I question the reliability of this review because we were starving by the time we ate lunch. We had flown in from DC and after a 7:00 am EDT breakfast, we had lunch at 3:30 EDT. We were sufficiently famished that I forgot to take pictures except for a really bad one of the post-meal debris.
Boney’s was a short walk from our hotel and prominent on local 10-best lists. It is in the basement of a downtown office building and has the ambience of a bar, which is not a bad thing. They have some organizational issues. They did not have the featured Beer of the Day and they were confused about which menu items were and were not available. Nancy had a chicken sandwich with fried okra (Nancy eating something fried being a sure sign of hunger) and slaw. I had a pork and brisket plate with greens and green beans.
Boney’s advertises its product as pit barbecue but there was no sign of a pit, which is not surprising for a downtown basement location. The pork and brisket were moist but utterly lacking in flavor. Well, there was the barest hint of smoke taste, and that might have come in a bottle. The sauces were so-so. I mixed the too-vinegary sauce (good on the vegetables) with their regular sauce and it was ok. Nancy liked the chicken, which usually does well in a box smoker, and the fried okra, which I also thought was good. The slaw was fine but the greens and green beans needed a lot of support from the vinegar.
All in all, it was not a horrible place to stop for lunch for someone who’s starving, but you can do better in downtown Denver or LoDo.
***
Click “follow” on our front page to receive blog posts in your email box. Or bookmark us and check in from time to time. If you’re planning a trip, you can “Search” the name of the city, state, or country for good restaurants (in Europe, usually close to sites, like the Louvre or the Van Gogh Museum, that you’ll want to visit in any event). Comments, questions, and suggestions of places to eat or stories to cover are very welcome. And check out our Instagram page, johntannerbbq.
John Tanner's Barbecue Blog 