Sauced BBQ & Spirits
2300 First St. Suite 120
Livermore, CA 94550
www.saucedbbqandspirits.com
Additional locations: Walnut Creek, Sacramento, San Jose, Orange.
Petaluma location has closed.
In February of this year, I read an article in the San Jose Mercury News about a BBQ joint called Sauced BBQ & Spirits. It's run by cousins Barrett Jones and Brenden Scanlan with locations in Livermore and Petaluma, and they are preparing to open new locations in Walnut Creek and Downtown Sacramento near the Sacramento Kings arena that is currently under construction and scheduled to open in Fall 2016.
My wife and I visited the Livermore location for lunch today and we were very happy with the whole experience, except maybe the parking, which can be challenging. Livermore has a great downtown scene with lots of restaurants, bars and shops, and Sauced is located right in the heart of downtown in a big ~5700 square foot space with lots of indoor seating spread across the bar and dining room, plus outdoor patio seating across the front and around the side of the building for those warm Tri-Valley nights.
Orders are taken and served at the table. The menu is quite extensive, offering barbecue plates, traditional barbecue sandwiches, specialty sandwiches like fried chicken, Cuban, brisket philly, and pastrami reuben, plus appetizers like sliders, jalapeno poppers, fried pickles, cornbread fritters, and nachos that incorporate barbecued meat. For those not wanting BBQ, there were a variety of burgers and Texas sausages served hot dog style, salads, soups, Brunswick stew, and chili.
Barbecue meats include sliced brisket, burnt ends, pulled pork, baby back ribs, sausage link, 1/2 chicken, and wings. Meats are cooked over hickory and apple wood. Four sauces are served on the side at the table: the Tin Roof KC style sauce, the Hot Tin Roof KC style sauce with habanero, the Georgia Gold mustard-based sauce, and the Pig Candy sweet and tangy sauce (which seemed a lot more sweet than tangy to us). The regular Tin Roof sauce was my favorite, I'd be happy to put it on my own barbecue at home (and you can buy bottles to go).
We had a 3 meat combo of brisket, pulled pork and baby back ribs. The brisket was moist and flavorful with good smokiness, with some lean and some fatty slices--very good! The pulled pork was moist and tender, and I think we detected a bit of vinegar flavor in the meat. The ribs had good taste, not swimming in sauce, and were fall off the bone tender as you'd expect to find in most restaurants, but were a wee bit on the dry side.
We also ordered a burnt end sandwich. Tender brisket cubes were lightly sauced and piled high on a soft brioche bun. One of my pet peeves about BBQ sandwiches is the type of bread used (too soft, too dry, too bready) and the ratio of meat to bread. This sandwich was done just right. The brioche bun was soft but not so soft that it fell apart when handled, and the amount of meat was well matched to the size of the bun. The menu said these burnt ends were made from the fatty brisket point, but they were so lean and tight I suspect they were from the flat portion. But they were darn tasty.
The combo plate came with two sides. We chose mac & cheese and honey cornbread. The mac was very good but not amazing. The cornbread had real bits of fresh corn inside and was fairly thin and crispy with good corn flavor. The sandwich came with one side and we chose french fries. There was a generous amount of fries on the plate and they were hot & crispy. They come plain, but for an upcharge you can get them dusted with BBQ rub. We also ordered a side of baked beans...smokey, very dark brown, sweet, and delicious! Other sides that we did not try include sour apple slaw, sweet potato casserole, jalapeno cheese grits, collard greens, chili, Brunswick stew, house salad and fruit cup.
We didn't have room for dessert, but they offer peanut butter pie, banana pudding, ice cream sundae, fried Oreos with ice cream, and an alcoholic root beer float.
You may have noticed that the place is called "Sauced BBQ & Spirits" and there's a BIG emphasis on spirits here. They've got their own collection of house beers, a selection of guest beers, mixed drinks, and a list of whiskey and rye so big my eyes glazed over.
Sauced BBQ is decorated in the popular "shabby chic" barbecue style with weathered barnwood on the walls, a tin ceiling of mismatched tiles, light fixtures made from metal pipes and Mason jars, and funky signage. There's trivia on Tuesday nights, Beer, Barbecue & Bingo on Wednesday nights and live music on Friday and Saturday nights. And for all the times in between, there are lots of big screen TVs displaying all the sports action.
The restaurant opens at 11:00 am each day and closes at 9:00 pm, 10:00 pm, 11:00 pm or 1:00 am depending on the day of the week, with the kitchen shutting down 60-90 minutes before closing time. As with any BBQ joint, I'd recommend visiting during lunch for the freshest, most tasty barbecue meal. Visiting on a Friday night for live music, pulled pork nachos, and a few craft beers also sounds like a good idea.
As for price and value, the prices are steep...$16.50 for the burnt ends sandwich with one side, $30.50 for the three meat combo plate with two sides. A pint of house beer was $6. But the cost of doing business in California is high and the quality of the barbecue was VERY high by any standard, and the portion size was quite good. My wife and I shared the 3-meat combo, the sandwich and all the sides and we left stuffed and still took home $10 worth of leftovers.
Sauced BBQ might not be your cheap, everyday, go-to dining destination, but the place was crowded during our Friday lunch visit and if I had one closer to me in San Jose, I'd be tempted to visit when I felt like treating myself to some real solid barbecue.
Here are some photos I took of Sauced BBQ and our meal. Hope you enjoy!
