Details add to standard smokiness
| Tuesday, Jun 16 2009 06:45 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Jun 16 2009 06:45 PM
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4208 Rosedale Highway
325-8800
Myspace.com/freds bbqfactorycatering
Hours: 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Prices: Barbecue boats $7-$7.95, salads $6.95-$7.95, sandwiches $6.95-$9.95, entrees $6.50-$10.25, combo plates $10.50-$12.75. No child's plate.
Payment: MasterCard and VISA accepted. Does not accept American Express, Discover, personal checks or The Californian's Press Pass.
Dress: Casual.
Amenities: Wheelchair accessible; no alcohol served; no vegetarian options.
Food: HHH
Atmosphere: HH
Service: HHH
Value: HHH1/2
What do you think of Fred's Barbecue Factory -- or any restaurant, for that matter? Go to Bakersfield.com/ insideguide and share your review.
Longtime residents will remember a restaurant near the Ice House off North Chester called the Barbecue Factory that opened in 1987. Fred Allison opened it and used Jose and Julio Leon as his chefs.
The trio have reunited in a smaller locale on Rosedale Highway, west of Highway 99 in the shopping center that is eventually supposed to be the home of Hooters. This new place is more take-out than casual dining, though there are three tables inside. Seating, however, is on backless stools which I guess are fine when your body is young and supple, but such benches are torture devices when your best barbecuing days are behind. (One special feature: a mural with a chef chasing after a pig with a meat cleaver. Whimsical brutality.)
The good news is the food is decent, decent enough to fuel the new catering business and to-go orders. They also make their own Basque and chorizo sausages, in a nod to the Prime Cut type of serious meat operation. The meats are cooked on a big grill area just outside the front door, and the odor of that as you walk in is enough to make you try even more choices, if only to save it for lunch the next day.
All the usual suspects are available: chicken, tri-tip, pit-style beef, St. Louis and baby-back ribs. There are also sandwiches made with Pyrenees rolls, salads and boats made with fresh-fried chips.
The prices are a fair value, especially compared with the more expensive Famous Dave's down the road to the west.
We managed to try just about everything, getting combos of tri-tip and barbecued beef ($11), chicken and St. Louis ribs ($11.50), and a hamburger ($5.95) that was on the specials board.
The chicken was fascinating, with a spicy mix that had a chopped green herb mix that took some of the edge off the relentless smokiness of the chicken. The tri-tip was tender, juicy and cooked to medium--about as good as you can find in town. The barbecued beef was shredded and a bit blander than I expected, given the taste of the other meats. Maybe I've been conditioned to expect the well-seasoned tri-tip from Jake's, but I was expecting a bit more of everything. It was juicy and moist, however. The ribs weren't bad, very meaty and thick with a sauce that had a nice homemade taste.
I have to reserve some special praise for those muddy and quite satisfying chili beans, which taste like contest winners. The beans had the tiniest bits of ground beef mixed in -- enough to taste, not too much. The dinners include green salads, and the nice touch there was homemade croutons.
The hamburger gets its own paragraph, even though it somehow wasn't good enough for the menu board. Maybe they're just testing it out. It was served on a Pyrenees French bread roll (a great start), had a lot of smokiness and was made perfect with the addition of Swiss cheese to add creaminess to the ground chuck.
Service was above average. The counter girl was a high-energy type who waited on everyone as if we were the most impatient people in the world. She warned me that my hamburger would require a 10-minute wait as it was cooked to order. When it took 20 minutes, both she and the chef apologized as if it was a grievous error. Considering the quality of the burger, the wait was worth it.
