Stateline Road - More Tops

The Tops Bar-B-Q on Stateline Road in Southaven, MS, is the first location I've visited located in a shopping center instead of a freestanding building. While it lacks the charm of some of the more distinctive stand-alone stores, the food is just as good. In fact, I think the slaw was the best I've had at a Tops. I've been told that the dressing for the slaw is made at a central warehouse, but the individual stores still determine how much dressing to use, which determines their slaw's consistency. It was perfect at the Stateline restaurant.

I've now eaten at seven of the 14 locations.

While I am a longtime fan of the Tops double cheeseburger, I just recently discovered how good the ribs are. They are also some of the most filling in town with an abundance of smokey meat and a dry rub that is so good I barely used any of the hot barbecue sauce that I had on the side. In fact, while I use the pulled pork at Tops as my standard for "Memphis average," I'm starting to realize that the chain's ribs stand up against some of the best in Memphis outside of a few heavy-hitter like Leonard's and Jack's.

And they aren't just short-term filling either. An hour after eating a half-slab with beans, slaw and water my blood sugar was only 103, which is why I felt contentedly full for the rest of the afternoon as my body burned all the healthy pork fat as fuel. It is the exact opposite of high-calorie, carb-heavy meals like pancakes, dressing, pasta, etc., that can leave you feeling sickly full immediately after a meal yet hungry again after just a few hours because they signal your body to store everything as fat, then cause you to get hungry during the blood sugar crash that follows.