Honey Pig: Does Everyone Here Hate Me? (Annandale, VA)

Ever walked in somewhere and you could tell no one wanted you there? I know it happens to me almost constantly. It’s not because I’m generally unlikable, which I most certainly am, but I guess I just put myself into those kinds of situations. I frequently walk in when people have just had an argument, so both the people just sit there not talking or looking at each other. Then I start talking, and they both speak with one word answers, and with no eye contact. I never know what to do when this happens, so I just stand there, looking like a jackass, then slowly back out of the room. Unfortunately, this happened to me with Honey Pig in Annandale.

I went here on a suggestion from a friend. I at once agreed to go, solely because the places name was Honey Pig. Shortly before I arrived, I was told it was a Korean BBQ place. This made me even more excited to try it. Annandale, VA is like Koreatown, there are many great Korean businesses there. Honey Pig sits right off a major intersection in town. The building is like a big metal warehouse, and the metal and wood design continues inside. I’ve been to Korean BBQ places before, they usually look like your grandma’s dining room but with the large vents over the tables. This place looked more like a Chipotle, but still with those vents. Either way, when we sat down, the waitress came over and told us about the place in somewhat broken English. It was totally easy understanding her, but you could tell this was the kind of place that another language was spoken far more often. Me being there seemed like more of an inconvience to the staff, as I was not as familiar with Honey Pig protocol as their regulars. The staff was polite, but there was definitely an eye rolling like annoyance from the staff about my questions.

The food at Honey Pig is what you make of it, literally. Like many Korean BBQ places, they provide you with the meat, sides, and sauces and you cook it up yourself with the hot plate in the middle of your table. I got sort of a sampler platter, with bits of different meats. All were great. After being soaked in sauces, the meats were amazingly tender. You also get about ten little side dishes, ranging from your standard Kimchi, to stuff I’ve never heard of before. These for me were hit or miss, but you could tell they tasted as they should, some just weren’t my cup of tea.

Honey Pig seems like a great place to hang out with friends and get drunk talking over some Korean BBQ. As much as this place seems fun, I get the feeling the place really isn’t designed for me. As much as they were gracious, I don’t see me being a regular here. That being said, sometimes if the Korean BBQ mood really strikes me, Honey Pig is always an option.

Alamo BBQ: Ok, Some of You Hipster Are Alright (Richmond, VA)

In my earlier review of 8 1/2, I discussed my dislike of Hipsters. I fully stand by this, and am confident that any angry hipster’s frail arms could do little damage to my more hearty carriage. As much as I dislike them, I decided to try to understand them. Naturally, this was initially to attempt to find their weaknesses, so I can destroy them once and for all. I needed first to find out where these loathsome creatures gather. I found that many of them enjoy frequenting coffee shops (but never Starbucks) during the day, and filthy noise filled basements at night. This left me with a dilemma, as I do not enjoy waiting half an hour for a coffee, so a hipster coffee place is out; and they would be on to me in a second in the lion’s den that is their club scene. So I had got word of Alamo BBQ in Church Hill, where goofy jean jacket clad youngsters carouse around like its their safe place. This confused me to hear this as BBQ seemed like far too substantial of a meal for the bird size stomach of a typical hipster. But I figured it was a good chance to listen in on their probably irritating conversations while getting my grub on, so took a trip to check it out.

Alamo is located in the Church Hill area of Richmond. This area is an old historic district that’s sort of run down, but recently hipsters have come in and with it comes weird food places. I think Alamo used to be a gas station or something, its located on a corner of an intersection in a tiny one room shack decorated to look like a western style adobe house. In this tiny shack, they churn out some fine BBQ. They have chicken, pork, ribs, and some mighty tender brisket. All of these meats are great, juicy and spiced. They have several delicious sides, ranging from cowboy beans, black beans & rice, and Alamo slaw, but to me, there are only two: the corn bread and the jalapeño mac & cheese. The cornbread is some of the best around, and the mac & cheese I could eat by the bucket. They also have fresh made limeaides, grapeaides, and a few other aides. On a nice weather day, Alamo is a fantastic way to relax and eat.

With that said, the need of nice weather is really its only downside. See, Alamo has no indoor seating, just a couple picnic tables with an awning over them. This is fine on a nice day, but if it gets rainy or chilly, or just too damn hot, you might not take the trip to Alamo. I guess I can’t blame the weather on Alamo, but it is a huge factor in going there, and with that, Alamo becomes a place you only go to when the mood really strikes you. But with the weather being as it is lately, I think I might show up more often…