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Tucked in among the half-million-dollar homes along Falls Road may be the last place you’d expect to find a blue-collar barbecue shack, but there Shorty’s is, complete with billowing pit out front. Now, in the northern Baltimore County smoked-meat sweepstakes, Shorty doesn’t have Andy (Nelson, that is) shaking in his cleats, but the man makes some good ’que. The pit beef (all sandwiches $6.25) is tops, smoky and moist, but not dripping, perfect with a slathering of horseradish and some onion slices. The minced beef and pork sandwiches we tried, on the other hand, were a smidgen too wet, especially the beef, which was sweeter than we like. We also got sides of homemade potato salad (very nice, not too much mayonnaise) and baked beans (one of us loved their heavy spicing, but the other thought the hints of nutmeg and cinnamon made them taste too much like Christmas). With a total bill of $17.50--including drinks--and plenty of everything left over for a second meal, we know we’ll be pulling off Falls Road again soon. There are still Shorty’s ribs to try, after all.

E-mail Christopher Skokna