Sugarfire Smokehouse

The best casual BBQ around. I love the variety of side dishes and sauces. I want to return and try their adult beverages and/​desserts. Then it might be 5 stars.

We ordered brisket, turkey, pulled pork, hush puppies, coleslaw, beans and fries for carryout and it was hands down the best BBQ around! Layers of flavor and delicious.

Called at 4:00 to inquire about seating a party of 20 around 7. Was told that they might be out of food by then. Odd thing to tell someone who’s not been there. Went to Phil’s in Affton. Great food, fair price and gave us a room in the back to use for the party.

Hubby and I stopped on the way home. my hubby loved it. I thought it was ok. that’s why I have it 4 stars and not 3. The people and the service were great. Friendly helpful. First the drinks are original and made with pure cane sugar. was not a fan when Pepsi tried it. not a fan of these. We had the pull pork and the brisket. my hubby loved both. me in the other hand thought they were ok. differently need the sauce with it. cole slaw was taste less, I thought. not the hubby again boy we certainly do not have the same taste. The Mac and rack was good. Lots of different bbq sauces. tried them all. they are GREAT something for everyone.

Delicious!!! I have a Sugar Fire across from my work in Olivette and I haven’t been in the two years I’ve worked there. We found one opened down from our home in Fenton and we were excited to finally try it since it was close to home. The inside is rustic/​barn with lots of seating and self served drinks. I had the pulled pork platter with Mac n cheese and green beans and it DOES NOT DISAPPOINT! My husband had the cheese brisket and he wasn’t a fan. Thankfully my pulled pork was more than enough and we shared the sandwich. n they have home made sauce and soda and the staff is attentive and friendly. It was clean inside, good attitude from all we came in contact with and the key lime pie was tasty! Recommend this, hands down, #1 BBQ!

Specials are amazing As is the crack pie! I had never had white bbq sauce and now I’m hooked. My kiddos like their turkey sandwiches. It’s a great place for the whole family to enjoy!!!

I’m in town and told to try Sugarfire. It’s close to where I am staying, so I figured I will try it out. I had planned to have the brisket, baked beans, and green beans. There was already a line at 1050 so I’m thinking this is good. The sides are not on the menu, irritating, no green beans, irritating, plenty of pasta! No thanks, I’m at a BBQ joint! Meat was okay tasting, but cold. Beans were cold. $ 30 for my dad and I to eat a cold lunch. Next time I’m in town we’ll drive into Pappy’s.

Great BBQ! not sure there is much more than needs to be said. Love all the BBQ sauce selections and the food was better than another location I had previously tried. You have to have the pie… You are missing out if you don’t both the sugar fire pie and the Mississippi mud were amazing.(ones enough to share its rich) Also its kinda random but the bathrooms were super clean and cool!

After hearing so much hype for Sugarfire in the past and then having a really disappointing experience at the Olivette location, I am so glad to have given it another go at the new Valley Park location. Total 180 from what I thought before.
I actually stopped for dinner in between meetings as I headed to Fenton on opening day. Their special was a Valley Pork Burger which compromised of their usual burger, pulled pork, house made bacon, pub cheese, honey badger sauce, and giant onion ring. Yeah, read that again. It was amazing. It may very well have ruined me for all other burgers. I want one right now. Can I get put on some sort of mailing list for if that’s a special again or something? Can I just special order it every time I come in? God, I’m drooling.
Every time I go in, and I have since revisited, yes, the staff is courteous and friendly. I’ve never had to wait long, but perhaps I’m just lucky on my timing in that. Man. I shouldn’t have written this review around lunch time. I want some NOW!

