Oklahoma > Oklahoma City: George's Happy Hog Bar-B-Q


 
Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
George's Happy Hog Bar-B-Q
712 Culbertson Drive
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Mrs Dollar and I visited George's Happy Hog, a joint I've heard a lot about but have never been. It was opened in 2004.

The Happy Hog has a great location for the weekday lunch crowd. They're located a few blocks from our State Capitol and a few blocks the other direction from the Univ of Okla Health Science Center, which includes teaching hospitals, research, and the OU medical schools. And not much further from downtown OKC.

The menu is the basic barbecue fare ya find at most joints, ribs , brisket, chicken, sausage. I ordered ribs and chicken and Mrs Dollar got the brisket and sausage, and of course we split it up between us. George is known for his ribs and the ribs were all that. The sausage was bland with a casing that was hard to bite through. The brisket .............. was not good. It was tight and dry and almost a bit rubbery. It needed sauce, a lot of it. But the chicken was great ! Was the best thing we had, delicious.

He had two sauces on the table, and from best I could tell, one was hot and the other was hotter. There was no mild.

We got the basic sides, potato salad, beans, cole slaw, and corn on the cob. Mrs Dollar thought the potato salad tasted a lot like my Grandma's potato salad, which I'm crazy about and have been all my life, cept George's was creamy and my Grandma's recipe cubes the potatos. Both had some sweet pickle. The rest was good, but nothing to write home about.

I tried to look around back to find the smoker, but its very well hidden.

Our State Capitol, from the point ya turn to go the Happy Hog

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There's a smoker in there somewhere and George uses pecan wood

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And the aforementioned State Capitol, from a bit closer , I haven't been by there in a while

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Other than ribs and chicken, George needs to up his game. Or maybe we caught the brisket on a bad day. But there's no doubt he needs to work on his sausage.
 
Good review. Have you passed on your comments on to the owner? No one likes to receive negative feedback but how are you going to improve if no tells you there's something wrong?
 
Bill, in Oklahoma, barbecue is pork, and that' specifically ribs, spare ribs.

The very first barbecue joints I went to back in the 60's and 70's, were rib joints.

And Georges Happy Hog, like other joints I've reviewed such as Leo's and Ray's , is a rib joint. Brisket is a secondary item on the menu. And sausage usually means hot links. Brisket and sausage are central Texas barbecue. We are in the middle between Kansas City barbecue and Texas barbecue, and traditionally , we've been far more KC than Texas.

So I don't really expect great brisket from Georges or other OKC joints, and I've got a couple more on the radar I'm gonna visit and do a review that are traditional and will serve KC style barbecue, ribs with a sweet sauce that has a tang.
 
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OKLAHOMA CITY —
A community is mourning the loss of a beloved restaurant owner. Debra Ivory of George's Happy Hog Barbecue died from COVID-19. Her restaurant is one of a few remaining Black-owned businesses in the metro.

The restaurant is normally open at this time, open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except for Sundays. People have been driving by all day, but the business is temporarily closed as the family mourns the loss of Ivory.

“She always had a warm, mellow, pleasant, kind heart — my baby sister," Roscoe Buckner said.

Ivory is remembered as a mother, sister, aunt and friend to many on the Northeast side.

“Debbie's is a third generation of George's," Buckner said.

An entrepreneur, Ivory took over the George's name about 12 years ago, opening Happy Hog Barbeque.

“She said, ‘I'm going to make cakes and pads, I said, ‘OK, what else?’ She says, ‘I'm going to make potato salad, we're going to peel potatoes and we're going to make it like mom used to,’” Buckner said.

Good food along with Ivory's infectious smile and personality made this Black-owned restaurant a success.

Buckner said Ivory worked nearly every day until she was diagnosed with COVID-19 several weeks ago.

“She worked through a lot of things that we just didn't know," Buckner said.

He said COVID-19 coupled with underlying health issues was simply too much for her.

“It was swift almost nothing we could do, and it was over. We know there wasn't any suffering. We're just so heartbroken," Buckner said.

Buckner said Ivory's legacy of brought a community together with good food and company will continue through her son.

“We really think we can continue the legacy she's left," Buckner said. “Personality, probably not. She's quite a woman."

Buckner said many have ordered turkeys, cakes and pies for the Christmas holiday. The family apologizes, saying they simply can't fulfill those orders this year.
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