115496 Sat Mar 13 00:42:24 -0800 2004 3 7 Chicago Area 0 630101 Our objective in Rib-athon II was to explore the far south side, and specifically the suburbs of Markham and Harvey, which are "shack-rich," at least according to the map I plotted from everyone's preliminary investigative work. (Thanks to Reneg, dickson, RST, and M'Th'Su for the early reconnaissance, and phone-calling.) We "visited" about 11 or 12 BBQ shacks that were on our master list; of those 6 were closed, 1 we simply drove past because it looked so unpromising, leaving only 4 that we actually sampled. I await Reneg's ultimately definitive write-up, but here are my brief impressions. We started at Miss Lee's Home Cooking and BBQ, on 55th near the Dan Ryan. We discovered she didn't cook BBQ these days, but she had an incredibly rich menu of soul food, and homemade desserts. We got a nice tour of the kitchen, and tastings of a handful of her dishes, all of which were winners. Miss Lee was just the sweetest thing imaginable. The next place that we found open, with actual BBQ, was Hilltop proudly advertising on a small billboard outside, "You don't need teeth to eat our meat." It would also be better if you had no taste buds as well. Flavorless and insipid. Exsenator's was put on the tour (again), because it seems to be the BBQ "anchor" of Markham, and because our last visit as a group was at the end of a nine-hour tour, when all bodies, brains, and taste-buds were exhausted. My impression of this place remains the same, that is, it is adequate and reasonably tasty BBQ, but not the great BBQ we'd been hearing about. Gary and RST have their theories on what Dwight, the pit man, is doing wrong, and right. I'd prefer that they expound themselves, on Exsenator's product. Big Poppa's, in Harvey, was a surprise in many respects. My inclination would have been to pass this place up quickly since it had the look and feel of a hot dog, burger, gyro, beef sandwich, and rib fast-food outlet. But by the time my car caught up with dickson's advance team, an order had already been placed. General consensus was that the tips were actually quite passable, although I fear at that point we were suffering so acutely from sensory deprivation that anything with the slightest bit of smoky flavor would have gladdened our tongues. The hot link was very spicy, but mediocre. We finally found George's Rib House, which was in theory the whole reason for touring this part of the city. We'd been hearing repeatedly from great numbers of sources, that George's was one of the best, if not the best BBQ on the far south side. We were all hungry, and cranky, and George's tasted damn good. A critical observation was made that George does not build his fire with real wood, but rather with lump charcoal or wood briquettes ("because wood has worms and bugs in it, and they're all dead in the charcoal", according to George.) Gary sneered a little at our uneducated palates and pronounced it "evocative of real BBQ," but the meat was of a high quality, and there were very strong and nice flavors going on. The rub he used was perhaps a little too salty. Of interest is that George says he used to cater BBQ to Reagan's White House twice a year, back in the 80s. He proudly showed us his faux brass elephant as proof, ostensibly a gift from the Reagan administration. I think that if formally written up, this story would require a LOT of fact-checking, but it was fun nevertheless. Also, AS IN THE FINEST 4-star restaurants around the world, George prohibits the use of cell-phones while you are standing around inside waiting for your order to be filled. Very Slow Food. At the beginning of the day, we had half-heartedly joked with Miss Lee that we'd be back after dinner to sample her desserts. Sure enough, this seemed the perfect way to cap off the day, and return we did. It seems that our best "discoveries" on these BBQ searches often end up being non-BBQ. Old Fashioned Donuts was found on the first tour, Mrs. Johnson's Soul Food was found on an interim unofficial reconnoiter of the S. Ashland district, and Miss Lee's pies and cobblers are truly a joyous discovery in the no-man's land just west of Hyde Park proper. Rich, deep in flavor, sugary and complex at the same time, these desserts would stand up against any frilly bakery in the