Rolling Bones Barbecue
Atlanta, GA 30312 (404) 222-2324
- Nearest Transit:
King Memorial (North-South, Northeast-South, East-West, Proctor Creek)
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Sun 12:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street, Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: None
21 Reviews for Rolling Bones Barbecue
the brisket the brisket the brisket.. get the brisket. and for gods sake dont ask for it lean ask for it fatty. and your in heaven.. NOT HOG HEAVEN.. ( the pork is ok, the chicken is damm good and if you get the ribs ask for some right off the smoker..not the fall off the bones kind but tasty)
you dont like the sauce.. hell i though you came for the MEAT... if the meat is right ya don't need no sauce....
Went here for a quick dinner before the baseball game. We had a little trouble finding it, and when we called for directions, we were misdirected... but at least we found it.
We were there early, so there was no one else there. We split the two meats plate with brisket, pork, greens, and fries. The brisket was delicious, but the rest was lacking. The hot sauce was barely hot, but had a sweet spicy flavor. It did make my nose run, but it didn't burn my tongue, so I guess it was just spicy enough. The pork was a little too fatty and just missing something. The greens were just cooked - they tasted as if they had no seasoning. The fries were good - crisp on the outside, soft on the inside - but I don't go to barbecue places for good fries.
The cashier was friendly. The manager asked a guy who was asking us for money on the patio off, so bonus points for taking extra care of your customers.
I would definitely go back, but I think I would get just the brisket.
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With BBQ, Georgians love their pork. I can't say I blame them for, from snout to tail, the pig is a wonderfully edible animal. Pork shoulder, bellies and butts, it's all good. In fact, there are few butts, short of J.Lo's, that make me salivate more. But when it comes to 'que, nothing beats a good brisket.
Unfortunately good brisket was traditionally hard to find in Atlanta. I used to make that harrowing drive up Ponce up to Greg's back when they were the only intown purveyors of beefy goodness (the Eagle notwithstanding.) Then Greg's closed and I was in a quandary. "Where's the beef?" I asked. Fortunately, and right on...que, Rolling Bones opened up their little shack off of Edgewood.
OK, it's not so much a "little shack." The building is a shiny gas station conversion, Norman Rockwell meets I.M. Pei, and is not the run down shanty I normally associate with good BBQ. Nevertheless, these boys from the Virgin Islands deliver.
Wait, did you say VIRGIN ISLANDS?
Yep. In one of those weird multi-global twists of fate, the pitmaster behind Rolling Bones found his way to Atlanta from Texas by way of the Caribbean. I tell you this to explain the presence of pineapple juice in the sauce. The sweetness is surprising to most. I'll admit, I find it off-putting and that's why I never order the mild sauce where it's most pronounced. However, in the hot sauce, it adds a nice acid zing that's a good counterpoint. Added to several slices of briskets (cut on the counter in front of you, Subway-style) and it's simply awesome.
Finally, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that Edgewood Ave. is undergoing a new Renaissance. In the midst of all the newness, don't forget that Rolling Bones helped to get the ball, uh, rolling. So for that and their brisket, 4 stars.
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***To Tina Turners "Proud Mary"
Listen to the Story...
Today I worked in the city.
Marketing and sales every single day.
Then I realized that I was so hungry
I was craving for Southern Bar-B-Que
Big pork keep on turning
Beef brisket keep on burning
And we're rolling, rolling
Rolling Bones on Edgewood
Got a side of fries with sandwich
Peach cobbler and sweet tea complete the meal
Wow, I never felt so full and yet so giddy
I'll come back again to get my crave filled!
Chicken keep on turning.
Collards keep on cookin'
And we're rolling, rolling
Rolling Bones on Edgewood
(the grand finale and time to scale)
Rooooolllliiinnnnnnn on Edddddggggge........wooooooood!!!!
Yeah!
[oh yeah!!! kiss that American Idol for not putting me on this season! woo!!!]
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Amazing pork shoulder and beef brisket. Okay ribs.
This Texas-ish BBQ takeout spot is a little quirky, looking like a small diner situated on what must have been a converted lot/station--reminds me of Johnny Rockets, appearance-wise. It's not a shack like most BBQ places.
