Someone had to do it. Adventurously, a corps of seven brave souls took a deep breath and hit the trails–Wells Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, Roosevelt Road–in search of Chicago`s finest barbecued ribs. A dirty job. Well . . . a sticky one.
You may say that this is a stale exercise–ranking the ribs. You can say that it has been done before, that personal preferences outweigh any panel of so-called experts and that this was a self-serving assignment if there ever was one.
But you would be wrong. A Chicagoan needs to know and understand ribs
–our reputation as Hog Butcher to the World carries with it responsibilities. Other cities claim bragging rights for their barbecued ribs. But no other town has the variety of baby backs that Chicago has. No other city treats so many sauces with such seriousness. No place else could give you a tour of rib restaurants and find the best of them in neighborhoods ranging from the richest to poorest.
Simply enough, it was determined that a serious rib town deserves a serious rib report.
Our quest was for the best restaurant ribs. It may be that the best home- smoked ribs will be discovered this weekend at Royko`s Ribfest. It may be, too, that the winner of Royko`s Ribfest will parlay that high honor into an opportunity to open a restaurant (which has been done before, and which might diminish the honor for anyone who knows the rigors of restauranting). At any rate, it was a seasoned corps of rib writers that started out, with considerable confidence, to award the Blue Ribbon of Ribs.
It was a tough job. There are hundreds of restaurants that serve ribs in the Chicago area. So in our first strategy session, we devised a methodology to pare them down with scientific precision.
”We can`t go to them all,” said one journalist.
”How do we choose the ones we go to?” asked another.
”There are so many that call themselves No. 1,” came a response.
”Why don`t we try all the No. 1s?”
So that was it. It would be a tournament of champions, conducted in such a way that the results would be beyond reproach. Among the seven tasters, a plan was formulated. For preliminary tastings, teams of two or three would enlist assistants, and on Sept. 2 and 3, they ventured forth to sample those places that had been called Best, Tops or No. 1 by some responsible arbiter. Visits were anonymous. Tasting sheets were filled out in cars after each visit. Scores were kept and finalists were chosen.
Then, on Sept. 4, the panel of seven trekked onward, piling into a van, visiting the six finalists on a single night. At each place, a pair of slabs were ordered and tasted. Then they were discussed. Scores (1 through 9) were given for 13 different characteristics (e.g., moistness of the meat, spiciness of the sauce, overall looks, value). This was done by hard-fought consensus. Totals were tabulated. Thus, we sought the Best of the Baby Backs.
In our initial investigations, we found 13 restaurants in the Chicago area that have been cited as having the best ribs. The best-known of these is Carson`s, which was ranked No. 1 by Chicago magazine nine years ago when the restaurant had a single storefront in Skokie. Carson`s made good use of the honor and attendant publicity. It opened four additional places, with a main location at 612 N. Wells St., and is now working on a grocery store rib product that will be vacuum packed.
Lem`s, 5914 S. State St., might have been a sentimental favorite, because it won The Tribune`s last rib contest in 1983 and it is in a stripped-down hole-in-the-wall in a very ungentrified neighborhood. Its past success in The Tribune, of course, held no sway. But its countertop decor may have had some influence. Some judges loved it and praised Lem`s ambiance, though decor (or lack of it, in this case) was not scored with points.
Various other publications in the past had chosen as their favorites for great ribs the Homestead, 12126 S. Vincennes Ave., Blue Island; Edith`s, 1863 N. Clybourne Ave.; and Twin Anchors, 1655 N. Sedgwick Ave. These were added to our list of No. 1s. They proved that down-home food like ribs is often served in homey, sometimes homely, environs. All three have rooms with old-time neighborhood feel, especially the Homestead, which is an old roadhouse; each was admired for its atmosphere as well as for the food.
Leon`s, owned by South Side rib maven Leon Finney, was added to the list based on a best-rib selection by freelance critic Don Rose several years ago. Leon`s presented a bit of a problem. Many other rib places, not owned by Finney, have taken his name–he would say in vain. It has required years of litigation to sort out the situation. We chose his store at 8249 S. Cottage Grove Ave. as representative, because it is his biggest and newest. We should also add a word of caution about Leon`s: The barbecue smoker at his North Clark Street restaurant is smaller than his others (he says environment standards are the cause), and the ribs at that location are noticably different from those at his South Side spots.
