Review: The Jaded Toad

Baby back ribs at The Jaded Toad, Windsor. (Jeff Kan Lee/PD)

The motto of The Jaded Toad BBQ & Grill, a barbecue shack in Windsor, is “Eat * Drink * Love.” It’s written on the old red truck in the front yard, and across the backs of the T-shirts on the young and boisterous employees. It sounds like a prescription for what makes a person happy, and happy is the person who eats here, for the barbecue is excellent.

This old frame building, once the home of high-end gastronomy when it was Mariposa and then Mirepoix, is now as down home as the oilcloth in a farmhouse kitchen. But despite its humble status, a rack of well-made Barbecued Baby Back Ribs ($11.95 half slab ***) offers a big plate of rugged, All-American pleasure.

The ribs are thin, from a young pig, and there will be seven of them cooked long and slow so even the bones are soft. The tender meat accumulates a fragrant smokiness from the barbecue pit and slips easily off the bones. It’s covered in a sweet and mild barbecue sauce. In a perfect world, customers would be able to choose an intense and spicy sauce as an alternative. Oh, and the sauce would be baked onto the ribs. But that’s quibbling. These are great ribs, served up proud and tasty by chef and owner Leo Tocchini.

Most of the fare will be for take-out, as there are just four tables inside and a few more outside under the big trees of old-town Windsor. The Windsor Town Green is nearby, with live music on Thursdays and free kids’ movies on Tuesdays, and a lot of The Jaded Toad’s victuals will be consumed there on those nights.

At the front counter where you order, you’ll see a fine line-up of bottled beers and four brews on tap along with a few red wines, plus lemonade, sodas and iced tea.

The atmosphere is southern roadhouse, and country blues plays on the sound system. And while the name of the place is The Jaded Toad, the shack’s emblem looks suspiciously like a frog sitting on the back of the red truck. But then, frog’s legs are on the menu for $7.95.

With most meat items, the price includes two side orders. You get to choose from this list:

~ Corn bread baked like a muffin rather than cut from a slab. It’s a standard light, fluffy, sweet cornbread made with flour as well as ground corn. Too bad there’s no butter with it.
~ Corn on the cob. A tired, overcooked half ear of corn coated with a slightly spicy, light, creamy sauce sprinkled with black sesame seeds.
~ Baked beans in a sweet, molasses-y sauce. Good flavor, well-cooked beans. They go well with any of the pork dishes.
~ Cole slaw. Really good cole slaw rides the knife edge between sweet from sugar and sour from vinegar. This is just bland. But, in its favor, the cabbage is just-cut fresh.
~ A little salad of summer fresh greens. Nice.