"Is that a chunk of meat on your shirt and BBQ sauce on your pants?"

is what my vegan boyfriend asked me later that evening....the answers were: Yes and Yes. I'm a messy eater and after my second visit to Memphis Blues BBQ on Commerical, it's really no surprise that I was a sloppy mess. I pretty much inhaled my delicious pulled pork sandwich, coleslaw, and pit beans- and although I made an initial effort to use utensils...I gave up quickly and ended up getting all up in this big juicy meal with my fingers.
I met up with Bree who being the dedicated Canucks fan that she is, flew back to Vancouver, not a week after her most recent visit from Peace River, to get tickets and go to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals series at Rogers arena with her bro.
The next day we met up for dinner and she had a craving for Memphis Blues BBQ. Yep, they don't have sushi in Peace River, AB and I guess they don't have any BBQ joints either. I think they have a Boston Pizza.....

We met up at the Commercial Drive location on a drizzly, grey Vancouver evening. Inside, it felt warm and comforting with some blues-y music playing, sports on the TVs, music posters and memorabilia on the walls, and most tables occupied without it feeling packed. It is awesome to watch people eat at Memphis Blues- especially groups of skinny, young teenage/early 20's guys working their way through one of MB's sharing platters like the Memphis Feast (43.95) with all of their meats (brisket, ribs, pulled pork, bbq chicken, rib ends, smoked sausage) with all of their fixin's (corn bread, pit beans, coleslaw, potato salad, fries) or the supersize version with even more meat... the Elvis Platter (72.95). Watching one of those platter come out is a pretty epic sight. It is an laid-back venue for a meal of unpretentious, meaty indulgence.

At Memphis Blues, you order and pay at the counter and then they bring your food to the table pretty quickly. I think we waited about 10 minutes after placing our orders. We decided to get fries (3.95) after waiting about 5 minutes because we decided that we were really hungry.
We both ordered Pulled Pork Sandwiches- and all of their sandwiches come with pit beans and coleslaw. Bree ordered a large (9.25) and replaced her beans and slaw with a side salad and got a retro glass bottle diet coke. I got a small for (8.25) and the regular sides.

Behold my "small" pulled pork sandwich. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between my "small" and Bree's large. It may have been bigger because I polished off mine and Bree couldn't finish hers- but visually they looked the same. They definitely don't skimp on their portions- piled onto a soft, squishy bun is a mountain of saucy pulled pork. It spills out the sides and there isn't really a clean way eat this massive, ooey, gooey, saucy sandwich. There was a tiny bit of slaw under the pork which added a bit of fresh crunch. This pork was moist and doused in a sauce with more of a vinegar-tomato, smoky flavour and fortunately for my particular tastebuds, it didn't have the sweetness that comes with many pulled pork sandwiches. I loved this the way it came out but since they had a variety of sauces at the table, I had to sample them all for different bites.

My favourite was the yellow mustard with a real spicy, salty, vinegar kick to it. It helped to cut through the richness and made for a few bites with a lighter kick. I also really enjoyed their spicy bbq sauce. A big surprise for me was the savoury, slightly spicy BBQ vinagrette salad dressing. It was awesome and a great dip for the fries and added to the sandwich.

The slaw was too creamy and thick for my taste, but I added some of the spicy mustard which cut through the richness and made it way better for my particular tastebuds. The pit beans were okay- a thick consistency with a flavour that was smoky and sweet.

The fries were actually really tasty: super crispy and heavily seasoned with green onion flakes and pepper.
We left feeling full and happy and planning our next visit to MB's, hopefully with a large group to tackle one of the platters.