Barbecue meets Wild West at amazing Arizona eatery

The scene: Cave Creek, Ariz., is an atmospheric small town just outside Scottsdale that looks like a Wild West theme park dropped from space. Drivers entering the former 1870s gold mining and cavalry town suddenly and dramatically leave behind the golf course communities and luxury resorts of nearby Carefree and Scottsdale, trading this aesthetic for saloons and wooden sidewalks. The roughly mile-long strip is lined with huge honky tonk bars, rodeos, Western wear shops and art galleries. Cave Creek remains an enclave of cowboy charm that has evolved with changing times. Bryan's Black Mountain Barbecue shares these same traits, and is a highly evolved take on the most traditional of American cuisines.

The restaurant sits right in the heart of the main drag on East Cave Creek Road, screened behind a stand of the region's iconic saguaro cacti, the kind out of Road Runner cartoons. It abuts a Western haberdashery, and there is some outdoor seating out front among the cacti. Inside the décor is casual campy, with light fixtures made from wagon wheels, a neon pig sign, and exposed brick walls covered with old Western movie posters and a screen where actual Westerns play non-stop. It's relaxed but fun, with a register where you line up to order, and along the same side, an open kitchen where you pick your food up from the counter. In late February, the small and often crowded restaurant expanded with an additional and similar dining room and to-go pick up area, Bryan's Side Door, next door. Everything is served in red plastic baskets or butcher paper and eaten on plain wooden tables, but all the laid-back, homey atmosphere belies the reality that Bryan's Black Mountain serves some of the most elevated and unique barbecue in the world.

Reason to visit: Frog legs, "chalkboard pig," ribs, pulled pork sandwich, vegetarian "pulled" spaghetti squash sandwich, brisket chili, baked potato salad, and homemade ice cream sandwiches

The food: It is almost impossible to go wrong here. The perfect example is the uniquely creative pulled spaghetti squash sandwich, a barbecue sauced vegetarian take on pulled pork, and while I would never order this in lieu of meat, it is so good that it attracts non-carnivores in droves. It's a weird concept but the texture and taste of the squash works perfectly with the sauce, and this is just the tip of the weirdness iceberg here.

"I'm traditional, and I like everything to be familiar to barbecue lovers, but I'm also a chef and I like everything to have little twist, like the olives in my cole slaw - they give it a bit of tanginess," said chef Bryan Dooley. Lots of skilled chefs from other realms have been humbled by the simplicity of smoked meats, and failed in their attempts to reinvent the barbecue genre. A Culinary Institute of America grad who was chef at the tony nearby Scottsdale Princess resort for 13 years, Dooley succeeds by keeping the simple things, like ribs and brisket, simple, while getting nutty around the edges. For instance, the best side here is the baked potato salad, which combines two takes on America's favorite tuber, chunks of baked potato tossed with a mix of mayo and sour cream. The superb brisket chili uses big chunks of barbecue brisket instead of typical ground or chopped meat, not a revolutionary twist, but a delicious one.

But the signature touches are the dishes virtually no one else sells at all, like the namesake of Frog Leg Fridays, a weekly special so popular it always sells out, and like the pulled squash, attracts its own audience. Mixing French cuisine with barbecue flavor, he sautés the legs in butter before dusting them with mesquite spice rub and serving with a preserved lemon sauce. The result is a cross between the bar staple chicken wing and shellfish, a bit bonier and harder to eat than a wing, but with a unique taste that's well worth trying. Like the rest of the food, the legs go well with the small joint's big selection of over four dozen craft beers. Another oddity here is the "chalkboard pig," the owner's scaled-down take on hipster nose-to-tail eating. Instead of doing a whole animal myriad ways, he features an offbeat part each month, with regulars getting a punch card for a gift T-shirt when complete. It might not even be pig at all – the name comes from the fact that it is displayed on a swine-shaped blackboard. For my visit it was a take on lutefisk, a Scandinavian salted fish dish, while past choices have included pig's ears, jowls, or boar's testicles.

Some people love these offbeat dishes, but if your tastes are more traditional, the great news is that Bryan's Black Mountain does great barbecue, all slow-smoked over pecan wood. The ribs are excellent, perfectly cooked and meaty, with a very good dry rub then brushed with tasty sauce. The brisket is almost as good, and served as a nice mix of lean and fatty thick slices. The pulled pork is also very good, meaty chunks rather than ripped strands, but perhaps the greatest innovation is the toasted bun. Part of barbecue joint tradition, from the Carolinas to Memphis to Texas, is using the cheapest generic white bread and white bread hamburger rolls available, straight out of supermarket plastic bags. The simple act of griddle-toasting the roll to give it two buttery, tasty, crunchy edges adds a dimension of flavor and texture that is missing from just about every other pulled pork sandwich. Once you have the one here, you will wonder why every barbecue joint in the country does not do the same thing - they should. And in case the succulent meat isn't rich and juicy enough (it is), every sandwich is available with an optional fried egg on top.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes, if you are in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, excellent barbecue for traditionalists, a killer pork sandwich, and unique variety for more adventurous gourmands.

Rating: OMG! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: 6130 East Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek; 480-575-7155; bryansbarbecue.com

Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.