There are lists, then there are lists. List the Top 10 baby names for 2008 and it's probably an accurate list -- it's quantifiable. List the best barbecue joints in the country and, well, expect a challenge or two. Listing the best in Memphis is tough enough, and just as open to challenge.

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Yet earlier this week Paul Kirk, the co-author of the newly released "America's Best BBQ" (written with Ardie A. David and published by Andrews McMeel, $19.99) came out with the declaration that the best barbecue in America is just up the road in Blytheville, Ark.

Clearly, a trip to the Dixie Pig was in order.

I drove over Tuesday, armed with information from Whining & Dining blogger Gregg, who wrote that the Pig Salad with blue cheese dressing is the way to go.

I ended up buying a container of the dressing and a container of the hot vinegar sauce to bring home. Folks in Blytheville buy the dressing, which is made in-house and includes chopped green olives, to serve at parties as a dip.

The salad is simple: Iceberg lettuce, a wedge or two of tomato, dressing on the side. First I doused the chopped meat -- smoky, tender, with a few bits of bark -- with the hot vinegar sauce (think Wicker's waaaaaay kicked up) and poured on a little blue cheese. Then a lot.

Spicy. Tangy. Smoky. Creamy. And all on top of crisp lettuce (don't even think about arugula or baby mesclun here; iceberg is the perfect foil).

That was one fine salad.

The Pig sandwich was a bit perplexing, though. The meat, again, was fine. Chopped (I was later told I could've had it sliced, which I would have preferred), sufficiently smoky and with a few bits of bark. It was the slaw that surprised me.

In Memphis we can passionately discuss the merits of first, whether to put slaw on your sandwich and second, the merits of a mayo-based slaw vs. one of mustard or vinegar. At The Dixie Pig that's no issue. It was just cabbage, dressed with just a smidge of vinegar. And I do mean a smidge; it wasn't even wet. Adding the hot vinegar sauce greatly improved it.

The onion rings were about as good as they come, though. Freshly cut, battered and fried in-house, they come to the table crisp and hot. The batter is light without being crumbly -- there's probably a little bit of egg in it -- and the onions are sliced medium to thin. I couldn't resist hitting a few of them with a dash of the vinegar sauce and I do recommend the combination.

While I was eating, I was also listening.

A table of older men were out to solve the problems of the world and I've always been a sucker for these coffee klatches of "wrinkled roosters," which is what I call them because the first men's coffee group I wrote about was officially named "The Wrinkled Roosters" and met every morning at a now-closed restaurant in Hernando, Miss.

Here was a little of the repartee:

Man 1: "I'll be right back."

Man 2: "Where are you going?"

Man 1: "You come with me, you'll find out.

He was going to the bathroom.

Man 3, standing: "Well, I better run."

Man 4: "I think you better walk."

Corny, maybe, but I love it. I meandered over to talk to them, to find out what it is about the Dixie Pig that pulls them in morning and afternoon.

"You can sit down and talk, and you can bring your family in here at night because it's a family place," said Jack Goodman, who later scolded Billy Crosskno for suggesting that chicken livers need to be cooked in a pressure cooker.

"Quit talking in tongues," he said.

There's a camaraderie you generally find only in institutions, which is what the Dixie Pig is.

Dr. Charles E. Campbell, a local physician, stopped in for a cup of coffee.

"I can't make it through a week without a Pig sandwich," he said. "I think it's the best barbecue you can get anywhere."

The Dixie Pig

Address: 701 N. 6th, Blytheville, Ark.

Telephone: (870) 763-4636

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Price: $

Handicapped access: Yes

Alcoholic beverages: Beer

Don't miss: Pig salad, onion rings