This is NOT for the disabled. You can not sit at a table until you have stood in line for however long it takes even if you have mobility issues like walking with a cane, crutches, walker etc. When we spoke to the manager, he was rude and informed us that letting my wife with arthritis who walks with a cane sit at a table while I got her food would ‘not be fair to the (able bodied) people in line’. Wow! Somehow I think the people in line would be okay with a disabled senior sitting at an available table. The aloof tone of the manager made it even worse, clearly he couldn’t care less about customer service or even just being respectful. I heard the food is good but we will never know.
IN RESPONSE TO MATT M’s RESONSE… that is an out and out lie. You flat out told me that you would not let my wife get a table, that it would ‘not be fair to the people in line’. You did say you could probably get a chair for her to sit in while in line but that isn’t much better. imagine having to get up every couple of minutes to move your chair forward. as far as not being able to hear me, I repeated myself when you asked and you must have heard eventually as you answered my questions.

I was there yesterday and ordered the big daddy and the turkey was dry, the pulled pork was cold and no taste, the brisket was too dry no flavor it was over price. The pork belly hush puppy’s didn’t have any pork belly in them. They were quarter size and DENSE as could be. It was like eating dry cornmeal balls. The best thing about the restaurant was their décor. I don’t know how they won Memphis in May (which I doubt they even went) with food like this.

Went to Sugarfire for a gift card… not like I could leave without food! I got a 4 rib plus a side which was more like 6 rib since I got the tasty end of the rack. The collard greens were amazing. Best I’ve ever had. Flavorful and not to salty which is often the case. They had a sauce I had not tried before… coffee. It was great! They don’t put a lot of seasoning on the meat. It is smoky and cooked very well. The sauce is necessary for that added zip but the sauces are all good so I didn’t mind too much. I did miss that lovely crust you do get from a dry rub, but like I said… still very tasty. Service was quick despite the crazy line. I didn’t see any bags in the to-​go sauce area so I had to use an evil Styrofoam container to pile my sauce containers and messy collard Styrofoam. My apologies to mother earth for the styro. It was delicious.

The big muddy with the brisket and jalapeño sausage and horseradish sauce and barbecue sauce on the sandwich rocks and I love the coffee barbecue sauce they have I put some of that on my fries really good food I will be going back again really tender brisket and homemade desserts are good to

I’m not sure how different the experience might be for diners at the «original» location, but our experience at the Valley Park Sugarfire was mostly unpleasant.
Even for a newly opened location, the place was a disaster. People are herded in and quite obviously pressured to make their selections very quickly. Moving down a line, cafeteria style, items are piled onto a metal tray covered with paper. I selected smoked turkey, and it was piled directly onto the paper-​covered tray… no plate at all. We don’t even do that at a picnic! After finding a seat amid the writhing masses, we had to fight to get our drinks from the communal drink machine… and of course, they were out of the sweet tea I ordered. I asked about it after finally catching a harried employee, but it was never filled and so I selected a different drink from the machine. The «local» soda was actually tasty.
Overall, the quality of the meats was actually good, and most of the sides were fairly good as well. Prices were high for the portion sizes of all except the meat, however, and again… presentation was very basic. Also, the barbecue sauces were good, but they were in bottles crammed onto one of the dining room tables in the middle of the crowd.
The whole scene was a raucous, chaotic mess, and although the young woman who provided very basic service at the tables was nice enough, when obtaining our food at the «front line» there was a very unpleasant sense of being pressured… as if we were already in the way, and they simply wanted to get our money and be rid of us. At least they didn’t just mug us in the parking lot to get it… although that would have been only marginally more crass.
Even if this had been a five dollar dinner, I wouldn’t have cared for the tone here… about the only way this would have been worse is if the food had been awful, they had actually thrown the food on us instead of a metal tray, or they had poisoned me like the dive in Chesterfield Valley (54^th Street) did. Boo! Hiss!
Maybe takeout would be a better option, or maybe this location will improve over time. Meanwhile, try the original location. I can’t say I wouldn’t try the food itself again (especially if someone else brought it to a party as carry out) but this restaurant will not find me darkening their door again.

Dad used to eat at the same crappy restaurants all the time. I’m glad he lets me introduce him to better options. Sugarfire is one I recommended to him and now he’s a regular here.
We stopped in after a day of golf and we split a Big Muddy and Brisket Portabella sandwich. Both were bomb.

