the smoke doesn't lie. who'd have thought good barbecue could be found in rockville, md!? i would have bet against it, but i stopped in ubq to see for myself. it has a very unremarkable location in a small strip center and at first appears to be the kind of place serving up average-at-best bbq for naive city folk. but as i walked through the door, the familiar smell of smoke hit and i began to think this might be a worthwhile excursion. i ordered the 2-meat combo plate and put the sausage and beef brisket to the test. to my surprise, the beef brisket had a small smoke ring and a bit of a black pepper crust on the outside. now the smoke ring could certainly could have been bigger, but having a smoke ring at all in this part of the country is a rare thing. the brisket was not stringy and was easily picked apart by pulling on both ends, i.e., it had no accordion texture. it had a detectable smoky flavor, especially the pieces with a bit more bark on the outside. the meat i wasservedcame from the lean end of the brisket so it was a little dry, but that's to be expected. i bet meat from the fat end would have been fantastic and if i have the chance to go again, i will ask for cuts from the fat end. the brisket i received was good enough to eat without sauce though, and that's the true test! i did dunk the last few pieces in sauce though just to try them out. the yella sauce was good and flavorful and the corey joe sauce was hot and tasty. the sausage was ok but was not outstanding. i think they know this too, because it wasservedwith sauce already poured on whereas the brisket wasservedclean. my plate came with very generous sides of beans and cornbread. the beans were seasoned with cumin instead of truckloads of sugar like so many places. the cornbread also seemed to flavored with a reasonable amount of sugar, being moist and just slightly sweet and containing real pieces of corn throughout. to drink, i had draft root beer. i've never seen root beerservedthis way before, but it came out of a tap on the front counter next to the soda machine and it was good 'n' cold. i didn't get a chance to return to ubq during the rest of my stay in rockville, but i was reminded of the experience the rest of the week as my coat continued to give off the scent of the smoke that saturates ubq. it's good to know that bbq can be done well even in the middle of strip mall america!