Home Consumer Shiver’s BBQ in Homestead: A Florida Classic

Shiver’s BBQ in Homestead: A Florida Classic

Shiver’s BBQ (SBBQ)

Shiver’s BBQ in Homestead

is a restaurant serving BBQ in Homestead, FL. They have been around in some form or fashion since the 1950s. Interestingly, until the introduction of the Florida Turnpike Extension in the early 1970s, tourists heading to the Florida Keys had to drive past SBBQ.

Unfortunately, this has probably made SBBQ somewhat Terra Incognita to those traveling through the area. You’d never know it from the parking lot on a recent Saturday afternoon.

Having heard many good things about SBBQ and happening to be in the area, my dining companion (DC) and I decided to eat lunch here.

The interior of the restaurant is very retro, and patrons are seated at communal picnic benches inside which only adds to your dining experience.

Interior Shiver’s BBQ

 

The menu doubles as your placemat and is extensive. As DC and I discovered, their menu cannot possibly be adequately sampled on one visit.

Shiver’s BBQ menu

DC and I both love Burnt Ends, so ordering them was the first order of business.

Burnt ends

These were wonderful, full of smoke flavor which was accentuated by the sweetness of the BBQ sauce. It was almost a meal in itself though we weren’t done yet.

A couple of sides were in order, fried green tomatoes and fried dill pickle chips. After all, what complements fatty meats like burnt ends? More fat!

Fried green tomatoes

 

Fried pickle chips

Both sides come with a ranch dip which nicely complements the light batter on each of these sides. These are properly cooked to be crispy on the outside and soft and light on the inside.

We also split a rib trio, which comes with 2 beef ribs, 1/2 an order of baby back ribs and a couple of spare ribs.

Rib trio

Beef Ribs are somewhat uncommon and if you’ve never had them, they’re great. They are huge with a tremendous amount of meat on them compared to pork ribs.

One can easily get carried back to one’s primal roots by eating off these huge bones cooked over flame and smoke. Highly recommended.

As we didn’t have enough to eat already, we also ordered a couple of sides, Corn Bread Souffle and coleslaw.

Corn bread souffle and coleslaw

I loved the coleslaw. It’s mayonnaise and sugar-based, not vinegar-based which I feel sours the mix. The cornbread souffle was not my thing. DC loved it though.

The food at SBBQ is wonderful and very much worth going out of your way for. Besides the trip back in time, this is some of the best BBQ I have had in Florida. The only better BBQ so far was from a Texas transplant who was in Southwest Florida for a spell, but he’s long gone.

I recently read about Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer who brought the future America’s first pigs to what is now Tampa Bay in the early 16th century. I could not help but see the irony in this and am sure he had no idea what his initial porcine population would become. At SBBQ, their BBQ meats are certainly put to good use.

 

Servers, Shiver’s BBQ

It’s a wrap for another post on Forks.

Shiver’s BBQ

28001 S. Dixie Hwy.

Homestead, FL 33033

(305)248-2272

Shiver’s BBQ Website

Open Sunday-Thursday 11 AM-9 PM, Friday-Saturday 11 AM-10 PM; All major credit cards accepted.

This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.