The Best Ribs in the Boston Area
Boston isn’t exactly known for its rib joints. One of the best known places in the area is Redbones in Davis Square. When I first moved to Boston, years ago, I went to Redbones and here’s what I discovered: the ribs aren’t actually good. It’s true. I don’t care what any 95 pounds Tufts student from New Jersey tells you. It’s just not true. I am convinced that the owner of Redbones teaches their hosts the “Jedi mind trick” to convince weak patrons that they actually liked the food. I have always found the baby back ribs there to be dry and particularly unimpressive. But don’t fret my good friends. I’m here to tell you about the best ribs in the Boston area. They can be found at a family owned restaurant called The Grill in the Holiday Inn at the Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA. I shit you not!
The Grill is owned by George A. Haikal, a Lebanese restaurateur who also serves homemade kibby, hummous, Tabouli and other Middle Eastern treats. According to Michelle, our waitress tonight, the BBQ sauce for the ribs is homemade; according to me, it’s delicious. The following is my videoblog review of The Grill. You’ll witness as my brother Scott, sister Elizabeth and I feast on Middle Eastern food and luscious and meaty baby back ribs. The sight will bring a tear to your eye like the one in the eye of Chief Iron Eye Cody in the famous Keep America Beautiful PSA from 1971. I guarantee you’ll want to head straight to Brockton after seeing this video!
Click here to see the Windows Media Video.
Or
August 31st, 2006 at 3:12 am
I’m assuming the Charlotte you’ve so lovingly dedicated your videoblog is from the E.B. White Children’s book Charlotte’s Web. Charlotte was the spider, hence the web. Spiders have fangs and furry legs, eight of them, but no ribs really. I think the pig’s name was Wilbur or Porky or Cornelius, I can’t remember.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:13 am
I’m not sure where I got the name Charlotte for a pig. People say the darndest things when they have pork coursing through their veins. My mind may have made a connection to that book (which, admittedly, I never read or even saw the cartoon). Was it a good one? Regardless, Charlotte is not a bad pig’s name. But thanks! Dually noted! In Charlott’s web, Charlotte was the spider. On my videoblog, Charlotte is a pig that donated her baby back ribs to science!
August 31st, 2006 at 11:19 am
I don’t really remember the book very well, I was way little but I think the story was about unrequited love, 4-H and slaughter. The spider -Charlotte-left messages in her web that the pig could see from his pen. I don’t know if the messages were flirtatious Haiku’s or warnings like: Today is the day you end up at the Westgate Mall. Anyways, this other book by Robert Newton Peck made a stronger impression on me as a young reader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_No_Pigs_Would_Die
September 1st, 2006 at 8:02 am
Dave, if you are ever in London try this place although compared to ‘the grill’, portions are half the size and the bill twice the size. I ended up there at the weekend and paid £35 quid for an O’Sullivans type burger and a few beers. It was the closest in England I have come to resurrecting a feeling of being in the Fatherland!
I miss Toad! Any gossip from the bowels of Toad?
http://www.restaurant-guide.com/details/default.asp?rID=39&ID=1232&path=12,21,14,2395,1232&cuiID=2
September 5th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Hey wait a second. I was raised in Brockton. Brockton doesn’t have the best anything. Brockton is usually known for the worst of everything and one thing I do know is that Brockton should never be considered the Boston area. Mark my words!
September 8th, 2006 at 11:00 am
You call that pig? You want to eat big you should check out Daisy May’s in NYC.
Of course the best I can do for you is Black Steer when you get your ass on a plane and come visit us in Israel.