They offer birds, brisket, pork shoulder, and ribs as the main meat items with a few sides to choose from. Can get them as plates or as sandwiches, which is predictable, but you could also get them as tacos, which I thought was very cool. Supposedly the brisket is cooked for 10+ hours...I wouldn't be able to tell, but it sure is tender and flavorful, and laced with delicious fats. As good as the brisket already is, my favorite is the chopped pork shoulder...drizzled with the spicy sauce, it is juicy, smoky, almost melting in the mouth, not stringy or dry at all. Perfect.
On the other hand, the ribs and sides are just okay. Their ribs are a little dry to me, as it's not repeatedly glazed while being smoked (I think it was finished on the grill, actually). Tastes and looks like jerk pork. Not bad, but nowhere near as good as the chopped pork shoulder. No memorable side dishes, and the iced tea was the automatic dispensing Lipton kind, which I don't like...a little disappointing. Also, this place doesn't (can't, really) do live music like the other good BBQ joints.
Try the brisket and pork shoulder. It's some of the best.
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BBQ is polarizing...some folks like the vinegar based sauce, some folks like the sweeter tangier variety. Personally I can chow down on either and be a happy girl.
That being said, the meat at Rolling Bones has always been succulent whether its the pulled pork, brisket or chicken. It's all freakin good. The sauce is just gravy for me it's about the meat.
I have no idea what texas style brisket is and I don't give a hoot because I enjoy the brisket at RBBBQ. Period. Does it have to fit into a defined style to be good? I think not.
I've catered parties with RBBBQ and gotten raves. I've done drive through, I've eaten inside and each experience was filled with meaty goodness. I held a star back because I am aware better BBQ exists in this world, just not in Atlanta.
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Some of the very best things come in small packages - like Rolling Bones BBQ. The shop is very small (a converted fill-in station), but what they lack in size they more than make up for in flavor.
I'm a BBQ snob being from the South and so it takes a lot to get my attention. Their ribs are excellent and I love some Texas Toast! The BBQ sauce is not too sweet and has the right level of spice for me. Make sure you get there when it isn't too busy, otherwise you won't find a place to rest your old bones to munch down on your big plate of 'cue.
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I really like Rolling Bones. It is a great place to eat BBQ if you are one of those people that feel the need to be in a squeaky clean atmosphere (ie. my mother). The brisket is very tasty!! They give you a choice of lean or other. I go there just for the brisket, as I am not the biggest fan of the BBQ sauce nor the sides.
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Rolling Bones, for me, is really lacking when it comes to good BBQ. I like the fact that it has this Island fusion and a great history, but the end product doesn't wow me.
I've tried everything there including their specialty, beef brisket. Usually it's entirely too salty (the meat, not the sauce). Props on the drive-through, but I'm always questioning those that rank this place among Atlanta's best.
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Having lived in Phoenix for most of my life, I haven't eaten too much barbecue. At least not what people from Texas, or anywhere in the deep south would consider barbecue. So when we decided to move to Atlanta, along with all of the other staples like grits and biscuits and everything else, I was really looking forward to eating some dead animal, covered in the sweet and slightly tangy red goodness that is bbq sauce. While I haven't made it to Fat Matt's yet (because everyone and their mother has been there, and everyone and their sister has reviewed the place) I figured that I'd try a few other places before I get around to Fat Matt's.
Rolling Bones Barbecue is technically only five miles from my house. I thought I knew where it was. It should've been simple enough. Drive down the street, turn here and it's right there, you can't miss it. Well I turned down the wrong street and kept turning and I couldn't find it... it's around here somewhere, I know it is...
Except driving around in the area south of Edgewood and north of MARTA isn't exactly where you want to slowdown and sightsee - for safety reasons. So when I stopped at a corner and noticed the gathering of several large 20-something males standing a mere two feet from my stopped car... I decided to not wait for the light to change and made an immediate right turn. Sure it's wrong to stereotype. As I sit here in my kitchen at my laptop I'm sure I had nothing to worry about. Being a lone asian male sitting at red light in a bad part of town and surrounded on both sides... whatever, I'm okay with my prejudging and paranoia.
