This is a pretty good spot for work lunches - not ...

This is a pretty good spot for work lunches - not the fastest service, but you're seated quickly and the food is great. The restaurant itself has a lot of character. There's a thick layer of sawdust coating the floors, and the walls have a mural of some cartoon bears and various kitsch thrown around. It's a rib place first, but the BBQ sauce is so good that it doesn't really matter what you order - chicken, pulled pork, turkey or even the smoked bear meat. The salad isn't a standalone meal at The Bear Pit, so vegetarians will have a hard time.

My first few experiences at The Bear Pit were for work lunches, and my coworkers and I had seen smoked bear meat on the menu before but we just assumed it was a joke to go with the bear theme. It wasn't until I was eating there for dinner and had a few drinks before I decided to ask the waitress if the bear meat was a real thing. She was awesome enough to bring me out a sample and I was really surprised how good it was. I'd eaten bear once while vacationing in Pigeon Forge, TN, but it wasn't smoked and they only offered one variety. The Bear Pit lets you choose between a black or brown bear, either as a sandwich or a loaf (appropriately named "The Yogi Bear"). She gave me samples of both varieties and assured me they'd be less gamey than other bear meat because they only served meat from "nuisance" bears, which obviously eat a lot of human food before they're caught. She was right. It was less gamey than venison, maybe even less than lamb.

Better than finding a new type of animal to eat was the story she told me about how it all came about. There's a pool out back that used to be a pit, and in the 20's the owners had an actual bear in it for exhibition but they had to shut it all down when an employee had his arm ripped off. The guy tried to sue for so much that the insurance company hired investigators, and they found out the guy was lying and cut his own arm off accidentally with the woodcutting machine out back. They'd already euthanized the bear by that time so they tried firing the guy but he threatened to sue, so they started covering the floors in sawdust to shame him. At this point I asked her if serving bear meat was part of the guy's punishment too and she told me no, they started serving bear meat because when they killed the bear, they set fire to his pit. I asked her what the hell that meant and she smiled wide as hell and said

"The pit walls were hickory."

Didn't make the bear meat taste any better but the walk to the tables is a lot more entertaining.