Trying out the new location and not disappointed!
My husband and I split some pulled pork, a sausage link (house made: jalapeño and cheddar – with a good kick!), and a chicken biscuit. Crack pie for dessert (similar to gooey butter cake) — YUM!
Staff is excellent, service is quick (especially for how busy they are), and food is excellent! So glad they made their way south.

Sugarfire is expanding like a wild fire and I love it! No matter where you are in the city you aren’t too far from having an amazing BBQ experience. As I said on my reviews at the other locations, the best part about Sugarfire is their variety of specials. Every day something else delicious is waiting for you to try. I haven’t ever had a bad entrée, special, or side at any of their locations. The brisket and smoked chocolate chip cookie is my favorite!

I’ve always heard of Sugerfire, but never had been until I saw they opened up where Dickey’s BBQ used to be.
I had the Big Muddy. It was unbelievable. Smoked sausage and brisket topped with lettuce, pickles, horseradish sauce, white BBQ sauce and sweet BBQ sauce. The combination of meats and sauce are unbelievable. The white BBQ sauce was my favorite. It has a sweet tang to it.
I like the cafeteria style of ordering. Except what if you get your food and pay and there’s no where to sit. I would hope someone would be okay with sharing there table if they had empty seats. There are a lot of tables but if there really busy I could see this being a problem.
They have all there BBQ sauces on the tables and they have a whole step up if you need some BBQ sauce to go with your leftovers. Also like seeing they have Excel bottling co. for there drinks and not Coke or Pepsi. There using a local soda maker. If you’ve never had a Ski soda its a must try. Lemon lime and orange combined to make a great soda.
The restaurant was very clean and the bathrooms have been remodeled. Definitely going back soon.

Sugarfire isn’t my style of BBQ. I don’t love the food, but I like it. I like it enough that I wanted to compare the new franchise in Valley Park to the two non-​franchise locations I’ve visited.
And it was pretty much the same.
It operates just like its predecessors. Wait in line, order your food at the cafeteria-​style counter, pay at the register, seat yourself, and bus your own table at the end of your meal. In addition to their regular menu, they also have daily specials and daily sides. You can check those out on their Facebook page prior to your visit.
I arrived with my husband on a weekday around 12:30. The line seemed long, but it moved quickly. Finding an open table was a breeze. I believe I read online that this location can accommodate 150 diners inside and 35 outside. I was so happy they didn’t have communal seating like they have in Olivette!
My husband had a plain double burger and fries. Both were good, and he appreciated that the fries were well cooked. They’re almost always greasy and soggy in Olivette. That wasn’t the case in Valley Park, but perhaps it was a fluke.
I went light. I had four ounces of turkey and a side of glazed vegetables, one of the daily side specials. The turkey was quite good. However, I really do not know what kind of glaze was on the vegetables. They were tasty but perhaps overcooked. I’m fine with that, though. I have a thing for mushy vegetables. I guess my biggest gripe is that my portion of vegetables was a bit small. I probably should have ordered the 6-​ounce turkey plate. For an extra $ 3 before tax ($ 2.62, to be exact), I would have gotten two more ounces of turkey and an extra side (more veggies!). It would have been a better value.
So, the food was pretty much the same. And the people were just as friendly.
Really, the main difference I noticed between this new franchise and the non-​franchise locations I’ve visited is that this Sugarfire is absolutely adorable. It’s decorated very well. I loved the flame backsplash and tilework I saw in two different areas, the huge 3D sauce bottles on the walls, and the bathroom stalls covered in license plates in the ladies’ room.
I’m giving this Sugarfire four stars. It’s the same rating I gave to the one in Olivette and the same rating I’d give the one in St. Charles. This might not be my style of BBQ, but I cannot deny that Sugarfire makes good food.

What can I say about this place that hasn’t already been said? Having visited two other locations, I had a good idea what to expect. 44 didn’t disappoint at all. They had their act together from opening day! The food speaks for itself but the staff deserve a lot of credit, too.
I have probably eaten here way more often than the average guest but I just can’t help myself. I’m always looking forward to their whimsical daily specials. They think outside the box and always manage to pull it off.
#wearegonnaneedabiggerbelt