If there can be such a thing as a gentle hippie kind of barbecue, Soul Feathers is it. The interior is accented with angel and Native American imagery. The music is New Age and the owners are soft-spoken and gracious. Owner Barb Olson has mastered the art of the smoker, which heats up just outside the premises, filling the surrounding air with the aroma of mesquite-cooked meat. Tender, incredibly lean and amazingly meaty for such infantile bones, the ribs are a singular pleasure to gnaw on.
Sides are adequate and the availability of sweet potato pie appreciated.
If you have a killer sauce recipe in your files, I'd pick up a rack of Olson's ribs, take 'em home and give them the royal treatment they deserve. The combination would undoubtedly be fabulous. Located at the site of Jack's former second outlet, Bobby Dean's offers much the same kind of unadorned ambience and solid menu choices. The ribs are solid, but lacking in the extraordinary qualities that characterize the above competition. Bobby Dean's also operates a catering truck on the northwest side of town, near North Hardy Road on Thornydale.