Others had won other contests, some great, others small. Charlie Robinson won the first Royko`s Ribfest in 1982 and later opened his place at 940 W. Madison St., Oak Park. The Assembly, 2570 Hassell Rd., Hoffman Estates, won a contest for ribs two years running at Arlington Park Race Track. Stevie B`s, 2623 N. Halsted St., and That Steak Joynt, 1610 N. Wells St., organized their own contests and won them amidst flourishing publicity. Randall`s won last year when WIND radio staged an on-air contest. And most recently, Giovanni`s, 6811 W. Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn, won the Richmond (Va.) World Invitational Rib Championship (and its $10,000 prize) this summer.
Tony Roma`s was added to the list because the national franchise chain was chosen to participate in an inaugural festival for the President in Washington in 1985.
So you think the judges were in hog heaven in the week of the tasting?
They would deny it. One sauce, said a judge, reminded him of ”a loose chutney,” and when that didn`t elicit the proper response from his peers, he said it looked like poi. Those who know that poi is a bitter paste made from taro root for Hawaiian cuisine got his message (though some preferred it anyway).
We became attuned to the many variations among ribs, some heavenly, some not. The ribs at Giovanni`s, someone said, would certainly have won hands down if the category had been ”best ribs for speed-eating.” These are parboiled and nearly fall from the bone–a quality that obviously won the hearts of tasters in the Richmond competition. ”I`m not saying my ribs are the best in the world, because the world is a big place,” said owner Tom Ferguson, seeming to understand that tastes are varied when it comes to barbecue. ”But I would say I have one of the best.”
To put it in scientific terms, Giovanni`s is at one extreme of the
”pull- fall” spectrum, which measures how tightly attached the meat is to the bone. Not everyone favors the Giovanni`s approach. Charlie Robinson, in nearby Oak Park, lands on the other end of this much discussed question.
”Ribs like that (with meat that `falls`) just aren`t going to make it in the Chicago market,” he said. ”People in Chicago like the challenge of taking the meat off the bone. Those other kind of ribs are for senior citizens.”
So much for competitive friction. The fact is that both Charlie Robinson and Giovanni`s appear to have found their following, and they have been helped immensely by their triumphs in their respective ribs contests.
The pull-fall question is not the only one that burns in rib wars. If anything was determined beyond doubt in our investigation, it was that the reason people talk about ribs so much, and have contests, is that everyone likes ribs a little differently.
There were different sizes, shapes and styles. Lem`s had perhaps the most distinctive ribs: They were large, smoky and just dry enough to be chewy. The sauce was thinner than most, though it was tangy and grew on judges who made two trips to that spot. Randall`s had a leanness that pleased some tasters. The Homestead had a moistness that many people like in ribs, though it became clear that one person`s moistness (a positive) is another person`s fattiness
(generally a negative).
One judge became the guardian of cole slaw, commenting on it in most of the restaurants that were tried. (Carson`s was ”sweet and crispy.” Leon`s was frozen.) Judges also indicated that other amenities were appreciated. For example, if you want to keep yourself as clean as possible, Carson`s may be the place for you–they provide bibs and hot towels. Randall`s had great corn bread. These ”peripherals” counted for something–generally as a part of
”value” in the scoring system–but they were not key in the judging. Good reports came in for onion rings at two restaurants–the Assembly and Tony Roma`s–that did not make it into the finals.
To certain judges, Leon`s was a surprise. The ”texture” of its ribs was agreeable to many. Not too tough and chewy, the meat came off the bone with coaxing, not a fight. The sauce was very tangy, made hot with spices and not just the blast of vinegar that some restaurants use to put a kick in the sauce. One of the judges noted Leon`s ribs were smoked in such a way as to make them taste ”a little like ham,” which is a sharper, perhaps saltier taste. While this was offered as a negative, it did not faze many judges.
Resolve and objectivity did not waver through the course of the seven-hour finals. There was enthusiasm as well, but it was tempered by the importance of the task. By the end of the evening, it is true that the work was slower and the arguments less vociferous. But the judges never lost their concentration or sense of purpose.
And when it was determined, after all was finished, that there was a tie score for the top rib, that we would need to do another tasting (a blind tasting) at the earliest opportunity, very few groans were heard. It was a duty. Everyone showed up for the additional session, which was done in-house with carryout ribs. It was a duty. Only then was the mission complete. We found and crowned the Paragon of Pork.
