The Other Critics

Slow Hand BBQ Gets a Rave for Its New Home in Pleasant Hill

Slow Hand's ribs.
Slow Hand’s ribs. Photo: J. Barmann/Grub Street

Slow Hand BBQ, easily one of our favorites for both dry-rubbed ribs and brisket when we did our Great Barbecue Tour of 2011, is no longer just a smoker attached to the back of pitmaster Dan Frengs’s pickup. Our outer-East-Bay blinders caused us to miss the August opening of Frengs’s brick-and-mortar location at 1941 Oak Park Boulevard in Pleasant Hill, in the former Smokin’ Okies space where there was already a 32-year-old wood-burning smoker in back. And now Contra Costa Times critic Tim O’Rourke brings us a rave review. He tells us that Frengs and his crew are doing St. Louis-style ribs as well as babybacks, smoked chicken, the excellent Texas-style brisket, and Carolina pulled pork, as well as a quartet of side dish options: German potato salad, beer-spiked beans with bacon, mac ‘n’ cheese, and some really good coleslaw. Sadly for us this means we won’t be finding Frengs popping up outside the Homestead or Dirty Thieves, though he did make one recent appearance at New Taste Marketplace in the Potrero. Ladies and gentlemen, this very well might give us our first reason to drive to Pleasant Hill. [CC Times]

Slow Hand BBQ Gets a Rave for Its New Home in Pleasant Hill