St Louis BBQ Ribs - It's not what you think!

Waiting to order at Pappy's Smokehouse

If you are expecting to find a recipe for St. Louis Ribs, or St.Louis BBQ sauce, you won't find that here. For the record, "St. Louis" ribs usually refers to the butcher's cut of the rib - the way that the a standard pork spare rib (not baby back) is trimmed of the breast plate and squared off to yield a St. Louis cut.  In St Louis the standard rib service is Memphis style - with no sauce on the ribs, just a squeeze bottle of sauce, typically a sweet tomato based sauce, on the side.  This is an article about eating BBQ ribs.  In St. Louis.  So I called it St. Louis BBQ Ribs.  

 Last week I had to travel to a conference in St. Louis and I arranged my flight schedule to arrive early enough to visit a few of the city's famous barbecue establishments first. I relied on the internet to narrow my search, and as usual I utilized Zagat and Yelp to develop a short list. Pappy's Smokehouse seemed to be everyone's favorite spot, with The Shaved Duck placing second in the voting. Pappy's was described as a classic neighborhood smokehouse restaurant, with unreserved family style seating and no table service, and a counter window to order your meal from. The descriptions of The Shaved Duck on the other hand read more like a bistro style restaurant and pub, with a menu emphasis on barbecue.

I checked into my hotel at 1 PM, and decided to visit Pappy's for lunch, and save the Shaved Duck for cocktails and dinner that evening. I had a plan. The concierge at the hotel told me that Pappy's was a little out of walking range, especially since the temperature was uncomfortably close to 100°. I hailed a cab. There was no need to look up the address as the cabdriver was very familiar with the place, and highly recommended it. The smokehouse sits on a corner of what looks like an old warehouse, and shares space with an adjacent brewpub, which seemed to be closed. On a side street outside the restaurant a competition BBQ cooker on a trailer was parked, twice the size of anything that I had ever seen except on the TV Food Network. Obviously these guys take the show on the road, probably competing on the barbecue circuit along with other catering affairs. I was soon to find out why. My cabbie told me I could enter by the front or back doors, and I chose the back since it seemed to be the least crowded. I entered to find a line wrapping through the dining room, which was also filled with diners – mostly families - sitting at wooden picnic tables. The line had about twenty five patrons waiting to order. I overheard more than one patron make mention of how small the line was, and speculated that school opening that week had cut into business. Here it was 2:30 PM on a Wednesday afternoon with a line out the door, and the regulars felt that the place wasn't busy. I can't imagine what “normal” looks like. As I worked my way closer to the ordering window, I perused the blackboard menu looking for a suitable combination platter that would allow me to sample a few offerings. One such platter on the special board was dedicated to Adam Richman of the Food Channel's Man vs Food, who apparently had attempted to down this item on a recent show. Pulled pork or brisket sandwiches were $6, and this Richman combo was $42.99, so I figured that whatever it was it would be too much for me, especially if I wanted to do this all over again for dinner in a few hours at the Shaved Duck. I settled on a combination platter of brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, sides of sweet potato fries and sauteed green beans, a large cola but only a half rack of baby back ribs to go with it. (I thought a full rack would be too much, no?) In true Memphis style, the BBQ is served necked – without sauce. The brisket, the ribs, and even the pulled pork was served dry, with three different squeeze bottles of sauce offered alongside – regular, hot, and sweet. It truly didn't need any help from the sauce. The meats were tender, but not overcooked, moist and bursting with flavor. They were very modestly seasoned, not overpowered with spice, just enough to let you know that they dusted it with a dry rub. An essence of smoke and the flavor of the meat was the predominant taste. The smokehouse uses cherry and apple wood. It was just fantastic. It was what barbecue should be. I felt my own attempts at BBQ were suddenly totally inadequate. The rack of ribs had a beautiful smoke ring just beneath the surface, but the surface was noticeably absent of crust, or bark, in BBQ speak. I was to later learn that the low cooking temperature of 180 degrees was probably the reason for this. I sat at a window seat and watched a flock of starlings picking at discarded leftovers of bread on the sidewalk outside. They were the fattest, happiest looking starlings I had ever seen. I wondered how they managed to get off the ground.