Continued...
2300 First St. Suite 120
Livermore, CA 94550
www.saucedbbqandspirits.com
Additional locations: Walnut Creek, Sacramento, San Jose, Orange.
Petaluma location has closed.
In February of this year, I read an article in the San Jose Mercury News about a BBQ joint called Sauced BBQ & Spirits. It's run by cousins Barrett Jones and Brenden Scanlan with locations in Livermore and Petaluma, and they are preparing to open new locations in Walnut Creek and Downtown Sacramento near the Sacramento Kings arena that is currently under construction and scheduled to open in Fall 2016.
My wife and I visited the Livermore location for lunch today and we were very happy with the whole experience, except maybe the parking, which can be challenging. Livermore has a great downtown scene with lots of restaurants, bars and shops, and Sauced is located right in the heart of downtown in a big ~5700 square foot space with lots of indoor seating spread across the bar and dining room, plus outdoor patio seating across the front and around the side of the building for those warm Tri-Valley nights.
Orders are taken and served at the table. The menu is quite extensive, offering barbecue plates, traditional barbecue sandwiches, specialty sandwiches like fried chicken, Cuban, brisket philly, and pastrami reuben, plus appetizers like sliders, jalapeno poppers, fried pickles, cornbread fritters, and nachos that incorporate barbecued meat. For those not wanting BBQ, there were a variety of burgers and Texas sausages served hot dog style, salads, soups, Brunswick stew, and chili.
Barbecue meats include sliced brisket, burnt ends, pulled pork, baby back ribs, sausage link, 1/2 chicken, and wings. Meats are cooked over hickory and apple wood. Four sauces are served on the side at the table: the Tin Roof KC style sauce, the Hot Tin Roof KC style sauce with habanero, the Georgia Gold mustard-based sauce, and the Pig Candy sweet and tangy sauce (which seemed a lot more sweet than tangy to us). The regular Tin Roof sauce was my favorite, I'd be happy to put it on my own barbecue at home (and you can buy bottles to go).
We had a 3 meat combo of brisket, pulled pork and baby back ribs. The brisket was moist and flavorful with good smokiness, with some lean and some fatty slices--very good! The pulled pork was moist and tender, and I think we detected a bit of vinegar flavor in the meat. The ribs had good taste, not swimming in sauce, and were fall off the bone tender as you'd expect to find in most restaurants, but were a wee bit on the dry side.
We also ordered a burnt end sandwich. Tender brisket cubes were lightly sauced and piled high on a soft brioche bun. One of my pet peeves about BBQ sandwiches is the type of bread used (too soft, too dry, too bready) and the ratio of meat to bread. This sandwich was done just right. The brioche bun was soft but not so soft that it fell apart when handled, and the amount of meat was well matched to the size of the bun. The menu said these burnt ends were made from the fatty brisket point, but they were so lean and tight I suspect they were from the flat portion. But they were darn tasty.
The combo plate came with two sides. We chose mac & cheese and honey cornbread. The mac was very good but not amazing. The cornbread had real bits of fresh corn inside and was fairly thin and crispy with good corn flavor. The sandwich came with one side and we chose french fries. There was a generous amount of fries on the plate and they were hot & crispy. They come plain, but for an upcharge you can get them dusted with BBQ rub. We also ordered a side of baked beans...smokey, very dark brown, sweet, and delicious! Other sides that we did not try include sour apple slaw, sweet potato casserole, jalapeno cheese grits, collard greens, chili, Brunswick stew, house salad and fruit cup.
We didn't have room for dessert, but they offer peanut butter pie, banana pudding, ice cream sundae, fried Oreos with ice cream, and an alcoholic root beer float.
You may have noticed that the place is called "Sauced BBQ & Spirits" and there's a BIG emphasis on spirits here. They've got their own collection of house beers, a selection of guest beers, mixed drinks, and a list of whiskey and rye so big my eyes glazed over.
Sauced BBQ is decorated in the popular "shabby chic" barbecue style with weathered barnwood on the walls, a tin ceiling of mismatched tiles, light fixtures made from metal pipes and Mason jars, and funky signage. There's trivia on Tuesday nights, Beer, Barbecue & Bingo on Wednesday nights and live music on Friday and Saturday nights. And for all the times in between, there are lots of big screen TVs displaying all the sports action.
The restaurant opens at 11:00 am each day and closes at 9:00 pm, 10:00 pm, 11:00 pm or 1:00 am depending on the day of the week, with the kitchen shutting down 60-90 minutes before closing time. As with any BBQ joint, I'd recommend visiting during lunch for the freshest, most tasty barbecue meal. Visiting on a Friday night for live music, pulled pork nachos, and a few craft beers also sounds like a good idea.
As for price and value, the prices are steep...$16.50 for the burnt ends sandwich with one side, $30.50 for the three meat combo plate with two sides. A pint of house beer was $6. But the cost of doing business in California is high and the quality of the barbecue was VERY high by any standard, and the portion size was quite good. My wife and I shared the 3-meat combo, the sandwich and all the sides and we left stuffed and still took home $10 worth of leftovers.
Sauced BBQ might not be your cheap, everyday, go-to dining destination, but the place was crowded during our Friday lunch visit and if I had one closer to me in San Jose, I'd be tempted to visit when I felt like treating myself to some real solid barbecue.
Here are some photos I took of Sauced BBQ and our meal. Hope you enjoy!
Continued...
Last edited:
