Theresa and I decided to hit the Livermore Outlets one afternoon and arranged to meet our friend Kulwinder for dinner. After throwing around a few suggestions, we settled on Sauced, which is located in the main downtown area.
The restaurant was packed on a Saturday night, with over an hour wait for a table. The restaurant is split roughly in half, with half being traditional tables, and the other half being the bar with a bunch of counter height table and stools. There are several TVs set up along the walls, so you can catch your favorite games while downing a beer and some appetizers. Several tables ordered the pulled pork nachos, which looked tasty and was huge. The place definitely has a Southern feel to it. They even serve you water in large Mason jars.
Seating in this area is open, so you can grab a table as soon as people leave. We were pretty hungry when we arrived, so we hovered a bit near some folks in the bar area and pounced on their table as soon as they left.
The menu consists of several forms of BBQ meats, your usual BBQ sides, and appetizers. Their signature meat is “burnt ends”, which from what I gather are the fattier ends of the briskets that crisp up during the cooking and are then chopped up and mixed with sauce. Quantities are limited, and by the time we ordered, they were out. Evidently it sells out quickly on weekends. We decided to share the two meat combo platter and a full rack of ribs amongst the three of us. The two meats we chose was the pulled pork and the brisket. Sides were mac n cheese, cornbread, and fries.
All the meats had a nice smokiness to them, with most of the fat rendered out, but not overly dry, indicating a low and slow cooking BBQ method. The pulled pork was Carolina style, with a sweet and slightly sour sauce mixed in it. The brisket came “dry” (i.e. no sauce), but none was really needed unless you wanted to punch up the flavor a bit more with one of their homemade BBQ sauces (see below). The rib meat fell right off the bone and was glazed with a bit of the Tin Roof sauce. The sides complemented the meats well, but nothing really stood out as outstanding. The cornbread had a honey glaze on top, which was a bit different than other cornbreads I have had. Portions were generous, and I would recommend sharing the platters among your party.
On the table were 4 different homemade sauces: Pig Candy, Tin Roof, Hot Tin Roof, and Georgia Gold.
The Pig Candy was fairly sweet sauce, while the Georgia Gold was very vinegary. The Tin Roof would be the middle of the road in terms of sweetness and acidity. It is also what the ribs were finished with. The Hot Tin Roof had a kick to it, but was a fast burn, meaning it did not linger with you like a Thai pepper would.
Overall I would recommend Sauced if you are ever in the Livermore/East Bay area. While the BBQ at Smoking Pig is better, Sauced’s BBQ is very good. Coupled the food with the atmosphere, especially in the bar area where we were seated, it all adds up to an enjoyable experience. This would be a perfect place for happy hour, watch a game, or just chow down on some BBQ while downing a few beers.
