{Shut their doors for good, January of 2007}

Review of
Half Moon Bar-B-Q
8235 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD 20901
Phone: 301-585-1290

by

H. Kent Craig ©2004

I am frequent sojourner to the Washington D.C. area and when I am up that way I always try to make the commute from Bethesda or Alexandria or downtown or wherever I happen to be within the metro area over to Half Moon Bar-B-Q in Silver Spring, Maryland, because Half Moon simply has Texas-style beef and Eastern-NC-style pork barbecue that, when put side-by-side with the very best examples of both barbecue epicureanastes, would either win or at least tie with the best of the best of both styles. Half Moon is the only barbecue joint I know of that can truly lay claim to this fact.

To find Half Moon in the downtown district of Silver Spring, you don’t need a map, just head downtown with your car window rolled down a little simply follow your nose. Time after time of visiting them, it is that incredible odor of slow-cooked delight which hangs over the several blocks surrounding them like a silver cloud-fog in carnivore heaven that literally makes my mouth water and my eyes wide with anticipated delight before I ever actually get to their establishment that sets the appetizing tone for the main symphony of the meal to follow.

Presentation of the Texas-style and Eastern-NC-style barbecue is simple, either sandwiches or a combination plate. For some reason, you can order individual sandwiches of either kind of barbecue or a combination plate featuring different meats, but not a dinner plate of just one kind of their barbecue…odd, but no big deal, just order one or two sandwiches is what I would suggest, keeping in mind that the portions inside these sandwiches are so huge as to be equal to the serving size of most plates/trays in other barbecue establishments.

Choices for their sides is limited, though I would recommend the potato salad and collard greens, based upon fellow dining companions’ recommendations, (I don’t eat either) and their homemade fries are a perfect compliment to the meats.

What makes their Texas ‘cue to me is not just their perfectly cooked and prepared beef, but their sauce, which is absolutely unique in flavor in my forty years of being a connoisseur of finely burned swine and beef flesh. I was privileged on a visit in the past to run across the gentleman, who wishes to remain anonymous, who created Half Moon’s ambrosiatic sauce. I pressed him for the recipe, which he refused to give me. After a little cajoling and good-natured butt-kissing complimentings, he finally told me the ingredients but not the recipe, telling me I needed to adjust the quantities of the ingredients to suit the particular brand and qualities of the ingredients I wanted to use for the sauce and also to adjust to my personal taste.

The essence of Half Moon’s sauce according to its creator, are “the three C’s; coffee, Coca-Cola, and catsup”. I’ve experimented and experimented with “the 3 C’s” and with the other necessary ingredients and still can’t quit duplicate what he does but have come up with something relatively close, which I present to you below. I’ve included the quantities I use along with suggested ranges, since you’ll want to play with them to suit your particular set of taste buds.

Half Moon Bar-B-Que’s Unique Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:
- Water, 8 ounces
- Yellow vinegar, 8 ounces (4-12 ounces)
- Coffee, 8 ounces (4-12 ounces), left standing until room temperature
- Coca-Cola, actually any cola will do, left standing until it’s flat and all the carbonation is gone
- Catsup, 6 ounces (4-12 ounces)
- Brown sugar, eight heaping table spoons or more to taste
- Salt, to taste, suggested ˝ teaspoon
- Black pepper, to taste, suggested Ľ teaspoon
- Red pepper, to taste, suggested Ľ teaspoon

Preparation:

In a medium-sized open pot, bring the water to a roiling boil and then cut the burner down to a low to medium simmer.
Add the yellow vinegar and salt and black and red pepper, mix well, and let simmer for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the coffee, Coca-Cola and catsup/ketchup, bring the burner back up to medium for about five minutes, stirring frequently.
Turn the burner down to a low simmer, adding the brown sugar a tablespoon at a time to make sure that the sauce doesn’t become too sweet for your taste or carmelize out.
The flavor should be a balance between the sour tang of the vinegar and catsup and the sweetness of the cola and the brown sugar, with the under-taste-base coffee being its flavor pivot point.

Half Moon is a small, intimate place, down-home in feel and practice, small but not cramped and when they feature live music which they often do it’s easy to think for a moment that you’re in a great ‘cue joint in Kansas City in the 40’s or Memphis in the 50’s rather than suburban D.C. at the beginning of the New Millennia. As long as your date for the evening isn’t a vegetarian, it’s a great place for sharing good conversation over great food in an elbows-on-the-table-and-BBQ-sauce-running-down-your-chin-is-okay atmosphere.

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