Dad's Freaknic feast inspires son's SWATS meathouse

Back when Freaknic was still going on, people did almost anything to escape the madness, from leaving town for the weekend, to retreating to a bookstore to read a nice, relaxing Tom Wolfe novel...about Freaknic?!? Ahhhhh!!! Get BBQ from a guy whose dad provided a smoked meat alternative to the annual college bootyfest, at Shindig's.

Just off 285, Shindig's is a mostly carryout BBQ base run by Dekalb-raised Morehouse grad Gary Baker, who named it after what his dad said years back when asked if visiting college buds could come over to avoid the wild F'nic crowd ("Let's have a shindig!"); it's got a front patio with bucket-seated white tables, two high-tops inside, and cast iron skillets lining the walls scavenged from 25 years of clearing out foreclosed houses, meaning they're no longer home-skillets. All meats're cooked "low & slow" (never over 225F) on commercial smokers or in Big Green Eggs, including grilled onion-/pepper-topped beef dogs, rib or chicken sandos, and the sesame-seed-bunned, 7oz NC-style chopped pork, also available in pound-'o-meat form as "The Don" -- hey, at least you're not eating a pound of meat called "The Johnson". You can add sides like Brunswick Stew, potato salad, and mac & cheese to dry-rubbed, eight-hour-smoked brisket, plus rib dinners in half, whole, or 12-bone "Family" slabs, with the option of paying a buck more for small end/center cuts, or $2 for an "extra bone" -- a deal unseen in ATL since they began cleaning up Stewart Ave.

They're nice enough to offer a pre-4pm lunch special (BBQ chicken or pork, a side, and a 20oz drink for $4.99), and before 2011, Gary says he'll open a second location, to keep a promise to himself that every year he'll put a Shindig's "in a new place" -- ensuring that no matter where you live, you'll be a Man in Full.