city. They're definitely not pretty, they're all a gloppy mess actually, but one bite and all thoughts of the importance of presentation are happily forgotten. In general though, the Rib-athon II was a lot of effort for very little reward. I think the lack of reporting by the participants is the residue of our fatigue, disappointment, and discouragement. joel Sat Mar 13 00:42:24 -0800 2004 0 joel 1 630174 I finally made it to Lem's last night and confirmed what many of my fellow theRib-athoners have been saying. Lem's does seem to have the best BBQ ribs in Chicago. The first good sign was as soon as I pulled in the driveway, the smell of smoke filled the car...even with the windows closed. The second good sign was a Huge pile of wood stacked against the wall of the building. The third was the the line to get in stretched out of the door and all the way to the sidewalk. Once I got in, the joint was jumpin'. I don't know if it is always like this because this was my first visit, but there were no fewer than 10 people working behind the glass taking and filling orders as fast as the ribs could be pulled out of the aquarium smoker. I ordered a small end and some fried chicken (I know, chicken is not on the laser-focused approved list, but I was there on my own so no one could stop me.) The chicken was fried to order, which was really a pleasant surprise. I don't know if it's always done that way or if it was a result of the massive amount of business they were doing at 8:00 on a Saturday night. There was a small group of people huddled in the corner near the cashier waiting for their chicken orders to come out of the grease while rib/tip customers' orders were being filled quickly. It was worth the wait. The chicken was quite good. I was actually able to get the fried chicken with sauce on the side but didn't have as good fortune with the ribs. It didn't really matter because the sauce seemed to be somewhat thin and by the time I got the ribs home (yes, I actually had the patience to take them home to eat) the sauce had mostly filtered to the bottom of my paper container, rendering the fries a gloppy mess, but keeping the ribs relatively sauce free. I didn't mind because I'm not a big fry eater and I still had the fries from the chicken. The ribs were as good as they have been described. A nice char on the outside with the meat toothsome with a distinct smoke flavor. Not quite nirvana, but certainly the best I have had in Chicago. I really lament the lack of a BBQ in Chicago that serves a good brisket, but at least I've got Lem's for a BBQ fix while waiting for trips to points south. Sun Mar 14 06:19:34 -0800 2004 630101 0 Steve Z 1 630248 Joel, Interesting write up. I jotted down, as I tend to do, my impressions of the places we visited, I thought I would post a cleaned up version. Looking forward to the next tour, even if the BBQ is not great, the company is grand. Enjoy, Gary -- Chicago BBQ Tour 3.09.04 Miss Lee's No smoke flavor in tips, I'd guess they were boiled, no spare ribs available. Very nice lady, Aquarium smoker, though it did not look used. Miss Lee also had a quick-heat flat table sized device, same as Leon's has three of, but she said it was too expensive to use. She was using it as a table/storage area. Pig ear sandwich was simmered, not crisp, but was quite good in a marrow/offal fashion Killer peach cobbler, pecan pie was good, but overly sweet. Herb chicken was spicy and utterly delicious. Will be back for Soul food, but not BBQ. Miss Lee's Home Cooking 203 W. 55th (Garfield Blvd.) Chicago, IL 773-725-5253 == Hilltop Tips were not ready, spare ribs only on weekend. Links were spicy with good flavor, but no evidence of smoke. Tasty, but not BBQ. BBQ sauce had celery seed. Gloria and her two sisters, Vernice and Edwina, run the place. Posed for pictures, very nice, once they opened up. Had Food TV on in the small office area. Had an Aquarium smoker, but did not use it anymore. Ballantyne smoker, weird steam/pressure smoker setup. She only used one small, 2x2, chunk of wood in the wood box for a two hour tip smoke. I ran my hand through the exhaust on top, was moist with a slight wood smell. RST labeled the Ballantyne a "travesty" and I agree. Hilltop had great signage. "You don't need teeth to eat our meat" Hilltop BBQ 6701 S Racine