Noble BBQ, Portland, Maine

I’ve mentioned our friends and sometime neighbors John and Nancy Breul.  They’re on assignment this winter as our Senior South Portland Correspondents.  You may ask how in the world I persuaded them to choose this time of year to forsake Washington for Maine. Well, actually I didn’t.  Their daughter Sarah did by giving birth to Charlie Breul Roberge (who is doing famously), thereby transforming Nancy and Jon into grandparents.  So to Maine they sped.

You may not associate Portland, Maine, with good barbecue.  That means you haven’t read the memorable  post on Salvage BBQ from our Senior Portland Correspondents, Knapp and Ella Davies Hudson.  Knapp is a fellow Indian Springs Alumnus, as is his brother Al, whom you also have met in Florida.

Jon and Nancy’s first report, on Noble BBQ (no relation to Noble Smoke), is concise.  From Jon, reporting on site at Noble BBQ:

Nancy and I made a return visit to Noble Barbecue.  We had been here before on recommendation of my niece Julia.  We both had chopped pork sandwiches.  As sides, Nancy had pimiento mac and cheese; I had the citrus apple slaw.  All of it was very good.

Here’s a view —

Nancy added in response to my inquiry that the pimiento cheese macaroni and cheese was

Good!  Curly pasta tubes with thick pimiento cheese sauce and crispy crumbs on top.  The pleasure eating it was somewhat dampened by the wooden fork, but not so much that I didn’t pound down the whole serving!  I noticed some people adding hot sauce to theirs, but I liked it mellow.

I went to the Noble website and found some more pictures —

Oh my!  Makes you hungry.

Oh, Noble BBQ has two sauces, yellow sauce (a dijon sauce that Jon liked) and a red sauce for which Jon offered the Delphic description, “sweet and bitter.”

Noble offers an impressive 16 craft beers, and all of the draft beers — and maybe four of the canned — are brewed right there in Maine.  I like that.  There also are wines  for those who drink wine with barbecue.

Noble BBQ sounds like a very good place.  Knapp and Ella also have given it two big thumbs up.  Nancy and I need to get to Portland to see young Charlie and have a lobster roll or three, and especially to check out Noble Smoke.  Give it a try.

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