The New England Patriots on Sunday came up just short in their bid for another trip to the Super Bowl, as the Denver Broncos outlasted them 20-18 in the AFC Championship Game.
But even though Bill Belichick’s boys lost the game, a camera shot of quarterback Tom Brady walking to the locker room in defeat revealed that the team will soon be consoled in the best possible way: By some Alabama BBQ.
A member of the stadium staff can be seen stacking dozens of Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q sacks on a table outside of the locker room for players to grab as the head for the team bus.
“Jim ‘N Nick’s started cooking pork ‘low and slow’ in 1985 when Nick, along with his dad Jim, reclaimed an old pizza parlor on Clairmont Avenue in Birmingham, Alabama, where they opened the first Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q,” the company explains on its website. “Today, with 34 restaurants in 7 states, Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q has become a Southern institution.”
The restaurant has garnered national recognition in recent years and was even named “The Best Barbecue Chain in America” by The Daily Meal.
If you’re going to open a chain of barbecue restaurants in the Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Colorado, you better make sure that your product is on-point. A visit to Jim N’ Nick’s, which was founded in 1985 by a father-son duo in Birmingham, Alabama and now has 30 locations, will show you that this is the real deal. Perennial exhibitors at best-of-the-best showcases like New York’s Big Apple BBQ Block Party, they’re smoking their own pork (sold pulled or chopped with a vinegary Carolina-style sauce), spare and baby back ribs, house-cured bone-in ham, legendary housemade pork hot links, chicken, turkey breast, and beef brisket, all served with a big dose of Southern hospitality. They also offer a killer hickory-grilled burger and pimento cheese sandwich, but honestly, you’re going to want to reserve all the room in your stomach for this crazy-good barbecue.
Barbecue borders on being a religion in the Yellowhammer State. 2015 was the Alabama Tourism Department’s “Year of Alabama Barbecue,” which included over 1 million people voting on the state’s best BBQ joints in five different categories. Unsurprisingly, Jim ‘N Nicks was once against voted “Best Chain.”
So hang in there, Patriots. At least you won’t go to bed hungry tonight!
