If you haven’t noticed from my restaurant reviews in the last few months, I have something of a penchant for barbecue. Yes indeed, something about the smoke from a grill, the sweet tanginess of barbecue sauce, and the simple, down-home side dishes speaks to me, and I’ve therefore made it my personal quest to visit each and every barbecue restaurant on the coast.

Both the CCR Smokehouse in Long Beach, Washington, and Junior’s Barbecue in Gearhart are relatively new restaurants that warranted a visit anyway, as I try to review each and every new establishment, but since I seemed to be on a barbecue bent, as it were, I decided to visit a place that has been in business in Astoria for eight years, but that I had never previously visited: Rollin’ Thunder Barbecue.

The day I visited happened to also be one of the hottest days in Astoria that I can remember, with no breeze, and the restaurant was stiflingly warm. Now, I don’t expect every local restaurant to have air conditioning, since we maybe have three or four exceedingly warm days on an annual basis, but the extreme heat and stuffiness inside the restaurant was off-putting.

Making up for it, though, was the owner himself, behind the counter, who greeted my party as if we were old friends. He answered all my questions about every dish on the menu and even let me sample a few things before I committed to an order, which I thought was above and beyond your typical service.

We settled, of course, upon a number of items. My favorite of the bunch was the smoked chicken plate: an enormous portion of tender, smoked chicken, with house-made barbecue sauce on the side. The chicken itself was savory and tender, and I appreciated that the sauce was served on the side (in barbecue terms, serving the sauce on the side is referred to as “Texas style,” although the owner informed me that he uses a Kansas City-style sauce). I appreciated the “on the side” mentality, as the chicken had a wonderful flavor all its own and also had a wonderful, although separate and different, flavor when paired with the sauce.

I was marginally impressed with the ribs, but let me justify that. Plenty of folks will be downright delighted with these ribs, if they like them without sauce slathered all over them. Although they lacked a bit of flavor for me, the ribs were extremely tender, juicy and fall-off-the-bone delicious. When it comes to ribs, I prefer them to be coated in sauce, mainly because I’m lazy and don’t want to dip each individual bite in sauce. This is, however, a minor complaint.

Beef brisket was also quite tasty, although not as appealing as the chicken or the ribs. Pulled pork held more sway with me, shredded inside a hoagie roll. Unlike other local versions of pulled pork I have sampled recently, which have been somewhat tough, this was extraordinarily tender. Pork is surprisingly difficult to prepare well, if the desired end result is tenderness, and a lot of time and care must be spent in order to achieve it. My hat is off to Rollin’ Thunder for doing such a commendable job.

A barbecue “joint,” in my opinion, is only as strong as the side dishes it serves; the strengths of the various meats means nothing to me if the sides are not equally as tasty. I’m happy to report that the sides served at Rollin’ Thunder are, by and large, the best of those I’ve tasted locally. Foremost, to me, was the macaroni salad, and you cannot begin to fathom what a tremendous compliment this is from me, as I believe most macaroni salads to be 1950s-style, mayonnaise-drenched buffet-line food. This macaroni salad was special, though, with shell noodles, and, if I’m not mistaken, red onion and sweet pickles. There was another flavor present, though, not quite Southwestern and kind of Mediterranean, that made the salad really sing — I can’t quite put my finger on it, which is both vexing and fun.

Ranch-style baked beans were also singularly delicious. A cross between baked beans and chili, I would think they could be a dish in and of themselves.

The smoked potato salad was also unexpectedly flavorful and delicious, and I appreciated that the potatoes hadn’t been cooked to maximum “doneness” and still retained some crunch and firmness.

I found the cornbread very dry and not sweet enough — an easy improvement, to be sure. And the cole slaw was a trifle bland — another easy fix.

Overall, I found the barbecue itself to be second to none in our area. I must admit, though, that the restaurant is run-down on the inside and could use some sprucing up, and the quality of the food more than warrants better than Styrofoam plates, all of which affects its overall star rating.

Regardless, Rollin’ Thunder gets my vote as the top barbecue on the coast.