Wood City Grill

LouisvilleHotBytes

Following up on our Halloween trick-or-treatise on scary dishes, I’ve run into a much less fearsome way to introduce goat meat into your diet. Check out Wood City Grill, downtown in the longtime Pit Stop location at 612 S. Fifth St. (290-0518).

Along with more traditional smoked-meat goodies as pulled pork, smoked chicken and ribs (all $6 for an entree portion, sides extra a la carte), chef and owner Allen Sims – who boasts experience in the kitchen at Vincenzo’s – also smokes up mean versions of lamb and goat ($7 each).

It’s all good, and the smoky, dry-rubbed lean ribs are sensational. But we came for the goat and found it toothsome and not at all challenging: Lean and tender, with a thin purple smoke ring circling thin slices of tenderloin, it showed only a slight, appealing gamey character that played nicely off both Sims’ traditional original and spicy sauces and his more offbeat, hot-and-fruity Hawaiian and Szechuan sauces.

It’s an easy walk from most of downtown, and almost miraculously for the neighborhood, Wood City has a small, free lot so you can park off the street and bedevil the meter maids while you eat.

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