Firehouse BBQ & Blues

I like bbq and local restaurants; Richmond needs both sorely. Firehouse isn’t bad, it’s just not my «go to» place. The acoustics are terrible. I usually can’t hold a conversation here. There’s one bathroom, which can become a major pain when crowded, especially because you can’t wait in line for it without basically intruding on other customers at their table. The food is OK. The meat and sauce itself is actually pretty good, but the sides tend to be average. I’m not a fan of their spice combos. The corn bread is usually too dry to eat. The people are very nice here.

The story behind this is excellent. The atmosphere of the place is homey. The waitstaff stay on top of their game. The food: large portions, meat is tender, sides like homemade. Can’t go wrong with this place.

I was passing through Richmond with a taste for BBQ this evening and decided to give this place a try. I should have been warned when i walked a little after 5:00 and was the only person in the dining room. There were a few people in the bar but only two other people came into the dining room while I was there.
I had the third rack of ribs, cole slaw and sweet potato casserole. The ribs were almost completely flavorless and clearly over-​cooked. There was no smoke ring so I’m not convinced they had been smoked. The waitress did tell me that they didn’t put sauce on the ribs while cooking so there was sauce on the table. She didn’t tell me that they didn’t put any seasoning at all on the ribs. The sauce was good but very similar to Sweet Baby Rays.
The sweet potato casserole was a very uninteresting combination of sweet potato and bowl — no hint of butter, sugar (brown or white), pecans or anything else you might normally expect to find in sweet potato casserole.
The jalapeño cornbread had no flavor and the only sign of jalapeño was one tiny green spec. It was so dry and crumbly the only way I could eat it was to load it up with butter.
I don’t know what the other options for barbecue are in Richmond but I think I’d check them out!

My husband and I have been on a BBQ kick for awhile now and have been trying to find new places to go. He randomly found this place online, so we decided to try it.
We got the jalapeño popper appetizer, which was good, but for the price, the portion was a little skimpy and the jalapenos themselves were small. I make something very similar and know that $ 7 for essentially 3 jalapenos is a little steep. The flavor was ok, needed a little more salt.
We both got the brisket dinner. The brisket was moist and flavorful. I liked mixing the two non hot sauces together to coat the meat. The sides come in cute little Ball jars. I got the potato salad, which needed more salt and the mac and cheese, which was just ok.
Overall, I liked the atmosphere and the food was good, but still not the best BBQ I’ve ever had. I would go back and maybe try something else.

This place in my opinion probably really deserves a 4.5. We came in for dinner last week and thought it was great! Our server was friendly, and everything we tried was delicious. Really liked the jalepeno cornbread muffins with butter (we asked for some butter). We tried sliders of pulled pork, pulled chicken, and brisket, and all were moist and very good. Really liked the sauces too… we liked mixing them together. Great place in downtown Richmond for some BBQ

Good food but my god the nose level is horrendous. It’s not a big place to begin with but then throw in several not too good «Artists» and you will not want to sit within earshot. Sorry.

I ordered the Beef Brisket platter. Very good smoke flavor; tender. Sauces were good, but not needed. Local beers, Boswell Irish Red and Brown ale were a good compliment. Interesting décor. Comfortable, somewhat quiet (Tuesday night) atmosphere.

Excellent food, very cool place, good music but the waitress was not friendly at all ! Very disappointing for someone visiting the area.

Saw Kip Winger show there May 3^rd. It was our first time there. I went with my friend and we split a dinner. The food was very good! And the waitress kept our glasses full and table clean. I give that part 5 stars. However, it is not a very good place to see a live show. There are poles down the center of the room, and it made it very hard to see the stage. They sat us at the wrong table to start with. We reserved accessible seating, and it was clear in the back by the bathroom and that made it even more harder to see. The meet and greet was fine, The waitress we had was very nice.

Delicious pork BBQ! Wonderful décor. Service was great. Friendly staff. If you are passing thru Richmond you should definitely drive into Historic Richmond for this little gem!

Never had a chance to try the food… But I can talk about the service. 6:30pm we enter and we were told to seat ourselves (party of four). Turns out ¾ of the all the tables were reserved, but not marked as such. The rest were full, and we were told the patrons were going to be staying for the music that started at 8pm. So… There were reserved tables for 8pm that they would not sit at 6:30pm. The staff were more than unaccommodating in finding a solution, and even failed to understand the absurdity in holding a reserved more than an hour and a half before the table is to be sat. I gave a one star because the BBQ smelled great, otherwise a 0 star would be in order.

Meet Porkzilla. It wasn’t bad. It could use a little more seasoning, but it was good. The chicken quesadilla is insanely good. It has Frank’s Hot Sauce or something on it. The décor is absolutely beautiful. Love the use of murals and firehouse motif in this historic building.

Great meal and heart shaped cheese ball AND chocolate covered strawberry. Jackpot. Pulled pork was great and the brisket was excellent. Very cute décor and entertainment later.

Great new BBQ place in town. Locally owned by firefighters. The food is a solid «B» and atmosphere and service is great. Recommended– especially if they have live music going on.

Love the Firehouse!!! The food is great, nice atmosphere, good kid’s menu, nice folks. I’d recommend the Smokin’ Hog with Mac and cheese. Hmmmm!

