Smokin' Jim's

I like to eat. I also like a good adventure. I love combining the two where I take a adventure to find a good place to eat. A place that's off the beaten path. A place known and loved by the locals that live around it. I get that from my father. When my sister Kimberly and I were young we did a lot of traveling with dad and mom to visit  those out of the way places. Dad's advice was always check out the parking lot. If there are cars there then it's a good place. If the lot is empty then keep on driving. I've discovered that there's a lot of truth to that. I've been driving through unfamiliar areas and have come across some interesting looking places and even though the lot was near empty I still stopped. 9 times out of 10 I soon knew why the lot was empty. Anyway, I'm blessed that a friend of mine is the same way I am. She loves the same adventure of loading up in the car and heading out in search of the next great discovery. Our most recent find was a place that really knocked the ball out of the ballpark! We've been four times now and we love it. The first time we ate there I felt the same way one of those food critics must feel like when they find that hidden gem. I used to love to read Scott Josephs restaurant reviews that he used to write for the Orlando Sentinel. Each week he would secretly travel to some restaurant to dine as a regular guest and then write his review of his experience. I always thought that would be the ultimate job!! Getting paid to eat! Sadly, he hung up his fork and knife a few years ago and retired. Recently me and my friend set out on one of our adventures in search of a place I had remembered reading a article about a few years back. It was so dang delicious it brought out the writer in me to want to write about just how good it was! Soooo, here's my attempt to write a food review and do it as well as any of the "Real" critics would be able to do it. Enjoy it.                                    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The place is called Smokin' Jim's House of Barbecue. And what a house it is. My friend typed the address into her cell phone navigator before we left ( I prefer the old mapquest it and hope for the best method myself but that's another story). Soon Mrs. direction lady was commanding us to turn here and prepare to make a right a half a mile up ahead. It's hard for me to trust whoever is sitting beside me telling me where to go, let alone a cell phone. But she seemed to know where she was taking us and soon we were traveling on roads we had never driven on before. Smokin' Jim's in located in the town of Auburndale which borders the bigger city of Winter Haven. I had remembered seeing a add for the place a few years ago and thinking that it sounded like a good place to eat and had kind on stored it away in the back of my mind. One particular Friday evening while trying to decide on a new place to try Jim's add popped up from the dark recess's of my memory. So we looked it up online. I printed out the mapquest directions, friend put the address in her phone navigator ( see four or five sentences up ). Anyway, after a beautiful back country drive through citrus fields and farms and a few small towns in between, we finally arrived at Jim's. Pulling in the drive was the first thing you notice on the left is the huge smoker that covered with a equally large building and roof.

 There was a wood pile to the side that was big enough to keep a home up north warm for the entire winter. Across the driveway on the right was the restaurant. We drove in a ways and parked and knew we were going to be in for a treat. As we exited our vehicle the sweet, smokey smell of burning seasoned oak teased our senses. Immediately our stomachs sat up and took notice. We picked up our pace a little and hurried in. Though not a big place, Jim's pulled no punches. Inside the modest building were comfy picnic tables and regular tables lined up in neat rows. On the tables the staff at Jim's were already prepared by having rolls of paper towels on the tables on stand by. Joining the towels were containers of plastic forks and knifes.

The table was all ready, all that was left was order and bring on the food.  And let me tell you this. Smokin' Jim isn't to be confused with Jokin' Jim. This man knows his barbecue! If it's your first time visiting tell your waitress and they will bring you out a sample plate of all their different meats. But trying them all will only add to the agonizing choice of what to order. All of Jim's meat is smoked, if you want sauce then you have to use some that's on the table. Each item we sampled was simply delicious. There's a menu to look at and a big overhead board with that days specials and desserts listed. We really had to strain to read it. It, like the help who was working in there, seemed to have a southern accent as well. A added bonus is when my waitress refers to me as "hon". Just gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. Finally, after a lot of reading and rereading I decided on my usual. Chicken. All you can eat. A steal at 7.95 for dark only, 8.95 for both white and dark. Now I come from a big family of chicken lovers and I can put some away. I secretly thought to myself ain't know way their gonna make any money on me tonight. That also included all you could eat side items as well and choosing them was as tough as the dinner choice. Luckily, you can order a different one each time you ask for more so you can try several different one's. My friend chose the chicken as well but only the standard light meal which was a half of chicken. Cole slaw and mac and cheese was her choice of sides. I decided to start of with collard greens and the mac and cheese. She chose garlic toast, I opted for cornbread. It didn't take long for our food to arrive and it was love at first sight! The chicken was black but not from being burnt but from the sweet oak smoke. After a quick Thank you Jesus for the food we were about to receive we dug in. I was hooked from the first bite. Jim has mastered the art of smoking chicken. The bird was darkened and seasoned to perfection and the meat was as moist as it could be.

That is a tough combination to get right and Jim's does. My four pieces went quick and I placed my next order. The collard greens taste like they had just been cut from the back of the restaurant and cooked when I ordered. Very flavorful and not cooked to death. The mac and cheese was very good as well. Our waitress accidentally brought friend a order of black eyed peas out with her food and they were passed to me to eat. The best I have ever eaten! Just when I was thinking it couldn't get any better I took a bite of my cornbread. It was cornbread good enough to make your momma rethink her family heirloom recipe. I almost started crying it was so good. While we were enjoying our food we had been reading the overhead board and looking at all their dessert choices. Several were listed but we were intrigued by the one called dig licker cake. Now picture this. My pal says to me "what do you think the dig licker cake is?" Imagine what that would sound like if someone with a accent was to ask you and you'll understand why I gasped so hard I almost choked on a big mouthful of collards! That certainly had our attention so we asked our waitress what kind of cake dig licker was. She laughed almost as hard as we hard and informed us it was PIG licker cake, not dig. See, I told ya that darn sign had a heavy accent! Well, after all that we had to try a piece. It lived up to the other wonderful food we had just packed away. It was 3.95 for a slice and the slice looked like it was close to a quarter of the cake. It was made up of several layers and had a cream frosting with pieces of pineapple in it. After that we were done. Literally. Jim's hits on all cylinders and if you like good cooking and great barbecue then this is your place. If your a steak lover (and really, who of us isn't) then stop in on Saturday night. Between 5 and 9 pm Jim will custom grill you a steak that's so good that if you placed it on top of your head your tongue will drill a hole through your skull to get to it. Some other food critic info I should add is Jim's accepts credit cards ( I know cause we used one), I don't know if they serve alcohol because I don't drink. He's closed on Sundays and Mondays and his hours are 11am-9pm Tues through Sat. Try him out and look for us. Good chance we'll be there.