Acton Eats: Po's Ribs and Barbecue

Po's Ribs and Barbecue
344 Great Road
Acton, MA
(978) 264-3110

Barbecue restaurants are popping up all over the place, like dandelions in a spring lawn. I wouldn't be surprised if one day every town had its own barbecue joint, just as every town has its own pizza shop today.

Acton's entry into the arena is Po's Ribs and Barbecue, located next to CVS in the Acton Woods Plaza, at the intersection of Routes 2A and 27.

Po's is a modestly sized eatery, with half a dozen small tables, but it's doesn't have the atmosphere of your typical barbecue place. While most such restaurants strive for a rustic, rough-hewn kind of look, Po's is clean and modern-looking, with walls of freshly painted brick red and gold, and a shiny new bar running down its length. If you sidled up to this bar without knowing any better, you'd be thinking martini, rather than a bucket of brewskis.

And before you go asking what style of barbecue Po's serves or how authentic it is, let me point out that it is owned by one of the three brothers who ran the now-defunct Ginger Court, the Chinese restaurant that had a long tenure on Route 2A, near the Concord line. And Po has brought with him the chef and one of the waitresses from the old restaurant.

However, if you throw away any preconceived notions of what a barbecue restaurant should be, you'll find that the food is pretty darned good. I tried the baby back ribs and the pulled pork on a recent lunchtime visit and would give both of them a thumbs up.

The ribs were long and slender and were prepared with a delicious spice rub. They're served dry, which is how I prefer them, but if you like yours with barbecue sauce, Po's serves one that is smoky, sweet, and tangy. It looks too smooth to be homemade, but it is quite tasty.

Likewise, the tender shreds of pulled pork were not slathered with barbecue sauce either, but were flavored with a simple vinegar sauce--again, just how I like it. This also gives it more of a visual appeal in my book, as the clean white of the pork is tinted pink around the edges by the smoke.

On a return visit, my son tried the Texas-style beef brisket. He got a load of lean beef slices, all with that characteristic smoke ring.

The side dishes at Po's are a bit puzzling, or at least non-traditional. You won't find any corn bread, collard greens, sweet potatoes, or even macaroni and cheese. The crisp, sauteed green beans would have easily been at home on the menu at Ginger Court. Similarly, the cold noodles are also Asian in origin, prepared with a little rice wine vinegar and some shredded cucumber. Baked beans, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and French fries are also available and are not bad.

Po's also has a small selection of other dishes, which are more like appetizers than meals. My family tried both the crispy spicy wings and the crispy spicy shrimp, both of which were excellent. But both of these were prepared with a Chinese accent, as well. We were big fans of the wings at Ginger Court, and these are similar, though tossed with some bits of red and green chili pepper. The generous pile of tender shrimp was also dressed with bits of chili pepper. Skewers of shrimp, chicken, and beef are other options.

Prices are pocket-book friendly. Brisket, chicken, or pork sandwiches will set you back just $6.95, while platters range from $4.95 for two ribs (good for a light lunch) to $24.95 for a full rack. Both the sandwiches and platters come with your choice of two sides.

If you're looking for a slice of pecan pie to top off your meal, forget it, as Po's is not yet serving desserts as of this writing.

Po's also bills itself as a sports bar, and two flat screen televisions do hang over the bar. Neither were tuned to sports programs on my two visits, though no local teams had games at the time.

It's safe to say that Po's Ribs and Barbecue is far from your prototypical smokehouse, but if you get a craving for ribs and pulled pork as often as I do (or if you're looking for a place to grab a drink and some tasty appetizers), Po's fits the bill nicely.

[Addendum 6/28/2010: My son has ordered the brisket on a couple more occasions. It seems to vary from very lean to more on the fatty side. While the leaner meat is probably healthier, the fattier cut I sampled was much moister and far tastier!]