I wish I could review the building and the food separately on here.
The building is great! The atmosphere is fun and alive an over all its a great place to take in local music talent. On the flip side of this coin the BBQ is meh at best. I’ve have BBQ from all of this county and I smoke my own as well and I just don’t enjoy the BBQ here, nor has any group that I’ve been here with.
First off none of the meat has a dry rub that you can taste. Something has been dusted on it for color but no flavor.
Second none of the meats had been smoked long enough. I couldn’t find a smoke ring on anything that came to the table. Typically Briskets smoke around 10 to 13 hours, pork shoulders 7 to 10 hours and ribs 3 to 5 depending and there is no way this was done here.
The sides where pretty good over all and the deserts everyone seemed to like but that is not the reason people come to a BBQ joint.
Over all lack of flavor, no smoke ring, dry and tough brisket and pulled pork with ribs that have a mouth feel like they have been par boiled before going into an oven and never saw the smoker at all leaves allot to be desired.
This was our third trip here in the past year and nothing had changed since the first so I can’t blame it on it just being new anymore.
Over all if you want to grab a beer and watch a band its a great place. If you want some good BBQ ya might want to look some place else.

What a fun place! Great décor (nicely done murals and song lyrics on the tables and walls), great service, and good food. I really enjoyed the scalloped cabbage i had as a side with my «Sparky Hog» — a jalapeño sausage served on a bun with hot sauce, chopped jalapenos and barbecue pork. My husband commented that his half-​rack of ribs were the meatiest he could remember ordering anywhere. They offered a decent selection of beers, too. Oh, and the restrooms were clean. Always a plus.
The band was setting up as we were leaving, so we didn’t get to experience that part of Firehouse, which is supposed to be a good time. I’m sure we’ll go again.

This is a quaint, theme-​based barbeque restaurant in Richmond, IN. The menu is straightforward, with the usual items included. A couple of distinguishing items are the New Brunswick Stew and the baked potatoes with bbq. I had a baked potato with brisket for dinner and was not disappointed. The potato is easily a .75−1lb potato, topped with meat, cheese, and bbq sauce. All of the food our party ordered looked well prepared and was served quickly. We topped off our dinners with dessert, and we were not disappointed. They have some incredible desserts.
Our service was just average that evening, but it was a slow evening. Our waitress was attentive enough, but it was not what I would call outstanding. The waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu, so that was very good for us, being new to the restaurant.
There was one potential downside. Of the sauces available, there was not one that was what you might traditionally consider «mild», which was difficult for my wife who does not like spicy sauce. Since they serve the sauce directly on several of the dishes, even though bottles of the sauce are at each table, you may need to request no sauce when you place your order if you do not want to control the amount of sauce on your food.

Let me preface this by saying that, in Richmond Indiana, the Bob Evans, Subway, and Taco Bell all got at least 4 stars. So, even though I feel the urge to «grade on a curve» here, I’m going to pretend that this is not the most depressing town with next to no local restaurants, and give this establishment the rating it deserves.
We came with a large group on a Saturday afternoon. The good news is that they were able to put about five tables together for our crazy family members pretty quickly. The bad news is that the waitress was very unfriendly. And they don’t have milk. Um, what?
More bad news: the service continued to be weird as the waitress came back and forth about 5 times to get our orders (both drinks and food) and did not give us much confidence that she really remembered anything. Plus, the food and drinks came out in spurts and we were all waiting to eat. And did I mention she was really unfriendly?
The food, however, was pretty good. I had a cobb salad, which, to my great pleasure, had real roasted chicken on top instead of rubbery strips with grill lines that look like they’ve been drawn on with permanent marker. It was very tasty, and came with delicious ranch as well as a jalapeño-​corn muffin.
Now let’s talk about the jalapenos. They were in practically everything. They were in the muffins, in the chili, the mac and cheese, and the green beans. Sometimes I don’t want spicy sides unless I order them that way.
But I did appreciate how the owner (I think? He seemed authoritative) came over to check on us and see how things were going.
Word to the wise: no changing tables. Thankfully, I didn’t need to venture there because my kid kept her business at bay for once, but my cousin had to change her three-​month old on the floor of the adjoining bar. Not too fun.

I’ve been wanting to try this place ever since I heard about it. It sounded right up my alley. BBQ and live music in Richmond? Yes please! I went on a Thursday at around 5:30 with my parents and my not quite 2 year old daughter.
A few things of note:
1) Parking is a little difficult. There is no lot parking, so you’ll have to find a spot on the street. We had to park on the street by the furniture gallery and walk to the restaurant from there.
2) The building is pretty dang awesome. You can tell they put a lot of effort into fixing this place up. It looks really nice inside, and the décor is pretty sweet.
3) This place is not child friendly. No kids menu, and no high chairs available. They did have booster seats, but they don’t really work well with the chairs they have at all the tables. They’re wooden chairs, and the booster seats don’t fit on them well at all. You can’t strap them to the chair, so if your child likes to dance in her chair to music playing like mine, they’re going to wobble right out of their seat. I had to eat with my daughter on my lap.
4) Fast and friendly service. The waitress always had a smile on her face and was very cheerful. I was amazed at how fast we received our food. We ordered and had food within 5 minutes.
5) The food was nothing outstanding, but above average. I had the beef brisket dinner and shared my sides with my daughter since there was not a kids menu. I needed extra sauce with the brisket to give it some more flavor. The mud pie for dessert was super rich and really tasty. Chocolate lovers must try this.
I’ll definitely be returning, but most likely will only visit for lunch since I don’t think I could return with child in tow. But the fast service makes me think this would be a great lunch spot. I’ll need to return on a night when there is music playing as well.
Glad to see a fun spot like this in Richmond.