Smokin’ Good BBQ

Yummy! On our way home from a trip to Maine. Searched on Unilocal for a dog friendly place for a bite to eat in the Bethel area. Smokin Joe popped up and based on reviews decided to give it a try. DELICIOUS! Had the brisket, husband & kids had ribs. Meat was smoky, tender & plentiful. Pup gave brisket 2 paws up. Corn bread was so-​so, but no biggee. Smoked cashews a nice little treat too. Definitely give it a try if you’re in the area.

Brisket, Beans, and Cornbread. Not a bad little spot for after a day on the mountain. As per usu it was about –5 378 383 739 483 degrees in the middle of January in Maine, so we scarfed down our food in the car.
Brisket, good. Beans, good. Slaw, good. Cornbread, good.
Good spot, not necessarily knock your socks off, but good. The boyf, who usually doesn’t eat any red meat, said he wasn’t sure it was worth the cheat. Definitely tasty for us regular carnivores.

Delicious fall off the bone ribs. The sauce is served in the side and is delicious as well. The cornbread, slaw and beans were ok

My friends and I came from Boston to Newry for Sunday River skiing and we’re looking for a nearby good eat. A quick Unilocal search brought me here and I saw (presumably) a Texan review the place simply as, «best bbq north of Austin». Knowing that Texans don’t take their bbq lightly, we decided to come and we were blown away! The beef brisket is so juicy with serious portions. The hot chili with habanero peppers is on the spicy side but so good. Their cornbread is amazing as well. Price is reasonable: $ 9.99 for sandwich alone or ~$ 13 for plate which is sandwich + 2 sides and cornbread. So filling, so good, ready to hit to slopes!

The BBQ ribs were really good; great rub, smoky and tender. The meat fell off the bone and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t boiled. We also had the Carolina Pulled Pork and a BBQ Chicken; all smoky goodness! The cole slaw was fantastic, tangy with a hint of cumin. The sauce was excellent too, not your typical tangy or sweet sticky sauce (sauce served on the side). I wasn’t crazy about the baked beans but my son loved them. The reason I gave this place 4 stars is that on the smaller part of the rack the meat was a little dry and tough but still really flavorful.
You should know that there is no indoor seating but if you’re there in the summer they probably put out tables.
If I’m back in the area I will definitely be back.

Very delicious and well priced! The «wild» bbq sauce was really delicious and added a nice kick to the meat. The spare ribs were really tender and the hot links were flavorful and juicy. The pulled pork was slightly on the drier side but with the BBQ sauce it was fine. There are picnic benches near the truck which was nice on a cool autumn afternoon. Highly recommend this joint!

I have to admit, I am not a big BBQ fan but with a promo that states «the way mom learned in prison», I had to try it. I got the pulled pork sandwich and it was great. Huge portion– I ate it for lunch and then snacked on it off and on later. Really nice owner who makes sure you are happy with your order and takes the time to talk about any questions or comments. A word of warning… the spicy sauce is REALLY spicy. Picnic tables under the trees are great for families and prices are good.

D E L I C I O U S !! I lived in a tent across the street from this place and it is no wonder I didn’t sleep walk over in the middle of the night and raid the place. Amazing BBQ. I went twice, and I even delayed leaving Maine on the last day of my trip to take a 30 minute drive out of the way to eat at this place one more time. GET THE COLESLAW !!

For openers, if you believe the best barbecue is usually found in the worst part of town, in a place with bars on the window and just enough grease on the table to write your initials, then this isn’t it.
If, on the the other hand, you believe, maybe through the divine intervention of the barbecue gods, you can stumble across some exceptional ‘cue while barreling down a rural highway somewhere in Maine Lobsterland, then this is it.
What it is, is Smokin’ Good BBQ, just across the lot from the Good grocery… what it is, is a trailer with a couple smokers and a handful of picnic tables.
Yes, they have all the standaards, but what they also have is a unique approach with some off the wall menu items. As a for instance, they have something they call a «pork sundae» which is even more unique that Neely’s Interstate (Memphis) barbecue spaghetti.
Their pork sundae has a generous portion of very moist, oakwood flavored, pork atop a slice of cornbread with sauce, slaw, barbecued cashews (when’s the last time you had or even heard of cashews marinated in hot sauce and then smoked?) topped with some pickle slices and more cornbread.
A meal; a very different and memorable meal for $ 7.99.
This «by the side of the road» eatery boasts that it’s brisket so good that a Texan would mug you for it. The sandwich is $ 9.99, plate with two sides, $ 12.99. And it is good; very good.
Didn’t try the ribs pulled chicken or hot links, but if they’re anywhere as good as the pork and brisket, it’d go a long way to explain the line of cars and motorcycles pulling off the highway.
The Smokin’ folks have couple sauces; the one we sampled was thick, smoke inmfused, and, like everything else, homemade and very good.
For someone who has spent a lifetime in pursuit of the perfect barbecue (read my reviews of more than 75 barbecue joins across the country), I’ve gotta confess that this trailer along Route 2 in Bethel, Maine is not only worth the stop, but also worth going out of your way for.

