Smokey's TODOTC.com To Do in the Twin Cities Restaurants Smokey's Date: April 26, 2024 552 Lincoln Dr East Bethel, MN 55092 Phone: (651) 464-6046 www.smokeyspubngrill.net

We like, lacking a better term, tasty works of art for our Friday night meal. That’s what the new trendy places have. And if you go back to that trendy place five years later it probably either has changed it name or moved on. It’s the nature of the beast. And yet some of their great works of food art may be seen for years in other places.

Well tonight we are at Smokeys of East Bethel. A rib joint/roadhouse that has been in the current location for 12 years since 2012 and will probably be there another 20, with little changes.

Smokeys is your basic rib joint and roadhouse. Unlike many area roadhouses they did not clear a table for us and say: you’ll be sitting here, so we can keep an eye on you! It seemed a very friendly place with TVs & beer signs on in every direction and plenty of room in case someone decided they felt like dancing. Something you don’t get downtown. It’s the place rural America goes for a good Friday night meal. E&I feel at home in places like this.

Smokeys is in East Bethel. That’s north of town. That would be about ten minutes into deer country. Twenty minutes north of the loop. If you don’t have navigation for your vehicle or a navigator with Google Maps don’t even, try to find it. Which would sit well with the locals. We drove right to it after a couple of questionable corners. Google sent us home an entirely different way. Go figure.

Our son is a big smoker and ribs fan. I’ll eat them but I have never caught the bug. E is of similar passion. So, when it came to ordering, E had a burger and fries for $13 something that could never be bad in these places and was very good.

I felt it my obligation to order the ribs they were known for. I ordered a one third rack for $16 which was a good Friday night meal for me.

For wines they had a Cab for $5 and a Pinot for $5. We ordered one of each. Did you know Pinot comes in other colors including white? Actually, I know there are seven, I did not expect a Pinot Grigio. I guess tonight I’m drinking white. Both were OK. But one should not expect much, ordering wine in a beer joint.

The food was good, the service and place were good. The bill was $52 about half of what we normally spend. It was a different kind of night. But a friend Catherine ask us to check it out, so that’s what we did. I’m glad we went.

If you are looking for a nice, safe, good roadhouse for ribs, give Smokeys a try, but drink it with a beer

Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com