A Little Roundabout Trip To Nebraska, Day 1 Continued

For supper on Day 1, we swung a little off the interstate path and went to Murphysboro, IL so we could have supper at 17^th Street BBQ home of “The Legend.”  Back in the days of my hobby BBQ business, I followed the world of competition BBQ pretty closely so I was very aware of Mike Mills.  In the world of barbecue, champion pitmaster Mike Mills is affectionately known as “The Legend” and his specialty was pork ribs.

“In the early 1990’s, Mike was co-captain of the Apple City Barbecue Team, one of the most celebrated teams ever on the circuit. Many honors and titles have been bestowed to Mike over the years including:

Four-time World Champion and three-time Grand World Champion at Memphis in May, otherwise known as the Super Bowl of Swine.

1992 Grand Champion of the Jack Daniel’s World Invitational Barbecue Cooking Contest

1992 Winner of Jack Daniel’s Sauce Contest

Mike’s Book, Peace, Love and Barbecue, was nominated for a 2006 James Beard Foundation Award and received the 2006 National Barbecue Association Award of Excellence.

In October, 2008 Mike was honored with the Pioneer of Barbecue award at the Jack Daniel’s World Invitational Barbecue Cooking Contest.”

I read Mike’s book and to this day his techniques influence the way I cook BBQ such as – the stuff you put on ribs should enhance the meat flavor and not hide it.  His original restaurant is the 17^th Street BBQ in Murphysboro, IL and I’ve always wanted to eat there, even though Mike has passed on – it is run by his widow Amy.

The restaurant looked nothing like I expected but not too surprising for a little old Illinois town and the restaurant had little traffic for a Friday night.  

Bev ordered a Reuben which was made with their homemade pastrami and it would have been good except for too much kraut.

I had a half slab of ribs and collard greens and I believe Mike Mills would turn over in his grave if he knew what they were serving – even the presentation alone was unappetizing. 

The ribs were dry and without a lot of flavor – almost like they had been cooked yesterday and kept warm until tonight.  To say I was merely disappointed is a big understatement but now I can say that I’ve been there and done that and I now know that I can cook ribs much better than these were.  At that point, I understood the lack of customers at such a prime time.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/27/24 event date