We stopped here for a quick bite before hitting the trails– OH EM GEE. My boyfriend and I split the 4 meat combo… plenty of delicious BBQ with slaw, cornbread, baked beans, & pickles (guessing they were homemade too). Wish I could send you a smell-​o-​gram of how amazing it was to sit among the fir trees inhaling the sweet aroma of the smoker… MMMMM. We’ll be back. Maybe for dinner tonight!

We stopped at Smokin’ Good on the way back from a secluded waterfall during a low-​key bachelor party weekend. The signature smoker was going full force, and the smell compelled us to stop. We were not disappointed!
The meat was very good, and was excellently smoked — which makes sense. We saw the owner working at the smoker, and could tell he knew what he was doing. Being a BBQ nut, I tried every meat available. All had excellent smoke. The brisket was surpsingly fatty and juicy — some of the best I have had in the northeast. The ribs were great as well. The pulled pork was dry — I would not recommend it. I really wanted to try the sausage, but they were out.
The sides were good enough, but that’s not why you get BBQ anyways!
All in all, I would wholeheartedly recommend stopping here after a summer day of swimming or a winter day of skiing at Sunday River. Not the best BBQ I have had, but maybe the best-​smoked BBQ I have had in the northeast.
Side note: I hopped into the small food store whose property Smokin’ Good is on, and bought one of their signature pumpkin moon pies. It was absolutely delicious. Dense but moist, with plenty of delicious vanilla filling. I overheard a patron asking the owner why they didn’t have chocolate moon pies, and she said «because I haven’t found a good enough recipe yet». Obviously someone who takes their craft seriously, and it pays off! A great post-​BBQ dessert!

Four of us went for lunch while in Bethel over the 4^th of July weekend and we done dug on swine! … and cow and whatever is in the fantastic chili. We ate at the picnic tables set up behind the food truck and had a great experience. The chili is pretty fantastic as is the brisket and pulled pork. Choice of sauces (hot or mild) should both be experienced, and which come on the side. Be sure not to give away your cornbread and our coleslaw aficionado in the group gave high marks. I will be sure to stop in whenever in the area. Good stuff.

Very tasty stuff and even cooler setup in a food truck with a smoker hooked up. They’ve been in the parking lot of the Good Food Store (also worth a visit) for years, before food trucks were a thing. The best bbq I’ve had in the area… stop by for lunch before a half day on the mountain — you won’t be disappointed!

I was in the Bethel-​area for my wife’s family’s Christmas weekend shindig. This happens every year, and we make the trek into in the western mountains of Maine for a weekend just prior to Christmas.
While things have gotten noticeably better the past year, or so, Maine still lacks much in the way of authentic BBQ. When I found out Saturday’s family dinner was coming from Smokin’ Good, I was pleased, as I had stopped by at lunch time to check it out on my Bethel and vicinity explorations.
Smokin’ Good is a small 60’s era travel trailer sitting in the parking lot of a roadside store, with a big ass smoker sitting next to the travel trailer. The smoke belching forth from the smoker smelled great and I was told they use apple wood and oak chips.
I was impressed that even in the middle of winter in Maine, there are hearty souls trying to spread the gospel of BBQ to those of us tucked away in the far northeastern corner, far from the BBQ Meccas down south.
When Saturday night arrived, so did the aroma of BBQ coming through the door to our camp. We had a nice assortment of brisket, pulled pork, baked beans, and corn bread.
The brisket, while flavorful, was also a bit overdone, with the bark being charred. This was a major disappointment, as I could tell that brisket that hadn’t been overdone was fatty and flavorful. The pulled pork was much better, although slightly dry. Smokin’ Good doesn’t add sauce to their meat, relying on smoking for the flavor. Their sauces, which range from mild, to XXX (extra hot) are flavorful and blended nicely with the pork that had been smoked just right. The dryness might have been due to the meat sitting for a bit, so I’ll give them a pass on that. The smoked flavor was solid, however.
The St. Louis-​style ribs were excellent. The meat was tender and came away from the bone easily. Great smoked flavor, with a little bit of bark.
The baked beans were excellent. Nice, tangy tomato-​based sauce, with a hint of vinegar in the taste. They had been cooked long enough to give the sauce a nice thickness that I prefer in beans.
Smokin’ Goods’ cole slaw is some of the best I’ve had. In fact, it was so good that people were fighting over leftovers the following morning at breakfast.
The corn bread was decent, but not the killer kind of side that the cole slaw was.
I’d definitely try Smokin’ Good again, the next time I’m traveling Route 2 out of Bethel headed towards Sunday River. I’d like to give their brisket another shot.

