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Pig Iron Bar-B-Q
5602 1st Ave., S.
Seattle, Wash.,98108
(206) 768-1009

Last weekend my wife and I tried to review the Smoked Pulled Pork sandwich at Georgetown’s Pig Iron, but made the mistake of showing up on a Sunday when they were closed. That mistake turned golden when we ended up at the Swinery, enjoying an epic BLT. But all of last week, especially during my workouts in the pool, I day-dreamed of BBQ Pig Iron-style. Lap after lap my fascination with all things pig manifested until it appeared in my nightly dreams. What had started with a few slices of bacon and some chicken liver pate last week in my fall from vegetarian grace had suddenly grown into a desire for a huge pile of smoked, pulled pork. It was like going from a wade in the kiddie pool to a dive in the deep-end, from the high dive.

Digestive system be damned, we hopped a rockin’ and rollin’ ferry from Vashon Island to the mainland on a sunny, but windy Saturday morning, intent on earning our pig-out after a run at Alki Beach. Along the way something kept eating at me – Pig Iron. Who the hell names their business Pig Iron? I get the pig part, but what about the iron? Was it because of its location in Georgetown’s industrial wasteland? Was it the iron inherent in bloody meat? What exactly was Pig Iron?

A search on Wikipedia set me straight in terms of the definition, but didn’t explain much in terms of naming the restaurant. Apparently, coke is an element in the Pig-Iron process, but not the type of coke you’d want with BBQ. The more I pondered out loud the more my wife sighed in agony. Enough already, on to the sandwich itself.

According to the master, Seattle Magazine, Pig Iron’s Smoked Pulled Pork sandwich, “comes in succulent chunks glistening with juice, with the sparest amount of barbecue sauce so as not to detract from the meat.”

As you can see from the photo the ‘glistening’ description is apt. In terms of the flavor the meat was super smoky and tasty, but also given a huge assist from the sweet and tangy carmelized onions. For my first foray into pulled pork since 2009 I felt a bit of disappointment though because the pork was somewhat dry once you got past the glistening exterior, rather than fall-from-the bone tender as hoped. With the help of a massive dose of Chipotle BBQ sauce the sandwich gained its wings. Without the sauce it seemed rather dull.

This is not to say that Pig Iron’s sandy doesn’t belong on the list of Seattle’s Top 48. It was gone from my plate in a matter of minutes and gave my taste buds a thrill ride that should keep them satiated for the coming week. It just didn’t have the ‘wow’ factor that we found with the Swinery’s BLT. In a town full of killer food, Pig Iron’s Smoked Pulled Pork simply failed to kill it. More like, it nailed it like something made out of Pig Iron.

From a service and ambience perspective Pig Iron rocks. The waitstaff is super attentive and sold us on an unexpected appetizer of fried green tomatoes, which were dynamite. The interior is much larger than it looks from the outside, with two dining rooms that encourage hearty eating and drinking. And best of all the smell of smoked meat permeates the walls, which also embeds in your clothing, giving diners a fine fragrance to take home with them.

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Tags: BBQ, BBQ sauce, BLT, carmelized onions, Coke, Georgetown, pig, Pig Iron, Pig Iron Bar-B-Q, pork, Pulled Pork, Pulled Pork Sandwich, sandwiches, savory, seattle magazine, seattle magazine's sandwich love, seattle magazines best 48 sandwiches, Seattle's top 48 sandwiches, Smoked Pulled Pork, Sodo, the swinery