Kloby's Smokehouse In (Sort-Of)

Kloby's Smokehouse started as a replacement, and it is steadily transforming into a special place for beer and barbecue.

Kloby's opened about two years ago on the site of a shuttered BBQ joint on Johns Hopkins Road just off Rte 29. It started as takeout, and even the early days came with delicious pork and chicken sandwiches.

But the smoke has spread. First, Kloby's added a seating area and a bar. Then, they upgraded to a craft beer program with unique items on tap. Now, it is expanding to add an ice cream parlor, a bar and a space for live music.

Kloby's stands out because of the smoke. I have eaten much of the menu by now, and every plate comes with the flavor of the wood fire that they run every day in a hulking smoker in the kitchen. That starts with strong BBQ staples like pulled pork and chicken sandwiches, then runs to some really unique smoked chicken wings. Those come in a dozen varieties, but I have to recommend the "dirty" wings that are smoked and then quickly fried.
All the meats at Kloby's taste good enough to start without sauce. But then you dip. Right now, I ask for side containers of the spicy barbecue and honey-habenero sauces. Habeneros are tricky to cook. I once ruined an entire pot of soup because the habenero inadvertently disintegrated instead of being removed at the end. Quarts and quarts of soup were inedibly hot. But Kloby's plays successfully with fire, turning out a sauce that was beautifully spicy and sweet at the same time.

Smoked meat doesn't fall off the bone. So expect ribs that are cooked through, but not soft. The pork ribs come in a glazed sheet, cut almost-all-the-way so that you can pull them apart. That's my style, although people who want soft ribs or standard wings should stay with the pulled pork. At the same time, there have been days when the meat got a little dry -- pork that was chewy or wings that needed sauce-dunking for flavor.

But I'll take a few dry wings because I love that Kloby's stretches to make exceptional food. Anyone could open an average BBQ place with reheated ribs and bottled sauce. Kloby hassles with piles of wood, hours of smoking, and experiments with new sauces and dishes. The beef ribs are a Flintstone plate of bones. The side dishes -- like greens and beans -- are house-made, and my only complaint is that they're small. (Try the "sliders" if you want to sample three sandwiches.)

They're adding craft beers, including beer geek items like firkins. They're paying attention to food in a way that a publicist and a U Street address could ignite into a food writing frenzy. If it were owned by an ex-lawyer, Kloby's could be grist for a strained trend story and a lesson about following your "true calling."

Unfortunately, I don't think Howard County spots are allowed to be more than really good restaurants.

(Update: Check out Chris C's comment below. It's thoughtful and rooting for Kloby's. He does have a point about the parking. There are four big restaurants in that shopping center, along with four other places serving food. The parking lot gets packed. I know that from nights. Chris says he skips eating at Kloby's because of the parking during weekdays. I'm glad that everyone is successful, but I'd love to see the landlord try to fix the problem by working out some overflow parking (maybe after hours only) with one of the nearby buildings that have spaces.)

As I wrote in the original 2008 post, Kloby's offers a rainbow of meat -- BBQ chicken, pulled pork, brisket even turkey and hamburgers. The pork and chicken sandwiches are excellent. The chicken has a perfect charred exterior -- the taste of the grill, but no flavor of burning. Don't worry if your meat looks pink inside. That's a normal look for foods smoked over real wood. (True!)

For a view inside Kloby's smoker, check out this awesome photo on the HoCo360 blog.

Kloby's Smokehouse
7500 Montpelier Road
Laurel, MD 20723
http://www.klobysbbq.com/
301-362-1510

NEAR: On Johns Hopkin Road just west of Rte 29. This is really the border of Columbia and Fulton. Kloby's is in a shopping center with a Subway, a liquor store and La Palapa Too just east of the JHU Applied Physics Lab. That's actually touching Columbia and Fulton, closer to both than it is to Laurel.