We rolled into Clarksdale, just ahead of a storm that we had driven through for most of the last 100 miles, following us like a “Hellhound on My Trail”.  Driving south through Arkansas into Mississippi, we were going down to the crossroads, hoping to catch Abe’s Bar-B-Q, as opposed to a ride.  

Or the devil (like Robert Johnson did.)

Walking in, it was “Four Until Late” afternoon, they were empty and they were scrambling to recover the hood from the roof to their smoker, which had blown off in this storm.  Abe’s is actually on the corner of the cross roads of Highways 49 and 61 – had this been our second visit, I would have titled it “Highway 61 Revisited”.  

As we had a dinner reservation in Oxford, we decided to share, and chose a pork plate with slaw and beans, and a side of hot tamales (“They’re Red Hot”). 

The pork, beans and slaw were fairly nondescript – they were fine, but not transcendent. 

The tamales were interesting.  They appeared much more tamale-like (in my SWB experience) than those at McClard’s, but I had enjoyed those more. In talking with the proprietor, he said that they order their tamales in bulk and fill them on site.  And that whether they ordered 2 cases of tamales, or 500, the delivery price is the same.  Consequently, they had to order a freezer to store them.  

The tamales were better than the barbecue, but this was one of the lesser stops on this road trip.  In retrospect, looking back at why this was even on my list (50 Best Southern Foods – Garden & Gun. Oct/Nov 2011), I was supposed to order a chili cheeseburger.  Dang it.