Great Ribs

Over the last couple of days, two people I follow on Twitter have mentioned Memphis and asked about good restaurants. Now, I've only been to Memphis twice, but both times I was sure to eat at one place: Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous, known for their legendary dry-rub Memphis ribs. That's good eatin'.

I learned about the Rendezvous back in 1987, thanks to a John Hiatt song called Memphis in the Meantime, which has a line that goes "At least we can get a decent meal, down at the Rendez-vous." As I was seventeen at the time, and far less knowledgeable in the ways of barbecue than I am now, I had no idea that the Rendezvous mentioned in the song was an actual place - until my dad mentioned he had eaten there while on a business trip to Memphis.

I never expected to actually eat there - I couldn't think of a reason I would be in Memphis - but I in 1990, while on a cross-country trip with my high school friends, our last stop found us in Memphis in order to hit Sun Records and, of course, Graceland. And, because I insisted, the Rendezvous. We had a great meal, and from there headed back to Baltimore.

The Rendezvous took on mythic proportions for me the following year, while I was once again driving across the country with a couple of college buddies after completing an internship at a production company in Los Angeles. We were taking three or four days to head back east, and on the third day, we decided we would make Memphis by dinner, and if we were going to be in Memphis for dinner, we were going to eat at the Rendezvous. I can't remember exactly where we started the day, but as we pushed on, we realized Memphis was a lot further out than we realized. It was probably 9:30 at night when we finally reached Memphis, and after securing a room at a Motel 6, we headed downtown for ribs, hoping they'd still be open.

One of the charming things about the Rendezvous is that it's down an alley, so after walking down a dark alley that seemed vaguely threatening at what must have been 10:30pm, we arrived at the restaurant, walked in to the tremendous aroma of charcoal and barbecue rub, and found out they were no longer seating, and that they kitchen was done taking orders for the night. We were crestfallen. But my buddy Steve wasn't going to just give up - he pleaded with one of the waiters, explaining that we had driven halfway across the country that day, just for the ribs. This seemed to have made an impression on the waiter, because he called the manager over, and Steve really turned on the charm; moments later, "Mr. Tom", as the waiter called him, was seating us, sending in an order for three full racks of ribs, and offering us some drinks on the house. He said if we had spent all day driving for Rendezvous ribs, than we were going to have Rendezvous ribs. Never in my life did a plate of food look more delicious:
Here's the icing on the cake, or I suppose more appropriately, the rub on the ribs: we thought Mr. Tom was just buying us drinks for being enterprising young men on a mission for ribs, but when we got the bill, he picked up the whole tab. I guess he admired our moxie. We left the waiter a $30 tip, which for three 20-year-olds in 1991 seemed like big money, and he certainly seemed to appreciate it. To this day, it was one of the best meals I have ever had.

-EB
Photos from Roadfood.com