My Peruvian father-in-law, who had just been in Geneva, Switzerland, after attending a wedding in France, wanted to go to Gus’s as soon as we got back from LAX. He had been out of the country for several months, and out of all the cuisine choices in Claremont, he chose American barbecue. Understandably so, since barbecue in the USA is a special contribution to world cuisine. The world is full of interpretations of the hamburger, but USA style pitmasters are harder to find internationally. And Gus’s is one of the better expressions of this USA style barbecue, boasting its status as the oldest USA style barbecue in Southern California with 3 California locations, with the original being in South Pasadena. The restaurant still seems to have ownership and involvement from the family of the original owners and founders, dating back to 1946 per their website story. So going to Gus’s let’s you connect with a 75 year old story (and counting) and some well-researched, tender, flavorful barbecue that hits the spot. We have been regulars at Gus’s since they opened in Claremont back in 2018 for their Southern favorites primarily including barbecue, but also fried chicken, and a really good burger. They have some other unique little tidbits, and now to the food.
The Deviled Eggs
There are a number of appetizer selections but every time I go to Gus’s I find myself always wanting the deviled eggs. They have a cast-iron cornbread dish that is a little more corn than bread for my tastes, so I never get it, but the deviled eggs are a great way to start the meal for me. Growing up, I had a picnic or two with my family and deviled eggs were always a favorite. According to several sources, flavoring the yolk of a boiled egg can be traced back to ancient Rome, but in the US, one author traced the origin to an 1877 recipe in an Alabama newspaper. From there it spread throughout the US as a staple at potluck dinners apparently. And why wouldn’t it? It is inexpensive to make – just eggs, mustard, and some other seasonings, and a little bit of time and you have some really flavorful bites.
Gus’s is the only restaurant I know of in the area that offers deviled eggs, and the ‘deviled’ part has the right amount of creamy spices your mouth can really enjoy for a few seconds, and they also include a spice blend that you can sprinkle all over what they bring you until you get as much kick as you want. I suppose you could make this at home easily, but you can also pay Gus’s about $9 and they’ll do it for you. Plus, deviled eggs on their own are ok, but deviled eggs right before some serious barbecue transforms them into the trumpets that are announcing a big celebration feast is about to begin.
The Barbecue
Anyone who has spent some time tasting a variety of USA barbecue knows there are almost endless ways of pushing various parts of the flavor. Some prefer a lot of smoke and some prefer a lot of cinnamon, but if a barbecue house is going to succeed, the rules of business say it has to cater to a big enough common denominator so it can make a profit. So the barbecue at Gus’s is going to stay inside the boundaries and not take any risks. It is a little like music – the more peculiar and odd it is, the fewer people who are willing to pay for it. You need to go to a barbecue cooking contest to know what I mean if you don’t already, so what we get at Gus’s is on the one hand barbecue for the masses, but on the other hand barbecue that doesn’t disappoint.
Knowing that customers will likely want to sample the different barbecue offerings, they have put together multiple ways of getting several barbecued proteins, so we usually get the baby back ribs, sausage, and pulled pork. This time we also grabbed the baked barbecued chicken as well. All of the barbecue follows the same flavor profile, so you can detect the family resemblance between all barbecued items. Everything has plenty of its own personality though, with the chicken being very tender, the sausage having a depth to it because of the unique ingredients, the ribs have that extra punch of flavored fat, and the pulled pork doesn’t have any sauce on it, so you can taste more of the purity of the process (and then put sauce on it).
The Sides
Its hard to go wrong with the french fries, or the sweet potato fries, they have all the virtues fries are supposed to have. I took a close up picture of the ‘braised southern greens’ because I expect that if green beans could have feelings they would be hurt a lot. It’s almost like reading a book – we know we should do it every once and while, but video games are so much more fun. Plus, finding green beans that you not only don’t mind eating but actually look forward to is for some reason a difficult task. I had a nice green beans, or excuse me, haricot verts dish in Paris that did the job nicely. And my father prepared an old southern recipe of green beans that involved boiling them with pork belly for about 5 hours or until the flavor was just right. Those were worth waiting for and I still look forward to those. But these green beans might be worth an honorable mention at the state fair, because there is some effort there, but I didn’t get the sense that the same amount of attention went to them as had gone to the proteins. It had chopped onions and garlic cooked with it, and they had a snap when you would bite into them, but ultimately they seemed like a ‘best we could do placeholder’. I can be wrong on these things, and the green beans may reflect specific choices that link to an old recipe from 1433 Medieval England for all I know. And those these had a treatment that let you know they weren’t right out of a can, seems like the green bean should have more to offer. The mac and cheese on the other hand, has had some attention given to it, and it feels quite decadent, as mac and cheese should. We didn’t get any on this occasion, but we have had it many times in the past and it’s one of our favorite sides.
The Dessert
Southern cuisine always needs to be ready to satisfy the Southern sweet tooth, as it is very demanding indeed. Pecan pie and cobblers are go to favorites to produce the required satisfaction and Gus’s blueberry biscuit cobbler definitely takes you in that direction of ending your meal with the required amount of sugar, fruit, and fat.
While this dessert wasn’t a home run for me, and was at least a hit and single to first. The blueberry compote came through nicely, and blended well with the biscuit textured crust. The whipped cream seemed out of a can, and the ice cream was good but nothing special. overall, it was worth eating, but I wouldn’t say it was extraordinary. A nice Southern dessert I did have that was extraordinary was in a moderately upscale restaurant in Atlanta. It was a peach upside down cake with little bits of basil, and it wasn’t just sugar, fat and fruit, but it was carefully crafted and nicely balanced with a great deal of attention to detail. Nonetheless, I appreciated the blueberry biscuit cobbler. Sometime I’ll try the pecan pie and see if that has more to say that pecan pies usually have to have.
Final Thoughts
Any time you eat out someone is trying to make money off of you, and we all know this. But it is nice to feel as though there is something else happening besides the ‘give me calories – give me money’ transaction. This is what is missing at national restaurant chains from fast food to the $20 burger joint, where the overriding rule of everything anyone does is to make a profit. If some fast food restaurants can sell something that gives you the feeling of a milkshake without having to actually go to the expense of using milk to do it, and enough people buy it, then why not? But my experience at Gus’s is that there is pride in the 14 hour smoked meat, and creating an inviting space in Claremont that lets you have an ‘upscale-casual’ casual experience, while participating in a 75 year old vision of a restaurant where the food is a great expression of USA barbecue, and someone is paying attention to the details.
