Tom Jenkins' Bar-B-Q

Drive past this Fort Lauderdale roadside log cabin at lunch or dinnertime and you'll understand exactly why lines stretch out the door. The aroma of meat grilling over red oak and hickory is hard to resist. Today a Fort Lauderdale institution, Tom Jenkins has been smoking up the neighborhood since 1990. Originally a traveling barbecue trailer, it became a 40-seat restaurant back in 1996, and while it may have moved up in terms of location, the cooks here still use the same slow, oak-fired cooking process to churn out the restaurant's beloved Southern-style pork specialties — food that's garnered high praise as one of 500 best places to eat by the online Great Florida Restaurant Guide. That includes baby back ribs, the cut that sits closest to the hog's back loins for a fat stack of meat atop curved bone. At Tom Jenkins, they're cooked just right — not fall off the bone. Instead, just enough so the meat remains firm and juicy, the center exposing just a touch of pink. The sauce recipe, developed by the owners from old family recipes, is a thick, tasty blend of molasses, honey, and a variety of secret ingredients. Side dishes, from collard greens to macaroni and cheese, are uniformly excellent and artery-clogging (try the baked beans for a slightly more-healthful alternative). Whatever you do, don't miss the sweet potato pie for dessert.