Munch once again was in a moral quandary. Two of them, actually. The first -- Munch favors local lunch shops over the chain restaurants. Quandary No. 2 -- the Restaurant Reviewers' Code of Ethics says you're not supposed to visit a new place until it's been open for at least two months, to give it time to work out the bugs and fire the line cooks with criminal records.

Problem is, Munch has been hearing these radio ads for Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que, along McKnight Road, for a couple of weeks now, taunting Munch each time. Munch had heard the grand-opening spot so many times that, if we didn't visit soon, there was a chance we were going to have to disconnect our car radio. And did we mention Munch really digs barbecue? So to heck with the ethics. Bring on the spare ribs.

So Munch and Reliable Lunch Partner of Munch (RLPOM) set off for Famous Dave's. Go past the Ross Park Mall, go past the Northway Mall, and when you think you've probably gone too far, it'll be there on the right, next to T.G.I. Friday's. Hmmm, Munch thought. From the outside, this place looks like it could be a Lone Star Restaurant and Saloon.

Turns out it was a Lone Star, until it went out of business.

And now it's a barbecue joint, one of about 150 Famous Dave's nationwide, but the first one in the Pittsburgh area (another will be opening soon along Freeport Road at the Waterworks Mall, and there are three others on the eastern side of the state). We'd been expecting a Famous Dave's here for years, since the company bought out the local Red River Barbeque & Grille chain in 1999.

But no luck, until now.

Here's a neat fact -- the 13-year-old chain of franchises isn't headed by some Southern good ol' boy, but by Dave Anderson, a Chippewa Indian, and the first restaurant, in Wisconsin, was on the edge of an Indian reservation. In 2003, Dave was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as an assistant secretary within the Department of the Interior's Indian Affairs division. He also sat on an Indian gambling task force. Turns out Dave is pretty active politically. It would be like Paul Wolfowitz opening a Mexican chain.

And here's another fact -- the servers have to say everything is "famous." As in, "Hi, my name is Famous Bob, and I'll be your famous server this afternoon. Would you like a famous margarita?" This becomes annoying after 3.6 seconds. Munch suspects the servers die a little inside each time they have to do this routine.

But what about the food?

Thanks for asking; Munch gets sidetracked sometimes, impressed by Munch's own wit and vocabulary. Did you know, for example, that barbecue is an Indian word? You can look it up.

Right, OK. The food. Munch naturally went straight for the ribs. Why come to a barbecue place without sampling the ribs?

A regular four-bone slab of Dave's award-winning St. Louis-style spare ribs will set you back $9.59, or $11.59 if you want the platter, which comes with corn on the cob, cornbread and your choice of two sides, from a list of seven. Munch picked the coleslaw and green beans dressed in bacon. (That's Munch's kind of bean.)

RLPOM, as is her tendency, went for the poultry, picking a tangy pulled chicken sandwich ($6.99 at lunchtime) rubbed in barbecue sauce and topped with Monterey Jack. No complaints, except that the sandwich was touching the pickle that it came with. RLPOM is weird like that.

She also gave high marks to the home-brewed sweet tea, a Southern favorite. "Any restaurant that serves homemade sweet tea gets a thumbs up from me, period," she announced afterward.

The ribs? Spicy and tender, but not too fatty, and not too messy. Some rib joints, when you finish your ribs, there's enough sauce puddled on your plate to fill a Mason jar. Not at Famous Dave's.

The sides? Let's talk about that. Munch distinctly ordered the slaw and beans. Instead, the ribs were joined by a cup of potato salad and french fries. That's a lot of starch, even for Munch.

The disappointed ghosts of past PG dining reviewers reprimanded Munch, reminding The Bagged One, with spooky disembodied voices, that this is what you get for coming to a restaurant just a week after its opening. But Munch thinks that, whether open one week or open one year, a restaurant shouldn't screw up both side orders.

A word on decor -- you ever watch "The Simpsons"? The episode where Moe opens a restaurant? "If you like good food, good fun, and a whole lot of crazy crap on the walls, then come on down to Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag."

You could say the same of Famous Dave's.

Famous Dave's, 5100 Corporate Drive, McCandless; 412-364-7675.