Well the Little Bear lake rib fest was held in Vernon Hills last Friday and Saturday. See my link for the vendors and their addresses. I tried 4 of them.
I have had bad experiences with Brother’s and took a pass on them. I had just been to the Full Slab in May and had no desire to go there again. I ordered the sampler from each, not the best bang for the buck, but it was what I got. The sampler’s were generally 4 bones and varied from $6 to $7 each.
My favorites were Uncle Bubs and Smokin T’s. I liked the sauce at T’s better, but I thought the ribs at Bubs had more meat and smoke. They were both good, but I gave a slight nod to Bubs.
I liked the rub (the best) on the ribs from Real Urban, but they just fell off the bone, no pull and not much smoke. I was disappointed in the meat quality from Baby Ray’s. I had some unchewable gristle and more fat than I had expected. Maybe this was just a bad batch.
Oh, late in the evening I got a funnel cake from some place called Bo Bo’s. It was the smallest funnel cake I have ever seen and it was awful. It was not a good way to end the evening.
D.