Here’s a sundae built for meat lovers. It’s even drizzled with barbecue sauce

Yes, barbecue sundaes are a thing.

Mostly a Food Network and Instagram thing, but still a thing.

Now it’s a thing here.

My 4 Sons BBQ, which opened in March in Midland, has started its own version of a barbecue sundae, which is exactly what it sounds like.

It’s a pile of barbecue ingredients stacked into a cup and served with a fork. With a pickle on top. Trust me, you want to eat the house-made pickles at My 4 Sons BBQ.

Owner Matt Henning, who operates the restaurant with his wife Brenda, said the idea for the barbecue sundae came from their four boys, after whom the barbecue is named.

Specifically it was the kid in the family who doesn’t like his foods to touch that came up with the idea after watching a show on the Food Network.

“He’s the kid who’s got meat in one corner of the plate and mac and cheese in one corner and corn off to the side,” said Henning with a laugh. “I thought it would be a good idea because he thought it was cool, so we went with it.”

Certain family members wanted to see him eat food that was mingling with other food, so they added it to the menu. That the specialty has become a permanent menu item that’s popular with diners is a fun bonus.

It’s also a bargain at $6.99 for a pound of food jammed into a cup.

Henning said there was some thought behind the construction of the meat-and-sides sundae, which the family wanted to be equal parts goo and crunch, plus a little smoke, tang and sweet.

Brenda Henning thought they should serve it in the fashion of a banana split, in a long dish, with coleslaw on each side and scoops of mac and cheese, beans and meat in the middle.

“We couldn’t get all the flavors in one bite,” said Matt Henning, so they switched to the idea of layering the ingredients vertically. They tried it Frito-pie style, filling a bag of Fritos with barbecue ingredients, like a walking taco.

Scratch that.

“It just didn’t taste good and the flavor profile wasn’t there,” he said.

The next version won. They built it in a large cup with layers like a sundae. In total, it weighs just over a pound.

“It’s great because you get all our flavors in one bite,” said Henning. “The tang of the coleslaw is against the barbecue beans, and then the coleslaw against the hot meat, then the tang of the beans, then the salty, smoky mac and cheese down at the bottom.”

Digging into the sundae is like a fun geological barbecue expedition.

The top layer is snappy slaw with the tiniest of barbecue sauce drizzled on top.

The next layer is a choice of whatever hickory-smoked meat you want — pulled pork, brisket, pulled chicken, etc. I highly recommend the hickory-smoked pulled pork because the texture works supremely well with the slaw and the rest of the layers, which includes a helping of the barbecue beans that carry a little smoke, some tang and a bit of spice.

The bottom layer is the tastiest, which is a creamy house-made macaroni and cheese with big, bouncy noodles flavored with a complicated mix of nutty and sharp cheeses.

That smoky flavor you taste in the mac and cheese is from a trip to the smoker. Henning smokes his macaroni and cheese for an hour over hickory.

Since opening, Henning has added a few new meats to a lineup that includes brisket, ribs, rib tips, burnt ends, pulled pork and pulled chicken. He recently added sliced smoked turkey breast, which is cooked over hickory like all his meat. He serves that every Thursday.

The most popular addition, by far, he said, has been the addition of beef ribs, which he prepares daily.

“It’s a 9-inch beef bone, it’s like a dinosaur bone,” said Henning. He sells those by the bone. “If you’re a beef eater, the beef flavor in this rib bone is amazing. It’s a big, juicy, beefy flavor.”

My 4 Sons BBQ

Where: 9823 Portland Ave. E., Tacoma

Info: 253-777-4677 or facebook.com/My4SonsBBQ

Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 11:30 AM.