I don't know how this happened, but hardly anyone I know or have talked to that's visiting Savannah has ever heard of Barnes, the barbecue people on Whitaker by Broughton. Their barbecue is some of the best in Savannah.

What they do is so good, I'm surprised it hasn't been outlawed yet. The pork that they barbecue is so tender and juicy...

Man, I just drooled on myself. Again.

That is a true story, bro.

And they don't smother it in sauce, either. Don't get me wrong, I love sauce-smothering, but they leave it to you to do that. They do not play around. They are all about the pork.

I've been there a lot, but this last time I went with my boyfriend and got the City Slicker, a delicious "rich cousin" to the Redneck Reuben (which is amazing). It has tons of delicious pulled pork on it, slathered with their slightly-sweet coleslaw and topped cheddar cheese and sandwiched between two buttery, toasted... uh... toasts. There's a small amount of barbecue sauce on it, with the majority coming as a side.

Barnes' sauce is very mysterious to me. It isn't sweet enough to be totally ketchup-based and I definitely taste that mustardy zing somewhere in there, but it clearly isn't mustard-based. It's almost like a fusion of ketchup and mustard-based sauce, something I've tasted more than once, but only in Savannah.

The sandwich is huge. It may not look huge, but it is. Trust me. They pack as much pork and coleslaw onto those two flimsy toasts as they possibly can, and I love them for it.

There's no feeling better than getting your money's worth, especially if it involves barbecue being eaten. By me.
I also got the macaroni and cheese and, I'm sorry to you as well, Barnes, you just aren't as good at it as my mom is. But you do come pretty close.

The mac ‘n' cheese is soft and cheesy and it's good Southern mac ‘n' cheese and not that Kraft stuff. Come on, people. It's a fairly simple recipe and I know you can do it! I believe in you!

My boyfriend got this whimsical concoction called a BBQ Sundae. It both is and isn't what it sounds like. What it isn't is barbecue pork and sauce on vanilla ice cream. What it is is pulled pork on top of coleslaw on top of baked beans.

Now, it sounds weird, but a lot of weird-sounding things are actually good, like French fries with a Wendy's Frosty or buffalo chicken pizza.

He ate it by dumping it out of the large cup they put it in, and I think that might be the best way because their forks aren't quite huge enough to get all layers out of the cup in one bite. The coleslaw and barbecue of course go together, but the surprising thing for me was the baked beans.

They go so well with both the coleslaw and the barbecue and I didn't expect that at all. They were really well made beans too; not too sweet and just soft enough to be not mushy.

The Barnes French fries are pretty good, but they don't have any seasoning on them or anything. If I could change one thing about Barnes, it would be the plain fries. They are really well cooked, you know, but ketchup is the wrong flavor for the meal and the barbecue sauce on the fries is OK, but it's just not quite right for me.

You know what? I bet if they put a barbecue dry rub as seasoning on those fries, they'd be unstoppable.

I'm serious, Barnes. I hope you read this. I'll make fries for you in exchange for pulled pork. High fives all around!

Lastly, let's talk about the sweet tea. It's awesome. Perfect. It's Southern sweet tea. Don't change it. EVER.

Also, sometimes, they give you these giant cups for sweet tea and other times, they just give you a normal cup. If anyone knows why, please enlighten me because I haven't been able to figure it out.

I still love you, Barnes! Even if your cup usage confuses and scares me!
Love, Caroline...