Fortunately, that right turn was the correct one to make because like magic, Rolling Bones BBQ with it's ex-gas station shell and brightly colored white and blue paint job appeared right in front me. Forget drive thru, I'm going in.
They have all the basics here and then some. Like many bbq places, the star is the meat and the sides are generally lacking. Rolling Bones holds up that generalization but it's okay - because the pork is good. Although they print 'Texas style' on the menu, I'm not exactly sure how well it would hold up to other comparisons of the genre. Don't get me wrong, it's great bbq, it's just not exactly Texas style. The fact that at least one of the owners is from the caribbean may have something to do with the slight almost unnoticed difference with a slight sweetness reminscent of pineapple - just slightly.
The beef brisket is delicious. The dry rubbed meat is a perfect mixture of tenderness and body with a good amount of fatty bits to round out the flavor and texture of each bite. Coupled with the sweet sauce this is ex-gas-station food heaven.
The dining area is generally clean but not exactly comfortable or even really inviting as it delivers a diner feel but not a sit-down atmosphere. Having more seating than it looks from the street, it still feels like Rolling Bones BBQ is better suited to take home meals - great take home meals.
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This is hands down the tastiest BBQ place I've been to in Atlanta (better than Dusty's and Fat Matt's). I've never consumed anything as fast as I downed their beef brisket. The sauce was just perfect. I also had their BBQ chicken and it was solid. The coleslaw is probably the 2nd best I've ever had (behind Six Feet Under), mainly because it had some raisons and a nice sweet taste to it. I wasn't a huge fan of their mustard based potato sald, but I will leave that to your own personal tastes.
The only disapointment I had was that they didn't have brunswick stew, but this isn't your typical GA BBQ place so I got over that quick. Next time I'm definitely going to be sampling some of those smoked ribs and pork I saw him cutting up.
The sauce they have is seriously some of the best I've ever had. I would actually bathe in the stuff if it was A) Cheap to buy by the 5 gallon bucket B)socially acceptable.
Just go.
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Update: I have been back twice since that wonderful first time and neither time has been as good. It's still very solid, but I had to drop it down to a 3 star. The ribs didn't have enough meat on them and the second time I had beef brisket it was too fatty.
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Great bbq, but best for takeout since the dining room looks really tiny. They do have a drive through tho, so it's super-convenient.
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One word: meh. RBBBQ claims to be Texas style Q, and while I'm no real Texan, I did spend a year in Austin and boy did I spend a lot of that year eating BBQ (I had an extra 15 pounds to show for it after that year!). When you talk about Texas BBQ, I think of two things: brisket and sausage. At least when I went, I didn't recall seeing any sausage, and the brisket was just so-so. That's even being somewhat generous, since if I was served brisket of this quality while I was in Texas, I probably wouldn't have gone back to the place. (And I suppose that's true here, as I have not revisited RBBBQ since.) The other thing that I liked about BBQ in Texas was the sides. Most places I had been to in TX had really good side dishes, and RBBBQ didn't really measure up. This place might have done poorly with me primarily out of unfulfilled expectations... if someone had just told me it was a BBQ joint instead of a Texas-style BBQ, I might have like it more.
I'll acknowledge that I did not have any BBQ more than 2.5 hours outside of Austin (yes, we drove 2.5 hours one day just to get lunch), and so it's possible that RBBBQ is representative of BBQ from some other part of Texas that I did not visit... but if that's the case, I'd like to stay away from that part of Texas as well.
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Smoky, tender, delicious...this is some good barbeque. Rolling Bones is located in a converted gas station about 10 minutes from downtown Atlanta. We went at an odd time (2pm on Saturday), so I don't know if the absence of a line should be expected at other times. The service was quick and helpful (take the person's advice and go for the hot sauce, which isn't really that hot). There are a handful of tables in a sunny dining area, and outdoor seating is available.
The meat is the star here. The chopped pork sandwich was smoky without being overpowering, and just the right amount of sauce was added in. I like a little drier barbeque than some people I know, so less sauce was welcome. The meat was so perfectly cooked that you don't even need the sauce. The sandwich is served on thick slices of buttered and toasted white bread, and it is piled so high with meat that I ended up picking it apart. I don't think it would have fit in my mouth if I tried! I would give this a half star more than Fat Matt's meat, if Yelp allowed such subtle differences.