So good! Their cornbread is some of the best I’ve ever had. Excellent little gem in the parking lot of the Good Food Store. Fantastic food for after skiing :)

You can’t beat the setting — trailer parked in a grocery store parking lot on the side of a rural Maine road. You have one guy cooking up BBQ on par with some of the best I’ve had in Texas. Born in raised in the south BBQ is something I know about and this place would rank high in my book. I had the brisket sandwich with beans and slaw. My husband had the pork sundae which is a quirky combo of pulled pork topped with beans, slaw and cashews. Great combo. Look forward to another trip!

I wish they had Porkslap Ale. That would have been perfect and gone with their marketing. I was confused at first and thought Smokin’ Good BBQ and the food truck + dining area were different. They are not-​they are one and the same. We came back from a strenuous hike (really it was the way down that almost killed us… damn blueberry ridge trail!) and we were HANGRY. We had some left over veggies from earlier that we had forgone because we didn’t have enough water with us, but now that we were hydrated we didn’t stop to think about those and went straight to the MEAT state of mind.
We got two full orders-​one of pork bbq on a roll and a chicken bbq. The meat was tender and smoky, the sauces equally so. They ask you if you want mild or wild… for the sandwich they’ll put the sauce on directly but if you don’t get the roll you can ask for the sauce in little containers. Which honestly is a good idea even you just get the roll because that sandwich will be overstuffed and that pork WILL fall out. Which you can then blissfully dunk in sauce.
You get cornbread and two sides with your plate. You have the option of baked beans, coleslaw, and really hot chili. We got one of each and doubled up the baked beans. the chili was super tasty and savory but I couldn’t eat too much of it because it was way too spicy for me. The beans are sweet and comforting but the winner was the coleslaw-​wish I had doubled up on that one instead. It was tangy and crunchy, just enough sauce. I was a bit underwhelmed by the cornbread which was a bit on the dry side but they have the idea right-​sugar has no place in corn bread (or at least not very much sugar!).
We took everything with us and ate it back at our Inn but they’ve got some picnic tables on a nice grassy area behind the truck. I hope this place is open during winter too which is when I’m most likely to come back to Bethel!

BBQ smoked right in front of you. its a trailer by the side of the road with smokers. we had brisket sandwiches with wild sauce. sausage sand pork ribs and a pork Sunday. great job smoking that meat. all you need is a beer and you’d be in heaven.

Very good BBQ. Moist, fall off the bone goodness. Very meaty ribs! Wish I lived near here I would be there all the time. Could not believe I found a BBQ place this good out in the middle of nowhere! Friendly service also.

**Cash only**
Side Note: Can’t check in here bc of EDGE.
Came here because all other places in Maine seem to close at 6pm.
Décor: ³⁄₅
–The orange graffiti’d trailer, frozen soda vending machine and the large black grill get some style points.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
–Friendly service. We ordered about $ 41 worth of food for 5 people and he threw in 2 extra sides.
Food: ³⁄₅
–I had high expectations after reading Andrew C., Chris D. & Rose D.‘s reviews.
–Ribs: skin was completely black, the ribs were tough to chew and not too flavorful.
–Opt for the tangy bbq sauce. This helped make the ribs more flavorful
–Beef Brisket: Much better than the ribs (bc of less fat), more juicy and easier to chew.
–Cole Slaw: orange colored, just wasn’t the cole slaw I grew up with.
–Beans: Bush’s beans taste better than this. This just tasted weird.