Lexington, KY

Our daughter, Lora, went to Asbury College in Wilmore, KY, just south of Lexington. Her former roommate Dawn, with whom Lora has stayed in touch, still lives in Lexington. Lexington was only about half an hour from where we were staying near Frankfort, so we arranged to stop by for a quick visit with Dawn, her husband Keith, their daughter Macy, and their new baby Wyatt. The next photo shows Margery with baby Wyatt.

What a cute little guy he is! He seems to be saying, "Now, where in the world did I put my Binky"?

Their 7-year old daughter Macy did a good job entertaining herself coloring while the adults chatted and "oooh-ed" and "ahhh-ed" over Wyatt.

During our visit, our conversation turned to food. We had planned to stop for a late lunch at a barbecue restaurant that is going to be featured on an upcoming edition of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Triple D) on our way back to the motor home. However, Dawn and Keith recommended two other barbecue joints that they thought had better barbecue at more reasonable prices. So we picked the one that had a name that Paul thought was interesting, and we stopped there on our way back to the motor home. The photo below shows the exterior of Butt Rub BBQ.

Butt Rub BBQ, which is located in a small strip mall, takes its name from the fact they use Boston butts for their pulled pork barbecue, and from the fact they use a dry rub during smoking. They used those terms to create a clever name for the restaurant.

Boston butts are cuts of pork taken from the upper part of shoulder from the front leg of the hog. Unlike cuts of pork that were "high on the hog" like the pork loin and ham, the shoulder and other less desirable cuts were packed in casks and barrels (also called butts) for storage and shipment. The name has nothing to do with the end of the pig the meat comes from.

Paul decided to have a pulled pork sandwich. In keeping with our recent trend toward beef back in Kansas City, Margery had a sliced brisket sandwich. All the sandwiches come with one side. Paul had sweet potato fries, and Margery had onion rings.

Both the pork and beef were tender, smoky, and moist. As we said in our post about the barbecue restaurants we visited in the Kansas City area (click here to read our post about Kanssas City barbecue), we think good barbecue should have enough flavor and moisture to stand on its own with little or no additional sauce. The sauce should be available on the table and should compliment, not compete, with the meat. This barbecue easily stood on its own. There were both sweet and hot sauces on the table. We added a little of the sweet, which was a Kansas City-style sauce (tomato and molasses-based) that was thick and flavorful.

The onion rings had a light, crisp batter coating, and the onions themselves were nice and sweet. The sweet potato fries were crusted with cinnamon sugar and were outstanding.

Dawn and Keith also recommended Old Kentucky Chocolates located right next to Butt Rub BBQ, so we had to stop in to see what they had.

Like Rebecca Ruth Candies, Old Kentucky also had bourbon balls. They offered us samples of the bourbon balls as well as numerous other types of candy. After several samples, we couldn't walk out without buying anything so Margery had another chocolate-covered cherry, and Paul had a dark chocolate-covered orange jelly. Although the chocolate-covered cherry at Rebecca Ruth was excellent, Margery liked the one at Old Kentucky a little better. Paul's orange jelly was excellent, but his favorite was the sample of the chocolate-covered bourbon cherry.

There were a couple of other things we wanted to visit the area like the Kentucky State Capitol and the Kentucky Horse Park, but we ran out of time. We could have rushed to squeeze them in, but with summer winding down, so are we. We're starting to spend a lot more time relaxing and a little less time sightseeing. With the Labor Day weekend coming up, it was time to move on, so we left some things to do for our next visit. With a nice, quiet campground like Still Waters in the area, a return visit is very likely.