One of the staff stopped by – probably curious about this old guy surrounded by plates sitting by himself at the counter window. I asked him how long they cooked the pulled pork. He said twelve hours, which struck me as a long time, even by BBQ slow cooking standards. Typically an eight pound pulled pork takes about nine hours at 200 degrees. I commented that they must be cooking at well under 200 degrees if they left it in that long with these wonderful results. As soon as he realized that he was talking to a fellow BBQ aficionado, I found myself in a huddle of kitchen crew, the pitmaster, the owner, and a few curious waiters trying to figure out what was going on. These guys are serious about barbecue and were happy to speak with a like minded soul. I was flabbergasted to learn that the place had been open for less than three years. This place was a runaway off the charts hit in less than tree years? It had the look and feel of a place that had been around since the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. (Foodie trivia - the ice cream cone was introduced at this fair.) It turned out that the pit-master at Pappy's had a large following at another BBQ place that closed, and they followed him to Pappy's. I hope he is making a fortune. He should be. I left with a big smile, my belt opened an extra notch, a genuine Pappy's bumper sticker and a “Hog Whisper” tee shirt. I feel like I have been to the Promised Land. Or pig heaven.

Later that evening, I called my new favorite cabby, Sam, who drove me over to The Shaved Duck for dinner. This place could not have been more different than Pappy's, with the exception of the great barbecue at both establishments. This was a genuine American bistro, with a very nice bar with lots of local Missouri beers on draft, plenty of interesting but inexpensive wines like tempranillos and albarinos, and a local folk group singing in the dining room. And a very nice menu. As much as I wanted to, I could not bring myself to go another round with platters of pulled pork and beef brisket. I convinced the bartender to bring me a cup of gumbo (instead of the standard bowl), followed by a caesar salad, and a rack of baby back ribs. And a beer. One of the items on the menu was duck confit, one of my favorite dishes. The chef, who had come over and introduced herself earlier (when she overheard me talking to the bartender about barbecue) also uses the confit in one of her gumbos, blended with andouille sausage, and jolokia peppers. Really hot spicy jolokia peppers. Did I mention the spicy jolokia peppers? I had to look this up. On the Scoville scale (a measure of heat) jolokia peppers have been rated at between 800,000 and 1 million units (compared to 2500 for Tabasco sauce.) Guinness World Book says it is the hottest of all peppers, but somehow you can still actually taste them, even with all that flame on your tongue. The gumbo was just great. The caesar salad was also great. The ribs arrived, and they too were great, but decidedly different than Pappy's style of ribs. These ribs been very assertively seasoned with a spicy paprika based dry rub, and I think cooked at a slightly higher temperature, resulting in a wonderful crisp bark, but still tender, moist, and flavorful. Wonderful stuff. The bartender mentioned that the Pappy's staff stops by, and likewise they patronize Pappy's. I can see why. I had wonderful time at both places.

I look forward to visiting St. Louis again, and I expect I will have an opportunity to do that soon on business. I will definitely visit both of these places again. I need to get the gumbo recipe.

A word on this whole – Missouri / Missoura pronunciation.

So I'm on the plane from Chicago, about to land in St Louis, and I turn to my seatmate - a St. Louis native returning from an assignment in London. I ask her how to pronounce Missouri. I tell her that I have heard that if you pronounce it Missouree, that people will know you are from out of town, because the local – and proper - pronunciation is Missoura. She responds that if you pronounce it Missoura, the locals will think you can't spell, because there is no “A” in Missouri. It is pronounced Missouree, she says emphatically. So now I'm really confused. Was she pulling my leg?    

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