It is a hot summer Thursday afternoon in Dallas. My stomach has hot wired my brain and all I can think of is ribs. As I am driving up commerce street through deep ellum I spy Mama Fayes BBQ on my left, I quickly pull over and decide that I need to try the ribs at this place.
As a walk up to the door I see three city construction workers sitting on the patio waiting on some BBQ. I take that as a good sign. You can always trust that city employees know where to get the good food. Inside the space is stark and devoid of any pretense aside from a trendy mural on the back wall that seems a tad out of place with the bare bones (pun totally intended) nature of the rest of the space. There are three women manning the store and they all seem very serious about their BBQ. To my left there is an empty bar that I am sure would have been stocked if Mama Fayes had the scratch for a liquor licence. I am glad they don't though because in lieu of beer there is a TV behind the "bar" that is tuned to General Hospital, it is 2:30 after all. Which brings me to my point about Mama Fayes, it has the feel of going to your aunts house for BBQ which is the vibe I look for in all my favorite BBQ restaurants. It is a feel you can't replicate outside of a family run restaurant, no matter how much Blues memorabilia and kitschy nostalgic nonsense you plaster on the walls. Red, Hot, and Blue I am looking in your general direction. So Mama Fayes passes my vibe test, but how is the food? I would rate it as good, even better than average but notgreat. Here is why, the sides.
As far as the meat is concerned I have no complaints. My short ribs were smoked just right and the hot BBQ sauce was most defiantly hot but not so hot you couldn't taste anything else. A+ on the meat, but my baked beans where just OK and the potato salad seemed like just mashed potatoes with some mustard stirred in. That said I would give Mama Fayes a low A overall for solid BBQ ribs and points for "keep'n it real" in the price and trendiness departments. All in all I could see myself coming back to pick up just their meat for my next picnic or game day feast for sure
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