The great BBQ hunt? That is what it starting feeling like tonight. I arrived into Tampa this evening shortly past 6:00PM and headed to Clearwater, FL. By the time I picked my car up and made it to the hotel and checked in it was well past 7PM. I've eaten BBQ many times at Smokey Bones in Clearwater as well as Buffy's in St. Petersburg. It was time for something new.

Late last year I started collecting menus from the different BBQ places I've eaten at and I need a new menu, possibly one that can sit on the top row of my board. So I sat down at the computer and searched. A friend had recommended Roger's Real Pit BBQ. So I found one of those the GPS and headed to it. The problem is that when I arrived I could not find it. Has it moved and been replaced by some "Egg" restaurant? OK I bring up more selections on the GPS and figure I'll try Hickory Smoke House BBQ. So I head to it. Wouldn't you know it, I cannot find it! So I again bring up selections on the GPS. This time I selected Fred Fleming's Famous BAR-B-QUE. Why did I select this one? One word, Famous. I had to see why he says it is famous. At this point I did not know anything about Fred Fleming or his BAR-B-QUE.

First let me say that after I ate I head back to the hotel. I walked around the hotel four times and did 6 flights of stairs four times and walked each hall to get from one flight to the next. and what I wrote in the forums right after I got in the hotel still applies...

Instead of stuffed like a pig how about, stuffed with pig? That is what I am right now - and still after the walking -.

OK to the order, Fred's Create Your Own Combo Three. So I went with my three favorites, Sausage, Pork and Ribs.

Sausage - Excellent. What more can I say? TASTY. Big and meaty and oh so good!

Pork - The pork has a great flavor that they kill with the sauce! An eastern NC sauce would make this an excellent dish. They had a red sauce and a yellow mustard sauce. I liked the mustard sauce better.

Ribs - Their ribs are St. Louis style. St. Louis style ribs are not my first choice. However, these were very good. They've won national awards for these ribs. Winner, GREATEST RIBS IN AMERICA; I think this is from the Great American Cook off.

My sides were baked beans and Texas toast. I love Texas toast. And the beans, damn they were good. They even had a little pork in them!

Fred Fleming's Famous BAR-B-QUE
4351 4th St. North
St. Petersburg, FL
http://www.FredFlemingsBBQ.com