Hickory Pig
Gainesville, Georgia
"...if your business card is a piece of cardboard." On the other hand, maybe not, if you know, like Phil Beaubien does, that the best barbecue probably ever was made by slaves, using an open pit to slow-cook meat that the lady of the plantation house wouldn't have on her table. The pork at the Hickory Pig is smoked in a cast iron smoker 
that is stoked with hickory logs transported in a red wheelbarrow. (Phil turns the meat himself, but on a 90F day he would not knock the $20,000 Southern Pride squirrel-cage-type smoker.) The Hickory Pig was recently designated the #1 barbecue place by paywall-protected Atlanta Magazine. I myself had been tipped by my good buddy John Tanner.
John sent me a link to an article in Garden and Gun magazine, and the Hickory Pig, in Gainesville, Georgia, was the closest to me on the list. It was well worth the trip. The menu on the Wednesday I went was not as extensive as it is Thursdays through Saturdays (closed Sundays and Mondays, and after 3 in the afternoon most days). I had a pulled pork sandwich, and it was so good I ordered a chopped 
sandwich to compare. I was graciously given a cup of Brunswick stew by Phil's daughter, and afterwards I was invited to the outside-seating-karaoke-bar outside, to be serenaded in the style of Patsy Cline. Phil followed with a creditable Hank Williams.
The sandwiches were moist, garnished with a pickle slice, and lightly sauced. I'll be back for more, like the Australian couple who were there. They've been regulars for five years.
Overall: 
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