Ben Here Done That

Day 3 and I am on my own for dinner.  My nephew, Brandon, suggested I try the ribs at Rendezvous.  It is has been rated as one of the best bar-b-ques in the nation.  What the heck, I will give it try.  I know that is located somewhere in downtown Memphis.  I instruct my gps to show me all the BBQ restuarants… no Rendezvous shows up in the list.  I could type the name in and see if it can locate it.  R-O-N-D-E…  I don’t know how to spell Rendezvous.  I start driving around downtown.  I am driving slow as I look down an alley between some office building and a parking structure and I spot it.

I paid $7 to park in the parking structure in a parking spot so narrow that I wished I had not declined the auto insurance coverage on the rental car.  I crossed the alley, entered the door, and followed the steps down into the a bar/restuarant.  This place, like the last one, also had a lot of character.  I think that is a big part of the reason it is so popular.  The greeter immediately sat me at the bar, which is a good place to sit when you are by yourself.  Sitting at a table by myself would have made me feel much more awkward.

Looking at the menu, I could not help but think of the full slab of ribs I ate for lunch still sitting in my stomach.  Even though I was not hungry, I had a plan and I was sticking to it.  Although I did cut the order down to half a slab.  The ribs were delivered quickly and to my surprize the slab turned into a pile of bones in front of me.  Dang, I wanted to take a picture of them but now they are gone.  Should I order more so I can get the picture?  Or I could just take a picture of someone elses ribs… I decide against it and ask for the bill.

The ribs were great.  They had a great tangy taste.  I guess some sort of vinegar base.

Back to the hotel and an end to day 3.  I can only hope that day 4 will be as productive.

No breakfast on day 3, into the office by 7:30. I am going to be hungry!  The local employees suggested we try Central BBQ for lunch.  Alright! ribs for lunch!

Central BBQ was small little BBQ shop with lots of character.  The fence around the back of the store looked like a prison with a chain link fence and razor wire coiled around the top.  I guess someone had broke into the shop and stole a bunch of smoked turkeys and they didn’t want to take the chance of it happening again.

Normally I stick just to the ribs and ignore all the sides which usually consist of coleslaw and beans.  This place was different.  Chandy suggested that I try the “greens”.  Since you can’t order greens in Utah and it fits into my low carb diet, I agreed.  One full slab of dry ribs and a side of greens.

The greens were surprisingly good.  For those of you from Utah, greens are like cooked spinach.  I asked my fellow diners what they used to season the greens.  Their guess was a little pork fat.  Whatever it was it worked (how can you go wrong with pork fat).

The slab of ribs was awesome! Central slow smokes their ribs and their seasoning was on the spicy side.   I am used to working hard to get all the meat between the ribs. These ribs had so much delicious tender meat that just fell off the bone with very little work.  A full slab was probably more than I should have ordered for a lunch, but I was determined to finish them… and I did.

To give special meaning to a recent business trip to Memphis, I decided to take it upon myself to determine where I could get the best Memphis style dry rub ribs.

My trip started early Monday morning.  I left the house at 5:30 a.m. and by 2 p.m. I was landing at the Memphis airport.  I picked up my rental car, and was in downtown Memphis meeting with my business counterparts by 3 p.m.   After quitting for the evening, I drove to the East side of town and checked into the hotel… no ribs tonight.

Up early and commuting back downtown to make it into the office before  my first meeting.  Worked all day without leaving the building.  All I had was some scandinavian crisp bread and string cheese for lunch.  At 6 o’clock we called it quits for the day and headed to Corky’s, on Poplar.  Finally the time to eat Memphis style ribs was here.  I ordered the full slab of dry rub, and a sausage and cheese plate appetizer.  Ribs were good, as usual (Corky’s is the only place in Memphis I have previously had ribs).

Day 2 of my trip is over and I was only able to eat ribs once.  Two full days left to find the best dry ribs in Memphis…

Since I will be spending some time in Memphis, I thought I would see if I could find something special to see or do.  I saw that the Pink Palace Museum was getting a traveling exhibit, “The Scoop on Poop”.  How exciting!  Oh crap! It doesn’t come to Memphis until February 2009.

I guess I have to scrap the poop museum and find something else to see or do.

If you have the scoop on things to do in Memphis, let me know the poop.

My kids are growing up.  My youngest just went to her first official school dance.  She did get asked to another one, but struggled finding a dress, so we bribed her with $200 to go to Lagoon instead (which was much cheaper than buying a dress). I definitely see the girls side of dating now.  Things have changed since I was in high school, the “Day Date”, for example.  Usually the date begins before lunch and includes a full day of activities before the actual dance.  They went to someones cabin in Spanish Fork canyon, rode four a wheeler, and went swimming.  Anyway… aren’t they cute?