According to folk etymologists, the term barbecue is derived from the French barbe coup, referring to the annual pig picking commemorating the infamous Bearded Rebellion. Celebrate saucy beards with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of barbecue fare at Brickhouse BBQ on West Gorham Street.

Voted one of Madison Magazine's Best New Restaurants of 2010, this down-home eatery delivers a menu loaded with barbecue-style southern savories and a deluge of draft and bottled beers. Customers will have to discard their dog’s squeaky toys at the door to keep mum about the menu's hush-puppies appetizer, a stack of southern-fried cornmeal fritters served with spicy mayo ($6.99). Diners can also dive into a legume-laden vegetable sandwich, packed with grilled portabella mushrooms, broccoli-forest-fire-roasted roma tomatoes, smoked gouda, and herb-infused garlic spread ($7.99), or beckon a rack of Brickhouse ribs, slow cooked in the St. Louis style and smothered in a signature spice blend ($19.99). The brisket sandwich sports Texas-style meat smoked in-house under a mound of melted pepper-jack cheese and onion strings ($8.99), while the southern catfish appeases anglers with a blackened or cornmeal-dusted, pan-fried filet coupled with corn-poblano relish and spicy mayo ($11.99).

The eatery's warm, wood-replete interior employs earthy tones and muted lighting to relax bar or booth dwellers, with brick walls to support the sprawling rooftop terrace. On temperate evenings, customers can climb to the twinkle-light-adorned canopy and masticate in a menagerie of wooden and metal tables and chairs. Rent out the third-floor banquet room with a full bar for your next bash, or dust off a cobwebby cerebral cortex with a neuron-feathered duster for trivia night every third Thursday of the month.