September 2010
13 posts
Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous, Mile 573
MEMPHIS, TN. — I’ve figured out Rendezvous. It’s the Giordano’s and Gino’s East deep dish pizza of Memphis. Ask the hotel concierge for dining recommendations and Rendezvous will be among the first three answers. Yet the same concierge won’t remember the last time he or she ate there. “Tourist trap” was how some friends described.
I refuse the notion...
Dexter BBQ, Mile 401
SIKESTON, MO. — My editor Denise is from “Mizzour-AH” and made sure I stopped at Dexter BBQ. The loin ribs (baby backs) have a granular rub, the meat a bit dense though the seasoning has penetrated to the bone. It’s one click away from too-salty, which is just the way I like it.
What we didn’t talk about on the video was the pulled pork. Disclosure: I hate pulled...
17th Street Bar and Grill, Mile 345
MURPHYSBORO, IL — We didn’t eat breakfast, obviously. We saved stomach space for what Mike Mills was to feed us. Mills, proprietor of the 17th Street Bar & Grill empire, is to the barbecue fraternity what Kobayashi is to competitive eating. Say his name to those in the know and a chorus of ooooh’s follows. We met him in his warehouse adjacent to the restaurant. He wore a...
August 2010
1 post
Prologue: An idea for a BBQ roadtrip was born
The thought came at 2 a.m., my eyelids heavy, the words flying by the pages but not quite connecting. Then one sentence grabbed me by my pajama collars and shook me awake.
“Northerners are too easily impressed by so-so barbecue when they come down here,” said a contest official at the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Memphis, “because they can’t get any...