September 14th, 2006 at 8:17 am
oh how happy i was to see the grill video on youtube…which eventually led me to this site and so forth, but enough with the bs., this is for Giro, coming from a fellow Brocktonian,…….u make me sick, had to post. Brockton whether u like it or not has some of the “best” and also alot, and i mean alot, of “firsts” as well. u seem like a sour person who probably has left Brockton and has nuthin better to do then talk badly….but hey, theres a whole universe of lames like you who talk all this shit about brockton but half of them show up at the Div 1 Boxer super bowl games rootin cuz their hometown prob sucks ass……it WAS known as Shoe Capital of the world at one time…aka City of Champs….also home to Marciano and Hagler…..also the FIRST CITY IN THE WORLD to have electricity running thru it(by Edison himself) and now its the first city in the world to have the entire city run off of solar energy(go check out the solar field they just built near the foundry,incredible)….oh yes the mp3 craze? Napster……the kid that created that is from brockton and graduated from brockton high….Reebok? the owner of reebok(paul fireman) was also born and raised in Brockton……..stop bein a loser…its a City, of course it will have problems,as do all of them but its a GREAT CITY.theres is more but i think ill stop there…….if u didnt know, now u do
September 14th, 2006 at 10:46 am
asif, thanks for the enlightening info about Brockton. No wonder I can enjoy a half-rack for only $10.95. They save on electricity costs and pass some of that cost savings onto the consumer!
September 16th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Hey, I’m just like everybody else. I put my pants on one leg at a time except when I’m done I make gold records for a living and if my silly little comment made you sick then there are bigger issues at play in your world…probably caused by the Superfund site at the Brockton Library.
A little FYI for you.
Marvin Hagler left Brockton (lives in Italy)
Al Davis(He owns the Raiders in case you missed it) left Brockton (lives in California)
Paul Fireman left Brockton (lives in Newton)
Shawn “Napster” Fanning left Brockton (probably lives in a Vegas casino sniffing coke off of the pit bosses ass)
I, born and raised on the East Side, next to the hospital, left Brockton (lives in Boston aka the city)
asif stop living in the past bro. Stop trying to resurrect the ghosts of Rudy Harris and Darnell Campbell (He’s on the deadbeat dad list) and gaze into the present. All of the smart ones left.
September 16th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Hey my friends, thanks for the impassioned comments, but remember to play nice. Hull was also an interesting place to grow up. I feel a special kinship with Brockton people, as snobs from the Cape often call Hull “Brockton by the Sea”. That being said, regardless on your feelings about the city in general, the ribs at The Grill rule. Until they cease to rule, I’m going to Brockton for ribs!
September 18th, 2006 at 7:57 am
so what if they left brockton, im sayin brockton is what made them who the are, brockton is what made them great. i Still live in brockton so yes i might get hot if your coming out your neck,regardless if u lived here or not……i love how certain heads move out and suddenly think they are “better then brockton”….let me bring u back, u aint sh*t,pahtna
October 16th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
i can appreciate your love for ribs. My firend and i are actually on a “Rib Tour” around Boston and have found the #1 place for ribs…. brace yourslef… Ruby Tuesday’s. I know what you are saying right nw, “this guy is an idiot” as everyone thinks I am when i say that, but we have put Ruby’s up against everyone, Buggaboo, Longhorn, Outback, Chili’s, Redbones, Village Smokehouse, even Houston’s…and Ruby’s has come out on top everytime. Our opinion is based on the tenderness of the meat (has to fall off the bone) and taste. Some places have had a little more meat on the bone but you had to naw it off the bone…where Ruby’s just falls off and melts in your mouth. RUBY’S IS #1 in my book. I’ll give the Grille a shot and let you know what i think!!!
Rob
October 16th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Thanks for checking out the post, Rob! I’ll take Ruby’s under advisement. I’ll be interested to hear your verdict after you make the pilgrimage down to The Grill. Oink…
October 30th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Hey Dave: I havent made it over to the grille yet… But i have to give you an update on my “Ruby Tuesdays competitive analsys”. I had ribs at Long Horn over the weekend, Long horn Steak house, from the Makers of the Capital Grille, you would think they would have good ribs…. Horrible in comparison to Ruby’s. Fatty and tasteless. just wanted to post the feedback so n one waste’s their time.
I’m still trying to get over to the Grille. Hopefully soon.
L8R
July 20th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I’ve been to Daisy May’s in the City… no comparison to Houston’s (in fanuel hall) or Ruby Tuesday’s. Daisy May’s is very average.