St Louis Recommendations

We will be heading to the St Louis area, Columbia, IL to be exact, in a couple weeks to visit my sister and her family. I have had your thin crust pizza with provel cheese, tried Gooey Butter Cake and I always make sure to come home with a case or two of Fitz's root beer.

I am looking for barbecue recommendations. Something with a regional specialty that I might not get anywhere else. Bonus points for a joint with good carryout or not fussy about a 6 month old boy in tow.

Thank for the recommendation. I like their carryout selections if the baby gets fussy and it looks like they are only about 20 minutes away from where we are staying.

We are back. Poor weather and fussy infants didn't allow us to do much. Wednesday, golf ball to baseball sized hail graced the area, so we stayed in. We planned to go to Bogarts on Thursday, but they close early this time of year and we couldn't get there when the kids had calmed down.

We did go to Bully's Smokehouse there in Columbia. It was only about 5 minutes from my sister's house, so we were able to enjoy a meal. It was good, not great in my opinion, but still good. My wife and I split a rack of ribs with 4 sides and bread for $25. The ribs were tender without being over cooked. They had good smoke flavor and a sweet rub. Sauce was on the table. My wife liked their house sauce which was a thick, sweet barbecue, heavy on molasses. It was too sweet for my tastes, but might reflect the region. They had a thinner tomato and vinegar sauce as well, which I preferred. It complimented the rub nicely without overpowering the taste of the ribs.

I would go back, mainly because the proximity to family can't be beat. I still want to try a few other joints in town on our next visit.