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Hunks of burning love

Brandon is a barbecue town, where local joints and large chains compete to cook the best of this American delicacy.

BRANDON - Wanda Nettles is for the most part a quiet woman, a little shy and reserved upon introduction.

But get her talking about barbecue and the custom-made smoker her husband uses at Down to the Bone Bar-B-Q & Catering, and Nettles becomes animated, stoked by a passion that seems inevitable when people around here discuss ribs, sauces and dry rubs.

"Oh, Horse is wild!" Wanda Nettles says of her husband's smoker. "It's like a dragon; only my husband can tame it."

And where did Mark Nettles master the art of barbecue?

"He's from Alabama," his wife explains. "That should say it all."

Odds are, no one in Alabama, Memphis or Kansas City is raving about Brandon barbecue - yet - but within a 3-mile radius of State Road 60 and Kings Avenue, you can find just about every kind of barbecue this nation has ever created.

Down to the Bone is the newest offering, having opened in June in a small storefront off Kings Avenue near Brandon Boulevard.

Offerings range from simple, no-frills takeout and roadside stands to sit-down meals where the sauces, meats and sides are carefully orchestrated by studious barbecue chefs.

For all their differences, the eateries share one trait: They treat barbecue with a reverence and devotion that escapes other cuisines.

You won't hear people debating the best way to cook eggplant parmigiana or beef stroganoff, but barbecue lovers can go on forever about Memphis-style versus North Carolina, chopped versus pulled pork, sauce on the side or all over.

"What other cuisine was created and invented in the United States? It's uniquely American," said Tom McHale, owner of McHale's Chophouse in Brandon. "People get passionate about smoking a whole shoulder for 12 hours, or doing it in the back yard. People just love their barbecue."

The Nettleses love it enough to have poured their savings into Down to the Bone after Mark Nettles lost his job in the computer industry.

He had always loved to barbecue, but now he's betting he can make a career out of it with "Horse" - a custom-made 250-gallon smoker so temperamental, nobody but Nettles dares mess with it.

"It rages out of control very easily," Mark Nettles said. "You turn your back just for a second, and it's flaming."

The Nettleses say the secret to their homestyle food and catering rests with the black monster of a machine that smokes meats with a combination of green oak and water oak.

Nettles also uses a top secret "family blend" rub that leaves the meat tasty enough to eat without sauce.

The constant stream of customers is a testament to their prowess.

"The smoke flavor will bring anyone in," Wanda Nettles said. "You drive by, and you just can't resist that."

Like Wanda and Mark Nettles, First Choice Barbecue co-owners Roger Stoll and Leland Young got into barbecue because of layoffs.

After a wave of firings at a Tampa pharmaceutical company, Stoll and Young figured they might be next.

Then divine intervention led the partners to First Choice.

Stoll says he was driving on Interstate 4 near the fairgrounds when the Lord told him to open a barbecue restaurant.

Through trial and error over the past 11 years, he and Young have perfected a taste that draws crowds.

Stoll views barbecue as equal parts science and religion. The partners speak like chemists when discussing the temperature needed to cook meats inside and out.

Another, more practical principle also rules at First Choice.

"We tell our people if you wouldn't serve it to my wife or his wife, don't serve it to a customer," Stoll said.

Standards also are high at JR's Floribbean and McHale's Chophouse. The two outlets fall somewhere between the large chains and humble roadside joints.

The restaurants are locally owned by people who know the area well.

John Walter opened JR's Floribbean Bar-B-Q & Grille in Seffner about three years ago, after a 20-year career as a systems analyst at his uncle's company, Walter Industries, in his native Tampa.

He had long been a backyard cook with dreams of something bigger, and tongue-tingling hot sauces were his specialty.

Today, one section of JR's offers almost 1,000 different hot sauces - including several made from habanero peppers grown on Walter's farm in the West Indies.

McHale, a former Bucs offensive lineman, takes an academic approach to his menu. All the sauces are homemade, and he can recommend a sauce based on where you're from or where you've been. There's Carolina, Memphis, Southwest chipotle and a sweet Smoky Mountain sauce.

His favorite is the vinegar-based North Carolina barbecue.

But McHale is adamant about one thing: "Real barbecue should be good enough to taste good on its own."

The same goes for Ty Tolson, owner of one of four roadside stands in the area, three of which are in Seffner.

Operating out of a small stand between Seffner Hardware and Juan's Produce, Tolson prides himself on Kansas City-style barbecue, slow-cooked and tender. He grew up in Kansas City, reveling in the famed flavors of Gates and Arthur Bryans. But he also patterns his sauce after the savory flavoring his Aunt Idella served him as a child.

"I think for most people, barbecue takes them back to a time when they were a kid at church picnics," Tolson said. "The smell, the smoke, it takes us back to our childhood."

There's dueling smoke at the west end of State Road 60. Not only do you find First Choice on that end of town, but you also find a battle royale between the nation's top two barbecue franchises.

Sonny's, the nation's largest chain, is being challenged by up-and-coming Smokey Bones - part of Darden Restaurants, owners of Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze.

Many of Brandon's other barbecue purveyors aren't necessarily awed by the megachain Sonny's, which had $242-million in sales last year. Several took digs at the chain, agreeing: "We don't do it like they do at Sonny's."

Jeff Yarmouth, president of Sonny Franchise Co., said he's not surprised.

"Restaurants compete, and particularly in barbecue," Yarmouth said. "There's no real recipe that's the right recipe. It's local taste, local spice, local feel, local love. It's an emotional food."

Locally, Smokey Bones has something of a feather in its cap after beating out Sonny's and two other finalists in Fox 13's "Take Out Test" last week.

But for the most part, the competition appears to be a draw. The Brandon Sonny's is among the top three performers in the national chain, and the Brandon Smokey Bones ranks among the top 10 in its chain.

Clearly, Brandon is a barbecue town.

"Almost everybody cooks out and has a passion in their own cookouts or family barbecues," said Andy Hohman, general manager of the Smokey Bones in Brandon. "You eat it with your hands and you get a little sloppy. You don't wear a three-piece suit to eat barbecue."