Buddy's Bar-B-Q runs one of the shortest menus in American barbecue, which cuts both ways for anyone eating around an allergy. Fewer items means fewer places for a problem ingredient to hide — but it also means fewer alternatives when the item you can eat is not on the board. This is a practical read of the menu, with an honest caveat up front: Buddy's does not publish a detailed allergen matrix, so anything below is a starting point for a conversation at the counter, not a substitute for it.
Gluten
The smoked meat itself is the safe ground. Hickory-smoked chopped pork shoulder, beef brisket and half smoked chicken are meat and smoke, and the house sauce is a tomato-and-vinegar blend rather than a soy- or beer-based one. The gluten lives in everything around the meat:
- Hushpuppies (10 pc, $3.99) — deep-fried cornmeal batter. Cornmeal-based batters typically include wheat flour, and this is a fried item regardless. Treat it as off-limits.
- Chicken Finger Basket ($9.49) — breaded and fried. Off-limits.
- All sandwiches — the Pork Sandwich ($5.49) and Beef Brisket Sandwich ($7.49) come on a bun.
- The Hawg Back ($8.99 pork / $9.99 beef) — Buddy's signature is an open-faced serving, meaning it is served on bread. Ask whether the kitchen will plate the meat without it.
- Hot Fudge Cake ($4.99) and the crust of the meringue pies ($3.49).
The workable gluten-free approach at Buddy's is a dinner ordered without the bread — the Pork Dinner from $10.99 or the Beef Brisket Dinner from $12.99 — and skipping the fried items entirely. Shared fryer oil is the risk that a short menu does not eliminate.
Dairy and eggs
The dessert case is where both live. Meringue pies are built on whipped egg white with chocolate, coconut or lemon fillings — egg and dairy in the same slice — and Hot Fudge Cake is a dairy item by construction. On the savory side, smoked meat and a tomato-vinegar sauce are the least dairy-dependent format in barbecue, which makes the main plates comparatively straightforward. Fried items are the question mark, since batters commonly include milk or egg.
Nuts and shellfish
No item on Buddy's published menu is nut-based or shellfish-based — there is no fried seafood, no salad with candied pecans, no peanut-oil claim on the board. That is a genuine advantage of a menu with five dinners, six sandwiches and baskets, four specialties and three desserts. The residual risk is the dessert case, where coconut appears in the meringue pies and shares a counter with the other flavors.
Keto and low-carb
Barbecue is a friendly category for low-carb eating and Buddy's is no exception, provided you order past the bread. Chopped pork or brisket from a dinner, no bun, no hushpuppies, unsweetened tea. Two traps: sweet tea, which is the default table drink across East Tennessee and carries real sugar, and the sauce, which is tomato-based and therefore not sugar-free. Ask for it on the side. Calorie figures for each of these builds are in the Buddy's nutrition guide.
Vegetarian and vegan
Be blunt: this is hard here. Buddy's has no dedicated vegetarian main, no salads and no broad appetizer list — the menu is chopped pork, brisket, chicken, wings and ribs. Hushpuppies are the one meat-free item published chain-wide, and they come out of a shared fryer that also handles chicken fingers. A vegetarian in a Buddy's is eating hushpuppies and dessert. If the group is mixed, that is worth knowing before you book a table, and it is the main argument for reading the Buddy's sides guide before a group meal.
How to ask
- Ask at the restaurant, not online. Roughly fifteen locations across East Tennessee set their own side offerings, so the answer is local.
- Ask specifically about the fryer if you are celiac. Hushpuppies and chicken fingers share it.
- Ask for sauce on the side. This is the easiest single modification at any Buddy's counter.
- Order a dinner rather than a sandwich or Hawg Back when avoiding bread — a plate is easier to modify than a format defined by the bread it sits on.
Full item list and current price ranges are on the Buddy's Bar-B-Q menu.