I frankly didn't detect much in the way of Jamaican influence here, but maybe it doesn't come through in the chopped pork. If you like Texas style BBQ, though, you'll be happy you came to Rolling Bones.
I ordered a side of cobbler (Peach, of course), which came prepackage in a little container. It was good, but not cry-out-in-my-sleep good. I think I'd skip it on a return visit and devote more attention to the meat.
I'm not a huge fan of Atlanta (too much sprawl), but if I ever find myself back in the South I'll make every effort to revisit Rolling Bones.
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I always stop at Rolling Bones when I'm in the ATL. The upside to Atlanta lacking great BBQ traditions is that it has less silly hangups. Rolling bones borrows from several traditions, so you get a lot of variety. Best enjoyed with large groups so you can get a little bit of everything.
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My first experience with Rolling Bones wasn't at their converted gas station shop on Edgewood, but actually at the Inman Park Festival. Rolling Bones was set up with all the other festival food trailers at Inman, but theirs was pristine, clean, and professionally staffed. It's restaurant quality food on wheels and won me over in about two seconds.
Rolling Bones offers a bit of a Caribbean take on Southern barbecue. There's a real sweet flavor to their sauce and pulled pork. I swear there were little shreds of pineapple in with the pulled pork plate. The brisket is one of the best I've had outside of Texas. It's a good starting point if you want to hit the best item on the menu right away. The ribs are good, and the sauce just brings out the flavor in every item I've tried there. Stop by the Edgewood location, or just look for the gleaming white Rolling Bones trailer at the next art festival.
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Finally, finally, finally ... I have found a BBQ joint in the ATL that serves up beef brisket a la Texas style. I ordered a brisket sandwich and I was in a carnivore's heaven. As with burritos, I maintain that truly great food needs few condiments. With the brisket at this place, BBQ sauce is definitely an "on the side" must. The brisket was so darn good, you didn't need any sauce whatsoever. There was enough brisket on the sandwich that you could dispense with it and just work on the meat itself. I will soon find myself becoming quite the regular there and destroying any semblance of a diet.
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Now we're cookin! Yummy BBQ in a cool building. The restaurant has an interesting pedigree with its owners from Texas by way of the Carribean. The sauce definitely borrows heavily from a classic Jerk preparation.
If you like Carolina Barbeque, where the sauce isn't too sweet and has a touch of vinegar, then you'll like Rolling Bones. They've got great sauces for their meat selections. I'm not a big fan of Georgia or Memphis BBg, It's too sweet and syrupy, which is why Rolling Bones is such a treat. The meat isn't a tender as Fat Matt's but it's good enough. If Fatt Matts could join forces with Rolling Bones they would be an unbeatable duo. Fatt Matts is in a really cool building. They've got the place decorated all retro--I think the building used to be a gas station. I also appreciate Rolling Bones for participating in all of the neighborhood festivals, it shows that they care about the city they do business in.
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While I am not the biggest fan of meat, meat, and more meat, my partner sure is, and we love to eat at this fabulous little BBQ joint. Housed in a converted gas station, the throw-back atmosphere of this hip eatery will having you feeling like you are stopping in for a meal before you hop in the car and are off to the sock-hop. Okay, maybe not that drastic, but you will leave thinking, "damn, that was some good food". I especially like the chicken salad sandwich, which comes on Texas toast, and is not your traditional chicken salad; it is huge hunks of tender chicken in a spicy mayonnaise/dressing, with the perfect blend of spices. It also comes with fries. Their specialty (as hinted by the name) is the BBQ, and is a favorite of my partner, who begs to go there all of the time.
This is definitely a place you will not be able to stay away from. All of the charm and whimsy of the establishment, mixed with better than good eats is a sure winner. And, it is pretty cheap too!
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Wow, what a mess I made when I ate here! Lots of food for the money and boy is it good. Love the atmosphere too.
I'm from NC and I really miss the good barbecue there... this isn't NC barbecue but that's ok because it's so damn good. The best cue I've had in ATL, hands down.
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