There’s been so much drama in the life of Sophie’s BBQ — opening in 2023, a devastating fire and closure, a relocation, and a complete menu overhaul. Now, with its new home on E. Darby Road, owner and executive chef Greg Herman is essentially rebuilding his cozy hotspot from the ground up.
Sophie’s BBQ now welcomes upscale comfort food items such as duck and waffles and smoked French onion soup to go with heritage dishes like pork belly burnt ends, St. Louis ribs, opulent coffee rubbed brisket, dry rub chicken and pulled pork shoulder (known as the “Smokehouse Trinity”).
What unites much of Sophie’s meaty menu is the sauce. While many barbecue sauces are either overly sweet, syrupy, or too heavy on vinegar, Sophie’s BBQ offers something different. Whatever magic Herman has worked into his recipe, it delivers a depth of flavor that goes far beyond the typical tangy-sweet blend.
Does Sophie’s BBQ have the best-ever sauce? Yes. And, all of Herman’s sauces are exquisite—honey mustard with burnt ends, raspberry sauce with the waffles, cream cheese-cinnamon-walnut sauce with sweet potato hush puppies, to name a few.
“As an eater, I’m obsessed with sauce; probably comes from my dad who orders extra sauce with everything, even when it’s absolutely unnecessary,” says Herman. “As chef, I cook the way I eat — every dish with perfect sauce or dip to compliment it. I aimed ours to be sweet like a Kansas City style. The more I played with it, the more it started to turn into almost a glaze. Something that would shine on top of the meat. Some say in BBQ, the meat should speak for itself without sauce. And, I believe ours does. BUT, if I’m eating, I’m getting extra like dad.”
When Herman first started crafting his menu six years ago—while his wife was pregnant with their daughter, Sophie—he knew one thing for certain: he didn’t want to be confined to a single regional style of BBQ.
With that, Sophies’s BBQ pays respects to what Herman says are “long hours and hard work” that goes into traditional Southern BBQ. “But we do it our way.”
The Sophie BBQ style he came up with also has a very special designation to it, as Herman has taking the all-musky male vibe out of sloppy barbecue dining and made it equally feminine.
“When we started, I noticed the number of male customers — huge Father’s Day business, nothing for Mother’s Day — so I made the look, the style, the menu, the food, and the drinks approachable for all. I wanted my wife to want to eat there, my mom, my daughter. Crush a rack of ribs, have a burger, eat a quick soup and salad for lunch. I just want it to be awesome.”
And while Herman claims his perfect meal on E. Darby Road would be an order of wings with every sauce (“I’m a wing freak”), his pulled pork sandwich (“Ribs and brisket are kings in the BBQ world, but pulled pork is my favorite”) and banana, pudding donuts, the chef also reminds Metro that nothing nothing pairs better with barbecue than a cold beer or cocktail from Sophie’s BBQ’s neighboring Four Birds Distillery.
“What we’re doing together here is great,” he said. “They make their own spirits and with those create amazing cocktails that fit our vibe perfectly.”
So is Sophie’s BBQ a new restaurant or a still young one stretching its wings? Both, actually.
“We’ll never stop tweaking,” says Herman. “I’m the chef who’ll print a new menu, realize I have a better item to replace something there, and reprint 100 newer menus the next week. I don’t want to leave anything on the table.”
