Don't tell me I'm playing some sort of reverse race card when I tell you that for the majority of my life, I've been totally sure that barbequing is a talent God only doled out to a handful of black men.
I've eaten barbeque in shacks with dirt floors, shacks with wooden floors surrounding a big rectangular brick barbeque pit. I've eaten the savory meat on Mrs. Baird's white bread and her hamburger buns. And I've eaten barbeque dinners on paper plates at picnic tables under massive oak trees.
Sometime with a beer that had been chilled in an ice chest. Other times with a fresh piece of just-baked lemon meringue pie for the ending accruement.
But I learned early on that if there was a white fellow at the pit, the result, regardless of the proper ambiance, was going to be substandard.
The barbeque stands in my hometown of Galveston that excelled were named Honey Brown's, Oliver's, and Big Heavy's. But they are long-gone, the proprietors having passed away and the recipes not left behind.
But it doesn't really matter anyway since I'm in Dallas, home of barbeque served in stage-set restaurants. Saddles hanging from the ceilings, fake barn wood walls, kids not over twenty years old cooking and serving the stuff through cafeteria-like lines.
This isn't barbeque, just like a Big Mac isn't a hamburger!
But I want you to know that I have FOUND real barbeque. You can smell it smoking in the early mornings if you are anywhere near the corner of Lover's Lane and Greenville Ave.
You follow your nose, but if you're not careful, you'll drive right by its source. It's in the center of an old strip center with only a handful of parking spaces, and a teeny sign high up on a pole. Who would have ever guessed this was it? But it is! Baker's Rib. Try it. Take some home.
4844 Greenville Ave, Dallas - (214) 373-0082
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS
Our 43rd Year Selling Texas
214 503-8563
1 800-314-7110
I don't like boiled ribs as well as Memphis Style. But they are indeed good.
And you are sooooo right. The best 'Q' comes from a very old black man in an out of the way small diner that survives on word of mouth for business.
I don't know what is better....the smell of the barbecue or the barbecue itself. Either way, it is the best kind of meal!
Bill,
Moved to Dallas 1 year ago, my wife knew about Bakers Ribs so been going there since I moved here. Great BBQ plus their potato salad is tremendous.
They have another location in Deep Ellum on Commerce which is closer to my home.
Have you ever heard of The Angry Dog? I think they have the best hamburgers in Dallas, located next door to Bakers Ribs on Commerce.
Richard, I've never heard of the Angry Dog. I'll definitely check it out.
Paula, you know, you're right. And interestingly oft times the smell is great but the taste is lacking.
Tom, I've long been convinced that black men have a great deal of secret talents. When I was growing up, they had the coolest looking cars in town, for an example. And I loved to go to their night clubs and hear the rhythm and blues bands that played there. (Galveston never gave a thought to segregation or lack thereof when I was growing up. We went everywhere, were safe, and always welcome.)