Chicago, IL 60636 == George's Tips were mid-range edible, some sections had good caramelization, large chunks of solid fat, not given a chance to render out. No smoke flavor in evidence. Spares had a good texture, ends were crisp, little or no smoke flavor. Ribs had a few non rendered fatty areas, but not as predominate as tips. Links were dry, not spicy, finely ground and thin diameter. Not very good. George was gruff, but proud of his BBQ, he has been in business 43-years. Let me in the pit area to take pictures of his aquarium style smoker, pit man's name is Bill. Used only lump charcoal. George has an odd theory that wood, real wood, is laden with worms and will, somehow, taint his BBQ. George's could be damn good BBQ with the addition of splits of wood to the lump charcoal. There were cardboard boxes on the top rack of his well used aquarium smoker. When I asked he said something about dripping moisture, maybe grease, getting on the BBQ, this made as much sense as his worm riff. George's Rib House 168 W. 147th Harvey, Il 708-331-9347 == Big Poppa's Tips were edible, very (very) light smoke flavor, some crisp/ caramelization. Links were medium grind, somewhat spicy and were edible, but slightly dried out. I took my best picture of the day of the links. BBQ sauce was on the thick side, spicy with decent flavor. Aquarium smoker, minimal use of wood. Mike, the owner, let me both use the bathroom and take a few pictures, he posed with the smoker, but seemed very tired and not all that enamored with the fast food/chicken wing/bbq tip/bbq link business. Mike, in answer to RST's question, said Melvin was the pit man, but Melvin was not around at that moment. Main business seemed to be, as in most bbq places in Chicago, wings and tips. Gave us a free sample of beef ribs he was testing, charred and dried out. Might have been good a couple of hours earlier. Big Poppa's 14620 S. Halsted Harvey, IL 708-596-7477 == Exsenator Tips were were tasty, nicely rendered, crisp bits, though little or no smoke flavor. Ribs had nice texture, were nicely rendered and pork flavor came though, but, for some reason, the flavor seemed diffused with little or no wood smoke taste. Links were weakest link, but were cut in an interesting accordion fashion. Dwight, the pit man, came out to the parking lot, where we were eating, and talked to us for 20-minutes. He then let us in the pit area, very friendly man who clearly cares about BBQ. Dwight noticed right away the sauce that Joel brought, Joel has an odd dependence on Sonny Bryan's BBQ sauce, and, when given a taste, seemed to like the sauce. He went on to say that most places 'doctor' bottled sauce, mainly open pit, but he makes his own. Aquarium style smoker, used wood and lump. I looked in the bottom of the pit, he had glowing splits of wood on top of the lump, spare ribs, st louis style, were about 28" above fire, and the ribs were nice looking on the small side, 2-1/4 lb or so, slabs. Dwight was doing everything right, there is no reason his ribs should not be in the top tier of Chicago BBQ, this is puzzling. My only guess, at this point, is that he uses a pumped product, which tends to give the meat a diffused flavor. He had boxes of Zoll in evidence, I am sure Zoll makes has many products on offer. Exsenator is verging on really good BBQ. Exsenator's BBQ 3349 W. 159th  Markham, IL 708-333-1211 Photo of George's Ribs Image: http://www.sptsb.com/SFGeorgesEvoc.jpg Mon Mar 15 03:27:25 -0800 2004 630101 0 G Wiv 1 630258 I have little to add to these excellent posts, except these short comments. I believe that a lot of George's quality depends on the volume he does - we got fresh ribs right off the grill, which makes a big difference, versus "held" product. So it was enjoyable for that reason. Primary flavor of the meat was the rub, mostly salty. Exsenators seemed to me to have a slight taste of some starter in the ribs. As I mentioned in a different thread, I believe this occurred because of when we were there, early on a Tuesday, after they had been closed on Monday, and I suspect you would not experience this at other times. But the bbq there did not impress me. Miss Lee's chicken and cobbler were the clear high points. Thanks for putting this together Joel and Rene. d Mon Mar 15 09:38:27 -0800 2004 630101 0 dickson d