BBQ for Dinner Plus Donuts for Dessert!

Once again, our friends Norm and Linda invited us to go out to dinner with them…and as usual the meal (and dessert) involved places where we’d never eaten!

Our first stop was Fullservice BBQ.  Fullservice BBQ started in Maryville Tennessee back in 2007 when chef and entrepreneur, Anthony DiFranco III, turned an abandoned gas station into a drive-in BBQ joint.  Working with the old gas station structure and the layout of the property, the name Full Service BBQ was born.

The business has grown quickly.  In 2015, Full Service BBQ opened a second restaurant near downtown Knoxville in an old car-hop fast food location, keeping with the Full Service BBQ theme.  This location in Farragut Tennessee is the third restaurant for the growing chain.

 

This big smoker sits curbside on US Hwy 11/Kingston Pike in front of the restaurant and separated from the building by parking.  Our question was…is this smoking smoker for show only or is it the real thing?  It was smoking…but in my mind it’s a personal injury claim waiting to happen.

This is the inside of Fullservice BBQ… As you can see, the staff was busy preparing the food while keeping dry and warm.

Fullservice BBQ offers chicken, pork and brisket sandwiches along with ribs, sausage, BBQ Nachos and other specialty items, BBQ meat by the pound, a number of sides, a couple of desserts and family packs to go that feed from 5 to 25 people.  They also cater buffets…

As you can see from this photo, customers order at the window.  It was a chilly rainy day when we visited but there isn’t any indoor seating.  Customers either eat at the tables under the roof, in their vehicles or they use take out.  Take out wasn’t too practical for us as we were about 40 minutes away from home…and a long way from our planned dessert!

We were all a little cold during our outdoor dining experience...Norm’s teeth were actually chattering!  Food is served in ‘to go’ containers.  This is the Big Boy Box. ($19.95) It allows diners to sample the ribs, brisket, sausage and pulled pork and it comes with 2 sides.  The sides offer a choice of baked beans, mac ‘n cheese, green beans, potato salad, coleslaw and French fries.

Laurie ordered ribs with pulled pork with a side of French Fries and I ordered a brisket sandwich with a side of sausage but I didn’t take any photos.  The ribs were better than average, especially for a BBQ joint in East Tennessee.  I really liked the sausage.  The French Fries were excellent. The pulled pork was good and the brisket was OK…but it wasn’t nearly as good as our friend Big Dude (bigdudesramblings@blogspot.com) produces in his smoker.  His ribs are noticeably better too…

If you like dining outdoors or you live close enough to take home your order, Fullservice BBQ produces better than average East Tennessee restaurant based smoked meats… The value is fairly good as well.  The ‘Farragut’ branch of Fullservice BBQ is located at 10248 Kingston Pike in Knoxville.  Phone: 865-888-6990.  Website: https://www.fullservicebbq.com/farragut-tn-bbq/.

Donuts are apparently “in” these days as a number of specialty donut operations have popped up in the area.  Duck Donuts was a sensation when it first opened in the Knoxville area with lines out into the parking lot. (Our first Dairy Queen was greeted in the same manner) In any case, Duck Donuts was founded in North Carolina’s Outer Banks and, from what I could learn, as a franchised operation they now have over 100 stores and they are expanding quickly. 

We arrived fairly late in the day so we didn’t have to wait too long to place our orders. 

This is Duck Donut’s menu board.  All donuts start with a fresh vanilla cake donut.  Then customers can pick a coating, select a topping and even add a drizzle… Of course, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and a number of expresso drinks are available to enjoy with your special donut(s).

An employee ‘dresses’ the donuts according to your order…adding the coating, topping and drizzle requested.

Since a single donut cost $1.39 and we’d been planning to order 4 of them for Laurie and me, the employee taking the orders pointed out that it was a better deal to order a half dozen. ($7.59) Our selection included 1 glazed with raspberry drizzle, 1 blueberry, 1 chocolate, 1 chocolate with salted caramel drizzle, 1 vanilla and 1 bare, with salted caramel drizzle.  They were pretty!

I think that we would have really enjoyed our donuts if we’d eaten them when they were warm.  However, we ended up eating 2 each later that evening and they were good but not great.  The next morning, the last 2 were just passable… Sorry Duck Donuts, but our local chain Master Donuts produces a better product, they're still good the next day and they’re less expensive too!  Our local Master Donut store is at 507 E Broadway Street in Lenoir City Tennessee.  Trip Advisor reviews rate Master Donuts at 84% Excellent… Duck Donuts is at 68%.

Duck Donuts in Knoxville Tennessee is located at 6104 Kingston Pike.  Phone: 865-236-1393.  Website: https://duckdonuts.com/about/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for dinner and dessert!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave