In Memphis, traditional spaghetti is a common side at soul food and barbecue restaurants. At the Bar-B-Q Shop (originally known as Brady and Lil’s), however, there's full-on barbecue spaghetti combining pork that is smoked for 12 hours, smoke-infused sauce, and soft, overcooked noodles. The pulled pork sandwich on Texas Toast and glazed dry ribs are also standouts.

Now with four local restaurants and a Nashville outpost, Central BBQ frequently tops local polls for best barbecue. Known for the slow smoked Memphis style ribs, it’s the barbecue nachos top the sales charts. Made with tortilla chips or house-made barbecue chips, two kinds of cheese, sauce, and your choice of pulled pork, smoked chicken, or a smoked portabella mushroom, they are hard to beat. Another bonus, when the dining rooms are open, is the self-serve sauces: mild, hot, vinegar, & mustard.

The original Commissary in Germantown was a small country store for more than 90 years, until Walker Taylor bought it in 1981 and turned it into a barbecue restaurant. Their claim to fame is the creation of barbecue nachos in 1982, though this distinctive combination of pork, cheese, and barbecue sauce on a bed of tortilla chips didn’t really gain traction until the late ’90s when Redbirds Stadium opened and baseball fans were introduced to the Rendezvous’ version.

The Neely family is legend in Memphis, and James Neely put them on the map when he opened the original Interstate Barbecue on South Third in 1979. He has a specially built barbecue pit to keep meat fall-off-the-bone moist. His secret sauce is so delicious they can’t keep bottles of it on the table lest they disappear. A large chopped sandwich with extra sauce is about as close to heaven as some of us may come. There is a second location on Winchester Road and a third in Southaven.

The standard for “Memphis style” barbecue ribs was set in the late 1950s in a downtown basement restaurant when Charlie Vergos threw racks of ribs- - what was then considered scrap meat -- on the grill. He added a vinegar wash to keep them moist and created a dry rub based on his father’s unique Greek chili recipe, cajun spices he discovered in New Orleans, and paprika. Friday lunch remains a prime time to visit and possibly start the weekend off a bit early.

Tarrance and Torria Pollard are the proud parents of local football star, Tony Pollard, who now plays for the Dallas Cowboys. So, if you like to talk football while you eat your barbecue, Pollard’s is the place for you. What started as a catering business is now a friendly, welcoming Whitehaven home to smoked pork, beef, chicken, and turkey. You’ll also find links, tamales, and more.

Tops is our fast food answer to barbecue. All 16 locations cook their shoulders over charcoal in open pits. Also known for their cheeseburgers, it’s quite common to add a little barbecue meat (sold by the ounce) to the burger for the quintessential Tops experience.

Corky’s BBQ certainly has a local following and has expanded its reach into Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas over the last 30-plus years. Its sauce is in every local grocery and food can be shipped anywhere in the country. Because of its commercial success, Corky’s isn’t the “coolest” place to say is your favorite, but it would be a bit snobbish to discount owner Don Pelts’s life’s work. Meats are slow-cooked over hickory and charcoal, each slab of ribs is trimmed to strict specifications.