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Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ
Tempe Market Place| 480-968-RIBS (7427)
King's Fish House
Tempe Market Place| 480-966-9121

      In honor of Mardi Gras, February’s most swinging holiday, we ventured over to the new Tempe Marketplace, just a couple of freeway off ramps away from Arcadia at the McClintock exit off the 202.
      The Marketplace has two interesting restaurants practically next door to one another, both featuring a decidedly Southern menu.
      Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ’s name kind of says it all. The distinctively Dixie-style wood frame building with a green and white striped awning over its spacious veranda will make you think you’re walking into a Tennessee Williams play.
      The interior duplicates a 1930’s roadhouse, with reproduction art deco frosted glass lighting fixtures and big, roomy booths with an old-fashioned metal coat rack attached to each.
      We split one of Lucille’s BBQ Combo Platters (24.95) that has you pick two meats from a long list: Tri-tip; ½ chicken; baby backs; St. Louis or beef ribs; hot links; smoked ham; beef brisket; pulled pork or rib tips. The brisket was tender and drenched in a sweet, smoky sauce.
      The menu claims that the true measure of a rib is how good they are without sauce and encourages those who prefer to taste just the hickory smoked flavor alone, to ask your server to, “Please bring me my bones dry!”
      This rib joint’s extensive list of scrumptious sides was intriguing and I could not resist choosing the Southern Sweet Potatoes. They were mashed and mixed with plenty of butter and brown sugar and I could have just been happy as a pig in a poke to simply dine on a big bowl of their sweet goodness alone.
      Then again, the pot of Iron Skillet BBQ Baked Beans was spiked with just the right amount of caramelized onion and sweet molasses.
      Lucille’s menu also tempts one with some real Southern style sweets like Bread Pudding and Snicker’s Ice Cream Pie (both $5.75).
      Leaving the four-legged food chain for food with fins, King’s Fish House looks like a small town brick warehouse. The lobby is straight out of the 1940’s with its multi-colored linoleum, antique sideboard and old-time leather couches.
      King’s offers an oyster bar with a wall-mounted blackboard listing a variety of shucked beauties such as the Quilcene species that hail from Hood Canal in Washington state ($10.95-1/2 dozen) or Island Creek oysters from Duxbury, Massachusetts ($14.95-1/2 dozen).
      It was a blustery day, so I had to try King’s made from scratch Clam Chowder ($5.95), a bowl of buttery rich potato soup studded with big chunks of clams and tiny bits of celery that was a perfect companion to the warm sourdough our water brought out. The Alaskan Scallops & Gulf Shrimp Brochette ($14.85) consisted of two skewers interspersed with moist seafood and slices of yellow squash and red pepper.
      The house salad was a beautiful palette of romaine and red leaf with fat hunks of tomato and a wonderful bleu dressing with lots of cheese crumbles.
      Since the menu says their fried selections are cooked with zero trans fat, Companion went with King’s Combo Platter ($13.85). The fried fish, shrimp and scallops were large and tender beneath perfectly browned breading and the tasty shoestring fries tasted fresh rather than frozen.
      The only sour note was the dry cole slaw that made us wonder if the cook had inexplicably forgotten to dress the shredded cabbage.
      King’s menu also has an array of charbroiled fresh fish offerings, salads, pasta dishes, sandwiches and a separate sushi menu along with a huge wine list of mainly California selections, some interesting beer choices, specialty martinis and sake selections.