The Kentucky Barbecue Book by Wes Berry

Author:Wes Berry
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813141800
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

Wildfire BBQ and Grill

Jeff Lewis cooks a whole beef brisket because he likes the way the fat renders in with the leaner meat, and I concur. Whole-cooked brisket generally suits my tastes better than one that’s been trimmed of fat. Jeff’s brisket is sliced a quarter inch thick and is appropriately tender (but not overcooked). Wildfire also offers up tender, flaky pulled (more like shredded) pork, sliced pork shoulder, smoked bologna, baby back ribs, and half chickens. “We do a world of chicken here,” Jeff said. They also do loaded potatoes, barbecue nachos, and a “smoke stack”: cornbread topped with barbecue beans, pork, cheese, onion, and pickle.

A safety environmental engineer by education and training, Jeff has “always done barbecue.” He bought a vending trailer about ten years ago and served barbecue as a hobby while working full-time for a utility company, when his wife said, “Why don’t you do what you really love?” So Jeff opened Wildfire in 2004.

Raised in Muhlenberg County and schooled at Murray State in western Kentucky, Jeff moved to Houston after college and “didn’t have a clue what brisket was.” But he found out in Texas, and he brought this knowledge back to his pleasant eat-in joint south of Franklin, a couple hundred yards off the main highway. Because of its slightly off-the-road location, Wildfire BBQ may not catch the eye of the casual traveler, but Jeff said he likes his nonprime real estate because, in his words, “I go to bed at night knowing I’m going to pay my bills. I don’t want a $5,000 a month lease over my head.” Jeff noted that they have good customer support, even during this downed economy, because they do a lot of work for churches, schools, and industries in Franklin.

I ordered a “pit combo,” which came with brisket, shredded pork, and one piece of sliced shoulder, plus turnip greens and BBQ beans, two of their best-selling sides. I also tried white beans, fried corn on the cob (half an ear of corn soaked in a saline solution and then deep fried), and fabulous home-fried potato chips—thinly sliced potatoes fried till crispy and salted. Sauces are a medium-hot tomato-based table sauce and a “way-way kick-you-like-a-mule hot one that I keep in the back” (Jeff’s words). They also have a thin vinegary pepper sauce that’s good on the shredded pork. The hot sauce is sweet but finishes with a substantial tongue burn and tingles the back of the throat. I liked it.

For indoor eating, there’s an intimate dining area with black and white checkered tables in booths, some freestanding tables, a couple of televisions mounted on the walls, ceiling fans, and wood-paneled walls, with corrugated roofing tin for wallpaper. Because it was a pretty fall day, I joined my traveling companions Shane Wood and Cooper Burton, young journalists from Western Kentucky University, at a picnic table in a screened porch area off the dining room. Shane was digging the country music that played from speakers in the porch area. “I’m not a country music fan, but it works in this environment,” he said.

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