14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
GRAY WHALE
BBQ & GRILL
Rating:
280 S. Roosevelt Drive
Seaside, Ore. 97138
503-717-5068
Hours: Noon to 7 p.m.-ish
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.-ish
Tuesday through Saturday
Price: $$ – The flagship BBQ
meats are a bit spendy
Service: Chatty, well-inten-
tioned, personable
Vegetarian / Vegan Options:
It’s BBQ
Drinks: Beer, wine, soda, root
beer floats
BBQ combination (clockwise from top left): coleslaw, baby back ribs, tri-tip,
baked beans
The Ship Wreck: tri-tip with grilled onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, melted
Swiss and mozzarella cheese
At Gray Whale BBQ & Grill, stick to tender, smoky meats
Review and photos by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
FACEBOOK.COM/MOUTHOFTHECOLUMBIA
S
moke is the lifeblood of
Seaside’s Gray Whale BBQ &
Grill. You get a noseful as soon
as you open the door. After dining,
it sticks around.
Some 30 minutes or maybe even
an hour later, the smoky vapors
maintained their residence some-
where between my tongue and
nose. I can’t recall any other food’s
flavor — or is it essence? — linger-
ing in such a tangible way.
Which is fitting, I suppose, be-
cause BBQ, cooked slow and low,
is the product of time.
Where much of BBQ culture ad-
heres almost religiously to regional
recipes and practices, the Gray
Whale cherry-picks in a way some
southerners might find heretical.
For the pulled pork and tri-tip,
Gray Whale mashes up East and
Central Texan traditions, using
hickory wood to generate smoke (as
they do in East Texas) but forgoing
the sweet, tomato-based sauce.
Instead, Gray Whale employs a dry
rub (as they do in Central Texas, but
where pecan or oak are the pre-
ferred woods).
Gray Whale’s pulled pork is said
to use a Memphis-style rub (which
is sweet, spicy and peppery), but I
noticed little influencing the tender,
juicy pork butt besides smoke. Even
the blackened edge pieces were at
most gingerly influenced.
Same goes for the tri-tip. The
crust was replete with smoky char,
the insides simple, lean, roast beef-
like. Against pulled pork and ribs
— not to mention brisket, a BBQ
standby not found at Gray Whale —
the tri-tip was lean, almost responsi-
ble by comparison.
Beneath the caramelized crust
(aka the “bark”) of the ribs, the
flesh and gooey fats pulled clean
from the bone. Midway through the
quarter rack, though, the exception-
ally sweet, honey and sugar-heavy
glaze outlasted my sweet tooth.
While I would dial down the
sugars on the ribs, there’s room for
some fluffing of the pulled pork. An
essential, fatty, textural experience
by its lonesome, pulled pork takes
flavors so well.
And while cooking in the sauces
deepens and settles the flavors, you
can add your own after the fact. The
Gray Whale offers two squeeze-bot-
tle solutions: Whale and Hickory
sauces.
On both of my trips, the Seaside
restaurant was out of their name-
sake sauce, described on the menu
as “mild, savory and sweet.” Add
the word “tang” and you could say
the same about the Hickory sauce. I
found the “hot” variety to be mild,
offering but a faint tongue tingle.
I pine, meanwhile, for South
Carolina’s mustard sauce and the
vinegar and hot-sauce base of East-
ern North Carolina’s.
I suppose this is as good a time
as any to mention: BBQ joints are
in regional decline. After a decade
in Astoria, Rollin’ Thunder BBQ
closed in December. About a year
ago, the exceptional Mericle’s Epic
Eats vanished from Ilwaco. That
leaves Gray Whale as the sole tradi-
tional BBQ joint, as far as I can tell.
The Whale offers three flagship
meats in a handful of configura-
tions (including for take-out by the
pound). Combination plates are
ideal for sampling. $17.99 gets you
meats and two sides. It’s a substan-
tial amount of food but stops short
of overwhelming. In other words:
It’s not exactly cheap. With these
kinds of portions you might not get
the meat sweats unless you really
try. But certainly your circulation
will seem to slow and you will
consider a nap.
For groups there are eat-with-
your-hands-inspiring platters served
atop a garbage can lid. The Two
Person ($35) includes three meats,
four sides. Prices and portions rise
accordingly.
Sides include the requisite baked
beans and coleslaw as well as
mashed potatoes, macaroni salad,
fries, grilled veggies and a few
more.
With a combo of tri-tip and
ribs, I had slaw and baked beans.
I appreciated the Dijon in the
slaw’s dressing wasn’t shy, and
that the cabbage wasn’t shredded.
With more icy body, tang and cool
creams, it was an ideal palate reset.
But as the beans were somewhat
sweet and the ribs very much so,
the slaw became my source of
much-needed salt on the platter.
Not much seems to make it into the
meats.
The flagship meats are available
in sandwiches, too. The weighty,
cheesesteak-inspired Ship Wreck
($10.50) — with oodles of gooey
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Worth returning
Very good
Excellent, best in region
mozzarella and Swiss gluing togeth-
er grilled mushrooms, bell peppers
and nicely caramelized onions over
a bed of tri-tip — is simple, greasy
and satisfying. And while the name
of the Naked Pork ($11.50) makes
no bones about it’s unadorned,
meat-and-bread-y-ness, perhaps a
few kind words to a server could
procure some pickles, onions and
Hickory sauce to make an honest
sandwich out of the thing.
The Gray Whale has burgers,
too, but the pre-made patties aren’t
afforded an iota of the focus of
the BBQ. This is partly by design:
They’re cheap. A plain burger
($5.95) with choice of a side like,
say, the mashed potatoes — with
skins included and lumpy in all
the right ways — is a fine value
proposition.
Avoid, however, the thin and
gummy clam chowder. A lake of
butter, it’s a needless addition to
the menu. So, too, are the fish-and-
chips, the fried shrimp and clams.
Leave them for the tourists.
Rather: Stick to those ten-
der, exceedingly smoky BBQ’d
meats. CW