When I think of good barbecue, I always think about that smoker or charcoal grill going with smoke bellowing through the neighborhood. Perfectly seasoned meat being place on a hot rack with that signature sizzle you listen for. A pit-master standing not too far off keeping a close eye on the fire and meat. Only difference in this story is the location of the barbecue. My vision is a backyard party with friends and family enjoying each other’s company. Five Ace’s is a family run restaurant located at 724 N 1st ST, St.Louis Mo, in the historic Laclede’s Landing.
Vanna and I are always looking to try something new when we get the chance. When we were in Las Vegas recently, we picked up some really good barbecue from SNS Diner. (Vegas review coming soon) Why not find a new place in the St. Louis area. So we hit up almighty Google and asked for “BBQ near me” and the all the places we have had before came up at the top of the list. Not today Google! We scroll down a little bit and Five Ace’s jumped out due to the name. We pull it up and see that it opens at noon and figured why not?
We were going in sight unseen, no reviews read, no price check, just checked the menu items and said lets go. We get to the restaurant and we were the only two in the place as they just opened at noon. A nice young man helped us with the menu and took our order. We were free to sit anywhere and chose a booth on the elevated platform.
The place was lit well enough and not super bright. It falls in line with other barbecue establishments. I order a seven whole wing dinner and Vanna ordered a pulled chicken sandwich with sweet potatoes as a side. I picked the fries and hot water cornbread. Vanna’s meal came out to $15.99 before tax and my meal was $19.99. Not bad for two meals at lunch time. We did not see any lunch specials which was fine as the prices were fair. No outrageous price hikes or over priced items here.
In some of the barbecue places we have been to, first orders out of the kitchen are usually not today fresh. Not an issue if the food is good and the meat is not dried out from reheating. Not here, we had fresh pulled chicken and fresh fried wings. We could hear the cook fixing our lunch while “Ray” played on the television in the front.
I didn’t run off and take many pictures because we caught them in the middle of cleaning and prepping for the day. The restaurant has a small stage area, a place to sit at the kitchen, booths, hi-tops, and a patio that overlooks the Mississippi River. This place has a lot of character pre-built in but, they have added their own touches to the place like the classic posters, and a mural behind the host booth. It was great to see a family work together and make this place something special. In the video below you can see their story and their origins in the Shaw area.
Our food arrived to the table steaming! It is nothing better than seeing a hot plate of food come to your table. Now we didn’t do any silly dance or trend before we ate the food, and I had to force myself to remember to take pictures of the food before we ate. In Las Vegas I failed to do that and did not want to do that here. Wings fresh from the fryer and hot smokey pulled chicken. We both opted for the house BBQ sauce which complemented perfectly. It is a sweet sauce but not too sweet, has a little warmth to it. I only say that to say the sauce is seasoned. It is not spicy. My wings were tossed in the sauce and Vanna’s had a nice coating to it. You can also buy their house sauce at their website.
While waiting for our main items to cool off, I dig into the fries which are fresh cut and soft like Five Guys. Salt was added to give the fries a little more life. I should have asked for BBQ sauce to drizzle on them. I was excited to try the hot water cornbread as the other place made regular cornbread with little pieces of corn added in the mix. This cornbread was flatter and more like a hot cake.
Vanna went after the sweet potatoes and after one bite could not decide if she wanted to save them for later as a dessert or eat it there as they were so good. I tried some and all I have to say, “If they are not selling sweet potato pies for thanksgiving they are missing out on money.” The hot water corn bread was nice and fluffy with butter added to the mix to give it a savory goodness. I’m gonna let y’all in on a secret, you better dip that cornbread in that sauce……………………The combination of the butter from the bread and the sweetness from the sauce…….MAGIC!
I finally get a chance to get after those wings that have been staring at me ever since they were placed. Most places when they say wings, they mean one drum or one flat is a wing. It’s not! I got seven whole wings and two sides for almost the price of a wing combo at one of those wing places………Wings, crispy. Sauce, working magic. I almost wished I would have ordered some wings to take home for later. I wonder what they could do with some smoked and fried wings in their sauce. The pulled chicken had a nice smokey flavor and was tender. No reheated chicken here.
If you are looking for some where local, has great food, and is not hard to get to, check out Five Ace’s Smokestaq Lightning
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