Date Night returns to the West Side, and tonight we roll some balls, drink some beer and lick our fingers. We are at Bone Lick BBQ, which is an offspring of P’cheen in the Old Fourth Ward. Seems that BBQ night at P’cheen was so popular that they opened up their own BBQ place.

We are greeted and seated at an old vintage video game table. We look down to see a working version of Space Invaders. Sitting right next to our table is a working version of Asteroids. Date Night started dating when these games were the hottest technology around and we spent a lot of money on them in the early 1980’s. There’s not a lot of leg room under the table, so we move over to the next table where we can stretch out.

Another feature of the restaurant is a skee-ball machine from the 50’s that you can play for free. We’ll get to that later, but first, it’s beer time!

They have Red Hare Coffee Cream Stout on the draft list tonight, which makes our choice very easy. Red Hare is our “local” brewery, only about 5 miles from our house. It’s hard to find their limited release beers, so if you get the chance to have one, take it. You can’t get this stout in stores as they only sell it in kegs. In fact, they aren’t making any more this year as they have moved on to a chocolate porter.

Fortunately, we don’t get “pickled” by the beer, but we decide to start with the fried pickle appetizer.

These have a little kick from the seasonings and some of the sauces on the side are spicy too. You get three sauces, a BBQ sauce, a chipotle sauce and a mystery sauce that we don’t remember. What we do remember is that they did not last long in the basket.

According to some BBQ blogs and the local paper, Bone Lick has some of the best BBQ in Atlanta. We have had a lot of BBQ here as well, so we decide to see for ourselves if this is true. To do this, we order the Fat Ass sampler so we can get a little of everything.

We don’t get a little of everything, we get a lot of everything. For $26, this is a huge plate of food, enough for four people. Ribs, sausage, chicken, pork and brisket grace the platter, along with a side of spicy jalapeno mac and cheese. Sauces are served on the side, so you get to decide which sauce you want and how much of it to mix in. Everything you see was good. The brisket and the ribs were the standouts. And with enough left over for lunch, we will be enjoying Bone Lick even more this week.

Chase, our waiter, tells us to save room for the fried bread pudding dessert. Chase has been very helpful tonight, so we go with his suggestion.

Bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts, and when they fry it, it tastes more like a funnel cake than bread pudding. I might have liked some caramel or chocolate sauce on the top of it, but it is delicious and a nice way to end our “BBQ-palooza”.

We play a few games of skee-ball before we go and we are reminded what fun a simple, non-electronic game can be. Eve scores a couple of 60’s, but I manage to win both times. Best BBQ in Atlanta? Maybe. Bone Lick is really good, and it’s worth checking out. And they are doing Scoutmob right now, so you can save up to $10 when you visit. Such a deal!