Central BBQ and Rendezvous, Memphis/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor
After arriving at the airport in Memphis, Tennessee, on route to Oxford for the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium, (I’m linking you here to a great recap of the Symposium on the SFA blog), the Tom Douglas team (which consisted of Sean and Julie Hartley, myself, and honorary team member, my Mississippi-born and raised friend, Coleen Heberer), impatient and eager for our first taste of Memphis BBQ, made our way to Central BBQ, easily accessible right off the highway. (If you click on the Central BBQ link, be sure to watch the video from Flipside Memphis.)
Central BBQ was typical in most ways of every BBQ experience we had in Memphis and Oxford- sweet and courteous counter people with lovely Southern drawls, and ultra casual atmosphere with paper plates, picnic tables, and plastic cutlery. Also typical was the speedy service. This food is not cooked to order after all, it’s been cooking for 12 or 18 hours ahead, so your paper plates heaped with food arrive almost instantly after you order.
Coleen and I split a small slab of baby back ribs, half and half- meaning half dry (spice rubbed) and half wet (bbq sauce). The ribs were delicious, for me the best of the trip. I couldn’t even decide which I liked better- the dry or the wet. (Usually I like dry because they sometimes overwhelm you with sauce at BBQ joints- but these were perfect.) I was amazed that the slab came out uncut- with only a feeble plastic knife to cut them. However these ribs were so tender the meat just about fell off the bone- you could have pulled them apart with your hands! The spicing was just right and every bit of fat was rendered away. Sean had a plate of mixed meats and Julie had a pork sandwich. Central BBQ was my favorite BBQ experience of this trip. (Food writer Leslie Kelly, a Memphis BBQ expert, later told me the pork sandwich is really the thing to order in Memphis. So next trip to Memphis, I’ll focus on that.)
We drove into downtown Memphis and stopped at the Peabody Hotel for a look at their famous ducks (though unfortunately we had just missed the ducks’ red carpet stroll from the lobby fountain to the elevator that takes them up to their night time home on the hotel roof.) Then we walked around Beale Street for awhile to try to digest our Central BBQ meal before heading off to Charles Vergo’s Rendezvous BBQ.
Rendezvous is the FAMOUS Memphis BBQ place. Even our rental car guy mentioned we should head over there. The space is huge and cavernous and packed with diners. I don’t think you’re allowed to visit Memphis without stopping here. Tom Douglas had recommended the lamb riblets, so that’s what we ordered, plus a small slab of ribs- spareribs this time, not babybacks. The lamb riblets were good with a nice charcoal char. I liked the spareribs but found them a bit greasier than Central BBQ’s babyback ribs and less tender. The little cups of coleslaw and beans were both delicious. At this point, with very full stomachs and sauce glazed lips, we got back in the rental car to head to Oxford for the Symposium.
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