Jim Oliver’s Smokehouse
Sauces with a Bit of Whiskey
By Doc Lawrence
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| The Smokehouse Rib Dinner |
MONTEAGLE, TN- For most Atlanta travelers, the most direct
road to Nashville goes through the mountaintop town of historic Monteagle, home
of the University of the South and Jim Oliver’s Smokehouse, one of the great
centers of Southern cooking and cultural heritage. The Smokehouse also produces
some very delicious barbecue sauces.
Positioned along the old Dixie Highway that begins in
Chicago and extends to Miami, it has served as a clarion, spreading the gospel
of taste and flavors of this part of Tennessee.
The ingredients are listed on the label and they are the
usual ones except for the revelation of a least a dollop of whiskey. Which
style-Tennessee whiskey or Kentucky Bourbon- you’ll never know, but I take them
at their word that it’s inside the bottle.
The Smokehouse is also home to The Louvin Brothers Museum.
For the uninitiated, Charlie and Ira Louvin popularized close harmony singing
in country music and according to Bob Dylan, Garrison Keillor, are the singing
ancestors of The Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel.
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| The Louvin Brothers |
The Smokehouse has been a regular stop for me over the past
20 years. The restaurant serves good barbecue and has live music on Friday and
Saturday nights.
Predictably, the sauces are produced in quantity and you can
purchase them online. The flavor seems to have survived the trend to
industrialized production, the bane of most of the barbecue sauces that line
the retail store shelves.
It’s a testament to the authenticity of the family-owned
Smokehouse that they have remained much like they were on that December day I
first stopped there in the middle of a snowstorm.
The hot coffee and barbecue pork plate rejuvenated a weary
traveler. To supply my cupboard at home, I purchased several bottles of
barbecue sauces, a ritual I repeat regularly. They are served when family and
friends come over to celebrate important holidays.
There are many handcrafted barbecue sauces and rubs that
deserve recognition. I’m looking for them.
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