Jennee used the interweb super highway to locate another American style barbecue joint for us to try at the Gold Coast, so indeed we did drive there to consume said smoky sustenance from the hickory tainted pits.
After what would’ve possibly been a half days journey by horse and cart, we pulled into the exit of the car park and parked our vehicle. The pulling into the exit was not because I am big and tough and don’t even give a fuck, but merely because I wasn’t wearing my glasses and don’t see the very best.
It was now time for me to get excited. Game on.
Now, I’ll let you in on a little moderately widely known fact about me; I get excited by the whole eating experience. Like, really excited. Like, I get excited like the new age hipster who has just found himself a solid supply of organic hand-crafted artisanal rocks to compliment his recycled wooden pallet shabby chic open plan lounge room/bathroom motif. One thing that really does not excite me though, is the new age hipster who has just found himself a solid supply of organic hand-crafted artisanal rocks to compliment his recycled wooden pallet shabby chic open plan lounge room/bathroom motif. Those people cannot be my friend. I fricking kid you not (yeah. Like top knot. Great pun, me) that shit is absolutely rife up here right now… I fear we may need to cull shortly to thin out their numbers purely in the interest of protecting the species as a whole, for soon there will not be enough hand-crafted organic chia seed, kale and tumeric loaves to support the population…
I’m probably going to get in trouble because I said I don’t like something. It’s not very nice if you say you don’t like things. It is generalized, pigeon holed, bigoted malarkey… but I did it… and you may need to prepare yourself for the scenario where I don’t actually recant my comment even one little bit…
But it could probably be said that we are not here today to discuss my uneducated social commentary, but rather to discuss the lunch we had at the comparatively new (compared to say, the beach and shining white sand that are mere meters from its doors) serving-all-things-southern-and-soulful establishment, Lester and Earl.
To start off with; great name folks. Really good. Now, moving on…
We were seated and quickly ordered some drinks. I ordered a root beer because I though I was a cowboy. Root beer tastes kinda funny but kinda nice to me, so I drank it all up. There was a bit of confusion with the other drinks but it was all sorted out fairly quickly which is good but… I’ve read quite a few reviews from peeps who weren’t really happy with the service here so maybe writing the orders down as they come from the mouths of the people, even if that’s just for the bigger tables, might be a better start?? Don’t get me wrong, I’m as impressed as the next guy if I can order 8 meals and it all hits the table as requested but, well, that just aint always the case… jus’ sayin’.
We ordered the ass out of what I thought to be a good cross section of what was on offer; beef short rib, pulled pork, buttermilk fried chicken, the American Classic burger, ‘slaw, collard greens and mac ‘n’ cheese.
See, that is a pretty good cross section.
When we ordered the chicken our waitress apologized and told us the wait was going to be 15 minutes. Her apology would have been better spent on something else worth apologizing about, like maybe her damn cheeriness, because I really didn’t consider that to be a wait. I was pretty sure I didn’t come to lunch at a fast food chain restaurant and I knew for a fact I have taken longer than that for my morning “movement”. Maybe the people are just in more of a hurry up here…
The food came, we ate, and we were happy.
The burger was a highlight, as was the smoked short rib and the pulled pork. Pulled pork with Carolina mustard sauce is quickly becoming one of my favourite things in the world… my family is still first though, but pulled pork could take the top spot on a really shitty day though. And I reeeeallllly loved those waffle cut potato things, they made me feel like a child and I want to put them on my own restaurant menu. Fucking tasty, not-every-day-food, fried goodness. Oh, and I almost forgot about the smoked jalapeño and bacon poppers – soooo damn good, but if they were jalapeños the chef must’ve used some kind of spice removal kit on them because, much like a snake playing a soccer match, they didn’t have any kick at all. But, they were just so effing tasty I had to let it slide. The ‘slaw was good with a little Asian influence, and the mac ‘n’ cheese was indeed cheesy and maccy ☺
The pickles and collard greens were possibly the only thing I didn’t enjoy the heck out of. The pickle was a wedge of onion. Now some things just go together and I NEED some pickles with my barbecue, full stop … it’s kinda like Sunny without Cher, gypsies with out trinkets or a certain Victorian football club without a drug scandal. And the greens? Well they were a little too beef stocky for me. I like them to be a little more chicken stocky and bacon or smoked sausage smoky.
It was still a pretty damn well arranged little symphony that’s fo’ sho.
All in all a damn good lunch in a nice spot over looking the Pacific Ocean and the beaches that stop said ocean from enveloping the Gold Coast. Next time I will try a little later in the arvo so I can get stuck into the bottles of stuff they have at the bar!
Lester and Earl1097 Goal Coast Highway, Palm Beach
foodisthebestshitever 
14 responses to “Lester and Earl… a place to get barbecue and booze at Palm Beach”
I like waiting for food, makes me think people are actually cooking it even if they are just sitting in the kitchen waiting for a ping.
Handcrafted artisanal rocks – now there is a business opportunity for me to pursue 😆
Again, I need to move to Australia …. love the review
Bahaha. Thank you my friend. Australia is defo worth a crack!
I’m not keen on those fuckers either! Looks like you found another meat fest…I still think “pulled pork” is a very ambiguous term:)
Pulled pork could mean anything!
I know. Talking about cooking and stuff, one thing I do occasionally is “pulled pork” (really for special occasions). When I was with my parents, aunt and uncle, the uncle asked me (not paraphrasing) “how do you pull your pork?”. How could I not laugh?
I’m with ya 😉
Hahahaaaaaa. Ah yes. The hipster trend seems to be taking over the world and there’s no stopping it. Whilst I don’t hate everything that hipsters represent (give me some freaking good hipster coffee and I’ll forgive the top knot and plaid) I do like to disassociate my consumption of chia seeds and kale from hipster-ism at every opportunity. You know what? I think you should keep the sauce in your beard. You know, to stop it from being associated with hipster beard grooming, beard oil and manscaping. Maybe a bit of pulled pork will help too (sorry Jennee!). As for this barbecue joint? I’m a big fan of American barbecue. Condiments and fried potatoes get me every time, tho I’d rather raid the bar than drink root beer (Aaron likes it but it tastes horrific to me. What kind of roots go into that beer?!)
There is ALWAYS pulled pork in my beard!! Fair call on the hipster coffee. As for the root beer, God only knows 😜
Only a matter of weeks now. What day works for you folks? You probs got day jobs and shit ay?
Yus, unfortunately we’re of the day job kind. But potentially we can take a half day (not sure about Matt but I think Az and I could swing it) if need be. Do you have thoughts as to what you wanna do? As in, go to one of our fave haunts here (there’s a barbecue joint called Old Faithful if you want to compare notes http://www.oldfaithfulbar.com.au) or we can maybe do a home shindig…
Anything with food and beer sounds good to me.
Mate, I’m easy. We can easily go to a burger or bbq joint and I will be a very happy man 🙂
Ah, hipsters. A source of good coffee and constant amusement. We were discussing a hipster coffee place somewhere in Sydney where they don’t even let you have a flat white! No milk allowed in their precious coffee. (Wait, just let me untie my bicycle ties from around my mid century style houndstooth pants held by braces and let down my top knot…) Great mouthwatering review once more Mr Food. And highly entertaining as well.
Bahaha. I love it. Evoking the social commentary 😜
Cheers Mrs Cheer 👍
Looks like a seriously good feed – that Mac and cheese is drool-worthy! And totally agree with you about the root beer – such an odd yet pleasing taste!
Hahaha. Indeed. Cheers my friend 😜