TRAVEL & CULTURE
NOVEMBER 2019 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM
48
M
EMPHIS IS ONE of the few Southern cities that can claim its own
widely recognized barbecue style. It has been famous for ribs since
the 1920s, when John Mills wowed visiting celebrities like Bing
Crosby with his pit-cooked slabs. But Memphians will barbecue just
about anything—beef, pork, chicken, sausage, turkey. They’ll even
smoke whole rolls of bologna, which they slice and serve between
two pieces of white bread, transforming this humble lunch meat
into a sinfully rich treat.
The pits in Memphis tend to be fired not with split logs but charcoal
briquettes, which impart a distinctive juicy and mildly smoky flavor to the
meat. The signature sauce is thick, tangy, and reddish brown, and it can range
from unassumingly mild to tongue-scorchingly hot. Yellow mustard-laced slaw
and sweet but savory beans are the standard side dishes, along with barbecue
spaghetti—an eccentric combination of pasta, pork, and barbecue sauce found
only in Memphis. This list of restaurants could be longer, but you won’t find
better places to taste the city’s inimitable style than at these seven spots.
The Bar-B-Q Shop
Visit the home of barbecue spaghetti,
Memphis’ unique contribution to
Southern barbecue sides. The Vernon
family still uses the recipe created by
Brady Vincent, the restaurant’s original
owner. It’s the ideal accompaniment for
a platter of succulent half-and-half ribs,
which are dry-rubbed on one end and
mopped with sauce on the other, a
delicious compromise uniting the city’s
competing wet and dry styles.
Charlie Vergos Rendezvous
Back in the 1940s, Charlie Vergos took
a few racks of ribs, rubbed them down
with a spice blend borrowed from his
father’s Greek chili recipe, and cooked
them hot and fast over charcoal in a
pit fashioned from an old coal chute.
The Rendezvous has been the revered
home of Memphis-style dry-rubbed
ribs ever since.
Clockwise from left: Robert Stewart Jr. has
been at Rendezvous for over 30 years. Order
barbecue spaghetti at The Bar-B-Q Shop.
Enjoy Cornish hens at Cozy Corner.
