Getting Around The Long Wait At Smokey Bones In Springfield
If you go to Smokey Bones on East Grand Street in Springfield around 6:30 PM on a Friday, you are going to wait. Not twenty minutes. Forty-five. I learned that the hard way last October when I showed up after work thinking I could grab ribs and leave before my kid finished swimming practice. She was still in the pool. The place was packed, and the kitchen was running behind because the smoker lines were backed up. The smoking process they use is the main bottleneck. They smoke meats in batches through the day, and once you get past around 7 PM, the protein starts running low on popular items. The burnt ends sell out first. Then the chicken. If you show up late, you are eating whatever is left, which might be fine if you are not picky, but it is not the full experience.
Unleash The Flames Discover The Sizzling Success Of Smokey Bones Bar Fire Grill In Springfield Il
The thing most people do not realize about this location is that it operates more like a barbecue joint than a standard bar grill. The menu reads like a cocktail list with burgers, but the actual operation runs on low-and-slow smokers. That means the kitchen has to plan around meat that takes hours to prep. When they are understaffed or the lunch rush ate through their brisket supply early, dinner suffers. I have seen this happen maybe four or five times over two years of going there. The workaround is simple but not obvious. Call ahead at 4:30 or 5:00 PM and ask if the burnt ends and baby back ribs are still available. They will tell you. If they say yes, you can head over around 5:45 and beat the worst of the crowd. If they say no, either accept that and order what they have, or just go somewhere else. There is no point in showing up at 7 PM and ordering pork that came out of a holding cabinet. Another detail people miss is the side dish strategy. The mac and cheese and the onion rings are consistently good, but the collard greens and baked beans rotate depending on how much the kitchen made that morning. If the breakfast crew did not throw in enough beans, you might get a thin portion. It happens. Order the mac and cheese every time. It is prepped in larger batches and stays consistent.
There is also the pricing structure to understand. The smoked platters are where the value is, but only if you are sharing. A single person eating a full platter is getting about three dollars per ounce of meat, which is not great. Two people splitting one platter and adding sides brings it down to a reasonable price point. I usually order the burnt end platter for two and split it. The portions are genuinely large. The restaurant can fill two average-appetite adults comfortably with one platter and a couple of drinks. One edge case I ran into recently: the restaurant does not hold reservations for parties larger than six. If you show up with eight people on a Saturday night without a reservation, you are looking at a sixty to ninety-minute wait even if the place is not at capacity. The host stand will try to booth you together at separate tables. It works sometimes, but not always. I learned this when my family of eight got split across three tables on a Saturday in March. The kids were unhappy. The food still came out fine, but the experience was worse than it needed to be. The bathroom situation is also worth noting. It is small for the volume of customers. During peak hours, you will wait outside. Not a dealbreaker, but if you are bringing elderly relatives or young children, consider going during off-peak hours between 3 PM and 5 PM when the place is basically empty and the food is fresh from the morning smoker.
Get the Full Details
I should mention that the beer selection is decent but not exceptional. They have the usual domestic lagers and a few craft taps, but if you are looking for something specific from a local Springfield brewery, you are probably out of luck. Stick to their house beers or the standard wines if that is your thing. The cocktails are fine, especially the bourbon-based ones, but nothing stands out as a reason to go specifically for drinks. The parking lot is another practical issue. It is adequate during weekday lunch but completely insufficient on weekends. You will circle for spots. I once spent twelve minutes looking for a space on a Thursday evening. Arrive early if you can, or be prepared to walk from the street spots across the road. Overall, the food is solid barbecue at a mid-range price point. The Springfield location runs consistently better than some of the other branches I have been to, likely because the management team has been there longer. But it is not a place you just walk into without thinking. Plan your timing, call ahead during busy periods, and understand that the smoking process means the kitchen moves at its own pace. You are not going to get your food in twenty minutes when the place is full. Give it forty-five minutes and you will eat well.
