Blues, Beale Street and Elvis are woven into the fabric of Memphis. But barbecue is what keeps people coming back to the Bluff City. Memphis branded its barbecue in a way no other city had.
Case in point, this May hundreds of thousands of people will flock to Tom Lee Park for the much-anticipated World Championship Barbecue Cooking Competition.
The city’s dry rub ribs were made famous by Charlie Vergo’s Rendezvous restaurant. Adding a helping of coleslaw to barbecue sandwiches is unique to Memphis style.
Memphis Magazine food writer Pamela Denney knows about southern food culture. Having dined at many of the different barbecue restaurants across the city, she explained that barbecue isn’t just important to Memphis but to the whole country.
“Barbecue is the only truly indigenous food to America,” Denny said.
Even though Memphis innovated and perfected smoking pork butts and racks of ribs, the city didn’t stop there. It also used barbecue in ways few if anyone had thought of before. Memphis chefs were the first to incorporate pulled pork into nontraditional barbecue meals such as nachos, spaghetti and pizza.
Candice Payne-Parker, the co-owner of Payne’s Bar-B-Q, a staple of Memphis barbecue since 1972, talked about how the barbecue culture has grown in the city and the amount of time it takes to make sure they can put out fresh barbecue everyday.
“When we started, there were not that many barbecue places,” Payne-Parker said. “We are one of the first places opened around here.”
The process of smoking ribs is very time consuming. It’s a “low and slow” method, meaning the meat is smoked at a low temperature in a slow process.
“We smoke our meats all day, everyday,” Payne-Parker said. “We put the shoulders in the day before and smoke them all day and that keeps our meats moist and delicious.”
Payne’s Bar-B-Q keeps a small menu. They don’t try to keep up with the trendy barbecue fads like nachos or pizza.
“Our menu is simple. We have been open 42 years, and this works for us.” Payne-Parker said. “Although, we may try to add barbecue spaghetti.”
Chris Ivie works as the head cook for the barbecue team Slabsolutly that competes in the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Competition and specializes in pork shoulders.
Being a Memphis native Ivie has been able to watch the competition grow and enjoys the competitive spirit it brings to Memphis.
“We are local, so this is a big deal to us,” Ivie said. “The best part is having people from all over see the uniqueness of Memphis.”
Although competitors spend a lot of time preparing for Memphis in May, there is definitely more of a fun atmosphere associated with the competition.
“We spend about 18 hours a day during the competition at our tent,” Ivie said. “We party with the best at Slabsolutly.
