[ REGIONAL TRAIL // THE VOLUNTEER RAMBLE // MIDDLE TENNESSEE ]
DESTINATION: Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint
GEOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: 35.9618° N, 86.6749° W (7238 Nolensville Rd, Nolensville, TN 37135)
HISTORIC TRAIL: Pat Martin learned West Tennessee’s whole-hog tradition in Henderson, Tennessee, and opened the first Martin’s here in Nolensville in October 2006
CULTURE BEAT: Whole hog mopped in the pit, classic country on the walls and in the air — the pulled pork benchmark, and the Tennessee hat on the Hat TrailWe are creatures of comfort. When work took the Chief away from the home base for a few months, I was back home phoning the orders in wherever he was — check this place out, check that place out — he was my boots on the ground. There was a barbecue place practically next door to where he was staying. He regularly drove past it and a lot of places, twice a week minimum, to get to Martin’s. This one stuck.
Part of it was the getting there. The run between Franklin and Nolensville features grand estates and rolling hills, white fencing around the horse pastures — the drive was almost as much of a pleasure as the meal.
And I knew whose table I was sending him to. I used to watch Pat Martin’s show on TV before I ever set foot in Tennessee — many of the episodes, more than once. The man is passionate about barbecue, and I’d tell anyone to watch. Those shows will broaden your barbecue horizons. The series opens with the West Tennessee whole hog — the very tradition on the plate in Nolensville — and from there it ranges: Santa Maria, California, for tri tip steak; Los Angeles for bluefin tuna collars; Minnesota, of all places, for a pig’s head cooked in a pit in the ground — that was an interesting one; and Decatur, Alabama, to Big Bob Gibson’s itself, for chicken in the original white sauce.
It isn’t hard to see why it’s his place. Wood everywhere — paneling, floors, tabletops. Blue chairs. Vintage posters of the country legends on the walls, one of them a mural-sized portrait, and classic country hanging in the air to match. A whole wall of rollup glass doors they lift when the weather’s nice, smoke drifting through, the smoker working out back on the deck. Friendly service. It feels like somewhere, not anywhere.
And then there’s the food he measures everything else against. Martin’s pulled pork is pulled from the whole hog — all of the parts pulled and combined, the lean cuts and the juicy ones together — and mopped as it cooks, their famous mop sauce lending its own unique flavor. He has not found it anywhere else. It is the benchmark by which all are judged, and it needs no sauce at the table. You won’t get that depth of flavor with just a pork butt. One cut is one voice singing alone; the whole hog is the whole choir. (The sauces were good, though. Credit where it’s due.) The brisket was moist, with a deep smoke ring. The smoked sausage and the jalapeño cheddar sausage — juicy. The hoecakes had great texture and flavor. And the hushpuppies were, in our opinion, the best we’ve ever had; I have the evidence, because visit after visit I kept breaking them open to document the crumb, and the crumb kept agreeing with the analysis.
All the sides were good, in good portions: green beans in pot liquor with bits of meat in them — broccoli salad, his mac and cheese and pit beans, the sides he talks about by name. The seasonings were so good we left with a couple of their rubs to take back to the Mitten State. The quintessential flavor of Tennessee, squirreled back to Michigan.
And on another trip, pork ribs joined the record, with chopped brisket and a griddled hoecake with a lacy crust, then the drive home under a Nolensville sky going gold. For dessert pecan pie and fudge pie were the offerings. I can attest to the first and dream of the second.
Some places you try once. Martin’s is the place we kept going to, past many convenient options, for months — and when I finally got to experience it the first time, it was confirmed on the plate and in my heart.
The hat was awarded on my first visit. By then, he’d been going very regularly.
Hat Trail: Pulled pork is my favorite type of barbecue and this place does it best. You can definitely tell it was whole hog. Hush puppies were the absolute best I've ever had, sides were scratch made and generous. Nice big smoker in the back with hints of smoke occasionally drifting through the restaurant. Roll up doors on nice days. Country legend posters with classic country piping overhead, old school license plates hanging on the walls. Service was always great! I've logged a lot of miles getting to the Nolensville location and have zero regrets. The benchmark that all pulled pork is measured by me.
— The ChiefHAT TRAIL: Earned. Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, Nolensville — the Tennessee hat.
