BBQ Restaurants in Plainville

When Travis Dickey opened the first Dickey's Barbecue Pit in Dallas in 1941, he kept his menu small and simple, only cooking up beef brisket, pit hams, and barbecue beans, which he sold alongside potato chips, beer, bottled milk, and sodas. Dickey smoked all of his meat in-house, a practice that put his eatery on the map and one that his sons, Roland and T.D. Dickey, still rely on today.

The menu has expanded since Travis’s time behind the grill, offering plates and sandwiches that brim with eight kinds of barbecued meats, including spicy cheddar sausages, pork ribs, polish sausage, and Texas-style beef brisket and pulled pork that’s chopped to order. Several types of baked potatoes are piled high with meats and cheeses, which diners can wash down with a gallon of tea or Dickey's signature 32-ounce big yellow cup of soda. Staying true to the same spirit of hospitality, cooks always include a buttery roll; a homestyle side such as jalapeño beans and fried okra; dill pickles; and free ice cream with every meat plate.

Winner of more than 400 awards for its barbecue, Famous Dave’s caters to carnivores with a menu of hearty, flavorful American fare. Kick off the mouthcapades with a starter of sweetwater catfish fingers ($7.99), which pair the whiskered swimmer's cornmeal-crusted phalanges with rémoulade and jalapeño sauce, or begin by using onion strings ($6.99) to weave yourself a lightly breaded palate poncho. A 12-boned slab of St. Louis-style spareribs ($22.99), pit-smoked for three to four hours over a hickory inferno, gives sauce-slathered fingers the chance to enjoy an endless string of napkin hugs, while a Texas beef brisket sandwich ($8.49) provides a bread buffer for the benefit of tidy tasters. A sugary slate of desserts, including Dave's famous bread pudding ($5.99) with pecan praline sauce and vanilla-bean ice cream, give sweets-loving stomachs something to blog about to their gastro-friends.

Wings over Washington's friendly staff paints its menu of winged masterpieces with a delicious palette of 18 flavors and five buffalo-sauce styles. Chomp on the seven-wing paper-airplane plate ($5.99) while your in-flight crew devours the 60-wing B-17 bomber ($44.99). Boneless wings are hand battered, sold by weight, and provide countless hours of fearless feasting for dining dentures. Beat your personal best by speed-eating a half-pound DC-3 of boneless bites ($6.49), or gather a group of airship aficionados to demolish the 6 lb. zeppelin of spineless wings ($59.99), adding orders of french fries ($2.49 for a small) and onion rings ($2.99 for a small) to dam up teriyaki and honey-mustard reservoirs. Flight-phobic diners can stay grounded with hamburgers ($5.99) and half racks of ribs ($8.99), sharing napkins and sticky high-fives with their wing-eating amigos.

RW's BBQ satiates seekers of sauce with a menu of hickory-smoked meats, homemade spice rubs, and four made-from-scratch barbecue gravies. Owner Ron Wishna pit roasts butts and briskets for more than 12 hours and chicken and ribs for more than four, producing proteins so tender they swan dive off the bone into a savory side of sauce.

Every Tuesday and Friday night, the worn wood of the dance floor at Coyote Maverick is cleared, welcoming line dancers to strut their stuff. If dancers work up an appetite, they can snag a seat at a table and order from a menu of wings, burgers, and slow-smoked barbecue baby-back ribs. On Saturday evenings, live bands or DJs provide a country soundtrack for eaters and drinkers to tap their boots to.

Wrapped in the aromatic embrace of Zona Sul Churrascaria’s smoldering barbecue pit, up to four friends gather over unending portions of Brazilian meats, rice, and vegetables. Diners pile thick slices of meat onto their plates as they gaze in wonder at the crackling sirloin steaks and pork sausages skewered on spits over the flames. Beef ribs line up in rows as foursomes hammer out xylophonic bossa nova songs with their forks, and chicken thighs strut to samba beats on palate dance floors. A bountiful salad bar complements the orchestra of sizzling proteins with rice, green vegetables, and whole onions painted to resemble soccer balls.