornbread though so it was a true winner in my heart.

When we checked in, we got a free dessert (score!!! Thanks yelp check-in deals!) we were really feeling the summer fruits so we got the peach cobbler because, how do you mess up a peach cobbler? When we got it, it was piled high with ice cream. Something very praiseworthy. The cobbler was not up to expectation. I love desserts but I couldn't finish this one. The cobbler was really watery and not as gooey as I was imagining it should be. The cobbler top was really mushy too, so it was just a lot of sweetness and lack of texture. I was disappointed.

I think this place is solid but don't expect your socks to be knocked off from the food. I think the drink prices are reasonable and the music is fantastic. I hope to see this place succeed and bring in large crowds of music lovers because ultimately, we stayed for the music

First trip got food to go the combo, got home thought portions where small and they forgot to give me bbq sauce.  Second trip was a street party night, they where understaffed and table was dirty and they didnt have enough menus and when we got it it was sticky.  We waited 18 minutes and no one came back to take our order so we left.  Today the 3rd time the portions where small and I could not believe a small bbq sandwich with a small side of potato salad and a beer cost me $18.00.  But it did taste real good, the only problem is I just made it home before I got sick. And since this was only thing I had eaten all day it had to be the reason. So I would not eat there again.

My sister recommended I check out Julian's BBQ after she met through the owner through her company, so we choose to dine there last night. Upon first entrance, the place was completely empty and I joked that maybe we should take it as a sign. Apparently, the restaurant is only open from Weds to Sun so we happened to be visiting on the slowest night.

The owner (I believe) welcomed us and gave us our choice of seats. We ordered sweet tea to drink (and had several refills). I enjoyed reading the menu - I felt like it had a lot of personality to it.

We both ordered the combo. I had the chicken, hot link, and ribs with greens and potato salad. She choose the chicken, bbq beef, and hot link with a side salad and fries. He returned to tell us the greens weren't done yet (sad face) so I ordered the beans instead. He also forgot to get our sauce order so he tried to describe them to us without the menus. We asked if we could try all of them and were told it wasn't a problem. :-)

When it first arrived, I was a little disappointed. I'm a big eater and most bbq places give very full portions where as my plate seemed like it was lacking. However, it was just enough food. I was completely full by the end of it. Our favorite sauce ended up being "Fire n the Hole" because it was just spicy enough. The chicken was really flavorful and moist. The hot link was delicious! My rib was well seasoned and I didn't leave a spec of meat on the bone. The beans were a great substitution (although they don't look traditional, they were delicious). The potato salad was okay (reminded me of store bought).

My sister loved the hot link as well, didn't care for the bbq beef (so she took it home), and she enjoyed the chicken as much as I did. She said the fries were great and she really enjoyed the salad dressing (toasted sesame).

For dessert we tried the peach cobbler. Definitely wasn't cobbler. The crust was like a mini cake that was hardly sweet. We didn't finish it. When he asked, she did tell him she wasn't a fan and he suggested the Black-a-pino for next time.

I'll be back to try the cider and a different combination.