Greg W.

Located at in the food court of the old Richland Mall (or as I refer to it, 'the abandoned mall'), which probably isn't the most ideal location due to the low foot traffic in this mall, Bert is a striving local entrepreneur looking to make his mark on the local BBQ scene. I stopped by to hit the B&N, since it's the closest location to work, and the smell coming from Bert's was enticing. Being a BBQ fiend, I just had to stop and give it a try! I got a BBQ sandwich with a side of mac-n-cheese. My initial impression was a good one: the meat was smoked and dry, not already covered in sauce, plus there was a good mount of meat between those toasted buns. He asked my preference towards sauce so I informed him that I grew up on the sweet-smokey stylings of Memphis, but after living on the coast of NC for 6 years have come quite accustomed to the peppered vinegar. He pulled out a jug labled "NC pepper vinegar", but when I applied it to my BBQ it was actually tomato-based. He also pulled out another, which I believe was labled "sweet heat" and suggested I give it a try, so I put a dollap of that on top of the other. The sauces, despite not being the basic vinegar I was used to, were pretty good. The meat itself was a bit dry (it could have been due to it being late afternoon and sitting around all day) and could have used a little more smoke. I still gobbled it all down... The mac-n-cheese was alright but the portion was too small. The sweet tea was decent. The sweet heat was actually pretty decent. I couldn't tell right off that it was hot, but my forehead started sweating and I had to give my mouth a good rinsing out with the tea to taste the macaroni.