OK, so here’s a tip for when you sit down at any of the 27 Jim ‘N Nick’s Southern Kitchens throughout the South—pay attention to just how many of those sweet little cheese-corn muffins you jam into your gaping maw while waiting for your meal.

I speak from experience, as on my first visit to the Alabama-born barbecue chain, I could barely eat half of my entrée, if that.

The Jim ‘N Nick’s near my place has been open for going on two years, I’m guessing, but I had yet to eat there. An oversight I intended to remedy ASAP. That day came recently on a Saturday evening with Johanna before heading off to a movie (“Bridesmaids” was a laugh-riot, by the way… if only I reviewed movies, I’d say more).

When you first walk into the bright, clean dining room, you are hit with the smell of smoke—not the hmmm… something’s burning kind of smell but the ooh, that smells good, kind of smoke. After being seated, we barely had time to open the menu when we were served the first of many baskets of these small corn muffins. Having never been here before, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and popped one in my mouth. OMG! I could probably make a whole meal of these things. Still, we came here to eat some barbecue, so I ordered one of Mr. Jim’s Deluxe Combos with pork spare ribs and beef brisket ($16.49). Johanna, having had her taste for a pulled pork sandwich peaked earlier in the week, ordered a JNN original Bar-B-Q sandwich ($7.99).

Other options form the menu include pulled BBQ chicken, turkey breast, smoked ham, a fried catfish plate ($11.99), a hickory-grilled rib-eye steak ($13.99) and three different size racks of baby back and spare ribs (from $9.99 to $19.49).

By the time the dinners arrived, we had managed to devour the original basket of muffins, plus two more that seemed to magically appear when the previous one was empty. Needless to say, we were feeling pretty full when the entrées were set in front of us.

Now, the origin story of Jim ‘N Nick’s goes something like this: Jim and his son Nick spent some 25 years perfecting their version of barbecue, doing it the true Southern way—low and slow. The first of the JNN restaurants opened 28 years ago in Birmingham, Ala. Since then, the restaurant chain has expanded, with five locations in Georgia, 10 in Alabama, two in Florida, four in Tennessee, three in South Carolina, one in North Carolina and two in Colorado.

They make a point to remind their customers that everything is made from scratch every day, from the 14-hours spent smoking the pork shoulder over hickory to all the sides to the desserts and all the sauces. It shows up in the final product.

My combo, of which I had to take half home in a doggie bag, was really, really good. The spare ribs were tender and full of that smoked flavor, and the beef brisket was—considering this is a place where the pig is king—as tender as could be. The sides were amazing, too. The creamy cole slaw was sweet, but not cloyingly so, with enough pepper to give it a kick. The BBQ baked beans were just like my grandmother’s (a Texas Panhandle native who could turn out some killer southern cooking, too), a brown-sugar-and-ketchup affair alongside a couple of big hunks of pork that probably used, although I didn’t ask, the house BBQ sauce in place of the ketchup.

Johanna’s sandwich proved to be a pretty nice mound of the pulled pork with a dollop of sauce on a warm bun. With a little more sauce from the bottles on the table, she got to the right amount and devoured it while I was struggling with my meal. I ended up finishing two of the four ribs, half the brisket, all of both sides and who-knows-how-many of those darned little muffins.

Despite being stuffed, we each managed to get a couple of bites of Miss Mabel’s lemon pie that was worthy of my grandmother’s best.

The upside, though, was a second chance at the meal the next day, with another basket of the muffins that somehow managed to make the trip home, too.

Jim ‘N Nick’s Southern Kitchen
1103 Old Preachtree Rd.
Suwanee, Ga. 30024
770.255.1717

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