BBQ Catering by Back Forty Texas BBQ

I have no idea if the origin story of Back Forty Texas BBQ is true, but, its quite the tale.  Founder was playing poker, his opponent bet half his BBQ joint, founder won, and got half the BBQ joint.  Opponent gave him the back room of the restaurant, rather than the expected half-ownership, so founder set up his own competing bbq restaurant in that space.  It sat 40 people, and customers started requesting to be seated there, in the "back forty".  And so the tale goes.  But anyway, Back Forty Texas BBQ is a Texas style BBQ joint in Pleasanton, CA now.

"When you visit our BBQ Restaurant in Pleasant Hill, we’ll treat you like a guest invited to our home. Your food will always be prepared fresh-from-scratch, using the freshest and finest ingredients for our authentic Austin, Texas recipes."

I didn't visit the restaurant (er, "roadhouse & saloon"), but rather, got to sample their food at a catered company bbq.  They seem to specialize in large format dining, both through their catering, and banquet facilities.

Our hosts opted for the $24 per person basic menu, which included choice of 3 proteins (options were ribs, hot links, pulled pork, beef brisket, bbq chicken), and 3 "Fixin's" (choices of tossed green salad, caesar salad, garlic mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, beans, coleslaw, potato salad, fresh vegetables, corn on the cob), along with dinner rolls, pickles, red onions (?), and extra bbq sauce.  Tables, cutlery, etc, included.

The catering seemed well run, but the food was very mediocre.  Perhaps I am just ruined now, after visiting Truth BBQ in Houston several times last year?

Rolls.

I didn't try the rolls, as they looked fairly generic, and online reviews of even the dine-in experience mention how lackluster they are.

The decor was cute though, including in the serving baskets, very picnic vibes.

Creamy Potato Salad / Mixed Greens Salad / Pickles & Onion.

For sides, our hosts picked the baked beans (served warm), mixed greens salad, and potato salad.  Reasonable diversity, but I would have preferred macaroni salad, slaw, and mashed potatoes (or corn on the cob, if it was in season).

Mixed Greens Salad: 

This looked mushy and watery and way over dressed, so I didn't try it.  It seemed to really be just greens, nothing else.

Creamy Potato Salad:

This was a fairly mushy style of potato salad, or as they call it, "creamy".  Not really hunks of potato, very soft mush.  It had a acidic flavor to it that I didn’t care for, and a weird aftertaste.  **.

The random slices of red onions were fresh and crisp.  Pickles were tasty, generic, but tasty.  ***+.

Hot Foods: bbq baked beans, bbq chicken, pork ribs, hot links.

For proteins, the hosts picked ribs, bbq chicken, and hot links.  I was reasonably happy with their picks, although would have preferred pulled pork over the chicken, I know white meat chicken is the general crowd pleaser.  All were served over grill pans to keep warm.

Baked Beans:

The baked beans were fine.  Fairly soupy, and just small white beans, seemingly no different from what you'd get in a can, but the flavor was pretty decent.  I certainly would have preferred some onions in here, some bits of bbq meat, or a smoky flavor, but, they were fine.  Average for canned beans, below average for a bbq joint.  ***.

Sampler Platter.

In addition to the beans, went for some of nearly everything, skipping only the soggy salad and chicken as I don't eat chicken.

Hot Link Sausage: "Spiced pork link sausage with a mild kick."

The hot links were served already sliced, which was helpful for the outdoor picnic setting.  The casing was thicker than I like, was kinda tough to bite through.  Inside was unremarkable ... dense, compact sausage meat, slightly more akin to a thicker hotdog than a quality sausage.  A bit gristly.  Very mildly spicy.  Very average, no different from what you can get at a grocery store.  **+.

Pork Ribs: "National Award Winners! Slow-smoked and lightly basted with sauce."

And finally, the national award winning ribs.  They were the best part of the meal, but, only in that they were on the higher end of average, and certainly not anything that I'd expect to be award winning even at the local level, and certainly not nationwide.  The ribs had a relatively flavorful dry rub, a hint of smoke, and had a reasonable amount of meat on them.  Not too tough.  Again, just, slightly above average, what you'd expect from a mediocre restaurant, not on par with what you'd want from a place specializing in bbq.  ***.