Kloby’s Smokehouse is awesome

While attending last week’s Beer Week opener, one of the tables handing out lil’ plates of food was Kloby’s Smokehouse (7500 Montpelier Rd., Laurel). Their samples included lil’ cups of pulled pork – East North Carolina style pulled pork (the best kind) – and a coupon for $5 off your order. So with trepidation I got into my 1996 Honda Accord with replacement off-color hood and hole-filled muffler and drove the 20 minutes to Laurel, and was culinarily pleased in every way.

The digs at Kloby’s are fairly standard for a strip mall eatery – single color walls with zany stuff hung up all over the place, with plenty of tables for sitting and a bar for drinking. Speaking of the bar, Kloby’s has a lot of beers on tap. I counted at least 20, their selection illuminated on a flat screen TV a la Frisco Grill/Taphouse over in Columbia; not as high scoring as Frisco’s 50+ selection, but Kloby’s also specializes in Bourbon, of which their menu holds over 20 varieties. But since I had driven and fully expected to be in a meat coma by the time I was ready to leave, I opted out of booze and went for an Arnie Palmy, a 2 meat platter with brisket and pulled pork, and a jalapeno popper appetizer.

Let’s talk a second about these jalapeno poppers. Two things, specifically: they’re stuffed with pulled pork, and they come with a truly magical dipping sauce. The pulled pork inside should be enough to get your mouth-motor going, but this sauce – Jesus TD Christ – this sauce. I bought two bottles of it and have been dipping everything from newborn babies to french fries to other meat products in it. In fact, all of the sauces at Kloby’s seem to be delicious; the two in the photo above were delicious, the two others I tried were delicious, in short Kloby’s makes some awesome BBQ sauces.

The brisket and pulled pork on the platter were really well done, the pulled pork was really fatty which some people love – me not so much, but I ate it anyway. The brisket was tender to the point where I couldn’t pick it up with a fork, it kept falling apart in the process so I ate it by picking it up with extremely clean fingers. And those weird green things in that cup – “green beans” I believe they’re called (I’m unfamiliar with most “vegetable” products) – were also smoked and had a little red pepper kick to them. Goooood stuff.

To be sure, there was enough meat-related wonderment on the menu that I’ll be coming back for seconds, but this meal left me in one hell of a food coma. I had no choice but to curl up in the back seat of my Accord and hibernate for three days afterward. Kudos to you, Kloby’s Smokehouse!