Any film or TV location scout looking for a rural Southern barbecue joint to shoot at would love RD’s Smokehouse Barbecue in Harvest, Alabama.

The building’s exterior is charmingly ramshackle, which automatically gives barbecue a leg up. The interior’s also high mileage. During my recent July afternoon visit, the dining room’s humid teetering on sweaty. Neither the air-conditioning nor ice machine are working.

It’s a 30-minute drive out to RD’s, address 1811 Nick Davis Road, from my Five Points neighborhood in Huntsville.

But once you get off the highway, besides the subdivisions and McMansions, it’s a country-scenic route past horses, cornfields, ball fields and roadside produce for sale.

The food, especially the ribs and chicken, and experience at RD’s is worth the odyssey. Even if you make it just once.

You order at the counter, and the service is small-town laidback. If you get tea, there are self-serve pitchers of sweet and unsweet in a mini-fridge to the left of the cash register.

Freda Clark is working the counter today at RD’s. Asked what makes RD’s special, she says, “We have a lot of regulars. It’s almost like they’re my neighbors next door. I love meeting the people in here, so I know most of them by name.” When customers call in orders, Clark says, “I recognize their voices on the phone.”

I get the small rib plate, and for my two sides take mac and cheese and onion rings. And add an order of five chicken wings. For sauces, Clark recommends a couple of RD’s signatures: Smack-Jaw for the ribs, and BamaBoi Hot for the bird. Most of RD’s orders during my visit are to-go. Although mine’s dine-in, it also comes out in Styrofoam, too. Complete menu and more info at 4rdsbbq.com.

Three bones in the small rib plate. These pork ribs are tender and meaty with nuanced edge charm. There’s subtle hickory smokiness, but it’s a hint, not a hammer.

Like most ribs done right RD’s don’t really need sauce, although I do try a little Smack-Jaw on one of them, and this sauce is aptly named. Creamy, tangy, dances on your tongue — like some kind of rural remoulade.

My chicken wings come out steaming hot, succulent and smothered in BamaBoi Hot sauce, which adds twangy heat. The mac and cheese is homestyle and daydream soft. Onion rings are better than OK if you dip them in Smack-Jaw. But hey, this sauce could elevate even a severed human appendage.

Cook and kitchen manager Tony Battle has worked at RD’s for five years. He says, “We’ve had people come a long way [to eat here]. We’ve had people come from Texas, Sweden, I think, and all around.”

RD’s Smokehouse opened in October 2015, and the RD stands for its proprietor Rodrick Donegan. Donegan wasn’t available for an interview for this story, but Battle fills me in. He says Donegan started his barbecue business from home before growing it into the restaurant.

“He’s a great boss, for sure,” Battle says of RD. “He’s flexible. Everybody here is nice to work with, friendly, easy to work with.”

In January, RD’s opened its second location, in Madison at 1109 Slaughter Road, about 10 miles from the Harvest mothership. But the two vibes feel more like 10,000 miles away.

The Madison location is adjacent to a Chevron convenience store and Subway sandwich shop. Just down the road from Indian Creek Wholesale Nursery and Cummings Research Park. RD’s Madison space was formerly home to an ATL Wings chicken chain franchise that went belly up.

The dining room’s about the size of, well, a Subway. And like that RD’s original location, the only sounds in the dining room here are from orders being placed at the counter and cooking back in the kitchen. No music, no TV audio.

Like at RD’s Harvest, the service in Madison is sharp. The cashier when I visit is pierced and poised. She’s also great at guiding me through the menu, as I actually visited the Madison location a day before I went to the original location.

In Madison, it’s the Monday after July the Fourth weekend, and they’re out of ribs at both locations. Understandable since the Fourth is like the Super Bowl for barbecue restaurants.

The cashier, who bounces between here in Madison and RD’s original location, tells me on the Fourth they sold 80 racks of ribs at Harvest alone.

With ribs off the table, I do pulled pork (rustic and hearty). and douse it in BamaBoi (the not hot version). For sides, potato salad (the flavor has some jazz to it) and jalapeno hushpuppies (a worthy, cornbread-cousin variant). A side order of those excellent chicken wings doused in Smack-Jaw awesomeness.

Yep, the vibe at RD’s original location is way cooler than the second location’s, but the trip to Madison took me half as long. As experience has value, so does convenience. What matters most of course, is food, and mine at both RD’s Smokehouses were right on.