Next stop: Nolensville

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Food-writing is about the only thing the Tennessean can do right these days.

Today's Tennessean has a great piece on Patrick Martin, owner of Martin's Bar-B-Que in Nolensville, TN. You can read it here. A sample:

When Pat Martin of Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint in Nolensville gets ready to smoke a whole hog, it makes a Memorial Day weenie roast look downright sissy.

On a recent Friday night, he struggled to hoist a 200-pound hog from the back of a pickup onto a steel table. He rubbed it down with spices (deep-tissue style) before wrestling it into a smoker for a 20-hour stay. Chainsaws and small axes were involved.

"That's the thing about these pigs," Martin said ... "They're slicker than deer guts on a door knob."

By preparing whole hog barbecue, Pat Martin and his cohorts practice a time-intensive art that Martin learned from old-timers in West Tennessee, where he attended college. He's been dabbling in barbecue for years, but he didn't open his Nolensville barbecue restaurant until he'd spent time as a bonds trader, a job his father had held on Wall Street. On June 13, Martin also will hit the streets of New York, but he'll have a 32-foot smoker in tow. And he'll join just 13 other pitmasters from across the country in the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party.

"I'm not a young guy," said Martin, who just turned 37. "But I'm kind of the rookie guy up there."

I've dined at Martin's one time ... 'bout two weeks after it opened. I remember the 'que being very tender and juicy, and I remember drinking a Falls City beer with my meal (that impressed me more than the 'que).

I'm gonna have to get out to Nolensville and give Martin's another look-see, and thus give it a proper review.

Stay tuned.