BBQ Road Trip: Tennessee

come back someday if you accept me, I would accept you, okay, I will bring my girlfriend, yes, bring your girlfriend that you are going to marry, yes, she will be my wife, I promise, maybe cut. I can't go out outside, I can't afford it well I'll see you next time This is where the

road

ends for me Memphis, the home of Elvis Presley and the birthplace of rock and roll I'm headed to Charlie Virgo's Rond Vu They have a lot of history Han They've been open since 1948. I'm told I can't leave without trying their dry ribs.

How are you? Excuse me, do you know where John is? John, back, that's him, yes, that's right, thank you. a lot this is quite different from Helen yes so welcome to mempis the R thank you very much you have an amazing place here well thank you we try it let's go tour this well cool my dad started it in 1947 48 when it started it only had 80 seats it was a tavern , so now we have capacity for 750 people and on a busy Saturday we will feed 3, 3500 people, hey, how do you do this? I'm Tom from the UK, are these the original ovens?

If you like. come back here yes, let's go back yes my father invented what people call dry ribs but we are Greek all the meat they cook is based on vinegar or lemon salt pepper oregano and garlic have you been to New Orleans I have had many years ago and you know they have all those great cajun seasonings, the chili powder and the cayenne peppers, so he took that and mixed it with the greek, it was nothing like he planned, we based them and then put the seasoning at the end, that's it. It just comes apart easily, but you asked me about the history of barbecue.

The most important thing about barbecue is number one, it tastes great, number two, it's really American and truly Southern. What do you mean by that? It's probably from the slave days. African American inspiration because what would happen in the old days the good cuts of meat would go to the plantation owner and they would keep all the leftover meat, you know, the chitlins, the sweet breads, the ribs, those are the ones he came up with the way to smoke them, cook them and make them tasty. It really goes back long before us. uh, you want to go eat.

That's my dad. He shows that he is a pretty tough guy. Robert has been here 52 years. how are you Robert hi hi your son has been here 30 something years 35 years you don't look old enough to be here 35 years old I started in 10th grade this is the only job I've ever had in my life yeah I think that says it all really but How is your boss? Hello, look at this. We have your table reserved for you. Perfect John. Thank you very much for that. It was a pleasure to have you here from the UK. It is wonderful.

Your restaurant is amazing. The environment. Well, GL. I'm glad you came. I will send Robert Jr to take your order. Thank you so much. Have a great

trip

back. Hello, how is he doing? Very good. How about Sea? Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy, regards, so this is the end of the journey for me. I'm ending here at this legendary place in Memphis rendevu. I met amazing people this week. I've tried a lot of different types of food and there's one thing that runs through all of this and it's the hard work and the love that these people put into it, it's about their culture, their passion and their love for food, and it's amazing to think. that this style of cooking spreads all over the world now, when it comes from such humble beginnings.

I've learned so much and now I'm going to eat these ribs oh god are you ready? Yeah, come on, come on, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, help me, don't pull the trigger yet, oh, what are you doing, come on, wait. There, wait, that's horrible, we're here to stay.