CHEAP EATS
With smoke and spice, barbecue becomes an art in East Boston
We discovered Uncle Pete's during a midwinter tour of several local barbecue joints. It was the surprise of the bunch, offering the real deal at affordable prices in an unexpected location. We promised ourselves we'd return, and we did. We're pleased to report that Pete's is holding its own, although co-owner Pete Cuchiara admits that, in East Boston anyway, slow-cooked meat has been something of a slow sell.
Uncle Pete's is located in a former Dairy Queen in the center of bustling little Day Square. The front section consists of a takeout counter for both barbecue and ice cream. Farther back, there are 60 seats at black Naugahyde booths that feature red-and-white checked table clothes. You'll meet Pete or his wife, Pha, almost as soon as you walk in. They're cordial and hard-working, and they want to make sure everything is just right. Pete tends to worry that you'll think his hot sauce is too ordinary, for example, " I get real nervous when people order it", he frets.
Pete met Pha when she came to work at The King & I, a Thai restaurant he co-owned on Beacon Hill for several years. After he sold out, the couple felt the lure of barbecue. Pete says they traveled from Memphis to Kansas City, eating as they went. Then he built a smoker in their home, down in the basement. " I got to the point that friends wouldn't come to dinner because they knew all they'd get was barbecue", he says. Last summer the couple paid $12,000 for a commercial rig and opened Uncle Pete's.
Through trial and error - that's the way you learn barbecue - the Cuchiara have developed different way to cook their different meats. They use oak and hickory for their ribs, for example, and applewood for chicken. Their pulled pork features a dry rub, while the brisket requires an additional wet marinade. The spare ribs are smoked for about five hours and basted during cooking. The chicken is put in a rotisserie for a couple of hours, then smoked for an hour and a half. We're talking art, science and perhaps even a little magic here.
Anyway, let's eat. Try, especially, the excellent lean spare ribs ($8.95, $14.95), slightly crisp on the outside but moist and tender on the inside. And while beef ribs are usually not our idea of a good feed, the ones here ($8.95, $14.95) are very nice: smoky, flavorful and not at all tough. (Incidentally, the $4.75 three-rib "samplers" of both types of ribs, which like most dinners include two side dishes, are a steal. So are the $1.75 Samuel Adams draughts.) We also like the slightly sweet barbecued half chicken ($6.50), although we still find both the well-marinated brisket ($4.50, $7.95) and chunky pulled pork ($4.50, $7.95) a tad dry.
But what impresses us most about Uncle Pete's is its attention to details that other barbecue emporiums often overlook. Those side dishes, for example - particularly the homemade mashed potatoes and the sweet baked beans made with a recipe handed down from Pete's mother -- are more than mere afterthoughts. So are the sweet and hot tomato-based sauces, the latter featuring habanero peppers. Lately, Pete has been experimenting with a pair of vinegar-based sauces for folks to try on his pulled pork. Like all good barbecue cooks, he knows he's still learning.