Napereville Ribfest 2009

About the Ribfest

The Naperville Ribfest offers ribs and other barbecued dishes from 17 mostly non-local purveyors, most of whom practice the art of low and slow smoking. The fest is run by the Exchange Club of Naperville whose goal is the elimination of child abuse and domestic violence. Last year the Ribfest raised $800,000 for the Exchange Club’s programs.

In addition to the ribs there are over 20 other food vendors, including Bob Chinn’s. Carnival rides and a variety of family friendly entertainment including a petting zoo are included with the $10 admission fee. There are two music stages and at night they often feature acts that were very big in the 70’s and 80’s

My review from last year, which contained more negative than positive comments, garnished some strong criticism, most notably from Baby Ray. I believe his two main points were that the event was for charity, so why be negative, and that the ribbers were very experienced hard working ‘Cue experts who didn’t deserve to be treaty so harshly.

On the first point, I believe that my review will either have no affect on the event or may encourage some LTHers to attend who might not have otherwise. From a strictly rib based perspective the fest can be rather daunting- how do you pick among the 17 vendors? I would hope my review would help in that respect. One might suggest that I therefore only post positive reviews, but I think that would be giving myself too much credit. My taste is my taste and to learn what it is you should probably try something I didn’t like as well as something I did. I should also point out that if I didn’t think the fest was of any value, I wouldn’t waste may time doing this.

As to Baby Ray’s other point I can only say that I did not review the ribbers, just the ribs.

There was also some discussion last year about the competition portion of the fest and how it related to what was sold to the public. I am going to be judging this year, and while I won’t know whose ribs I’m eating I believe I will come away with a feel for what if any differences are to be expected and will report back after the Saturday competition.

Finally, please remember that large scale BBQ consistency is very difficult to achieve and your mileage may very.

This year rib tasters (3 or 4 bones) are typically selling for $6 or $7, full slabs for $21 or $22 with inexpensive full meal options.

Just about all of the ribs have sauce mopped on in the finishing process creating a glaze or at least a thickening. Accordingly, most of the vendors do not pour on any sauce when serving, but some do. Please make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Most of the ribs don’t need extra sauce, and if you think they do there are typically dispensers for three types of sauce at each booth so you can choose the type and quantity for yourself. When I felt extra sauce was called for I put it at the side of the container so I could dip as needed.

In the past there were water and soap hand washing stations by the porta-pottys, which were replaced by Purell dispensers. Fine for disinfecting your hands, but worthless for removing sauce residue, so bring along Gary’s shirt for hand cleaning.

If you enter at the Northeast entrance you will quickly come upon booths for Desperado’s and Texas Outlaws. DO NOT buy ribs there. Get them from the booths in the main rib area where they are actually prepared.

Last year I visited 8 vendors and found 2 serving ribs that were good enough that I would want to have them often. This year I visited 9 booths but found nothing that really exited me.

So here’s a rundown of the booths I visited in very rough order of preference.

Porky N’ Beans

Finished over a hardwood fire these had a good smoke taste with some juiciness but the meat was a bit stringy and greasy and cooked to an almost fall of the bone state.

Sweet Baby Ray’s

The three pieces I had were quite dry and had none of the tug I like but they were generally well smoked although I did get a few harsh notes.

Butch’s

These were generally dry except in the areas that were quite fatty. The sauce glaze was subtly spiced and quite interesting. The side sauces were overpoweringly sweet.

Aussom Aussie

These were the only ribs I had that had solid texture with no hint of stringiness and some real juiciness without the fat and grease. But the meat was rather salty and ham like and there were some dry tough sections. The finishing sauce was very sweet and fruity and would have been better if there was only a thin glazed layer.

Texas Outlaw’s

These were one of my favorites from 2008 but this year they ranged from fatty to salty to dry but less stringy than many.

Sgt Oink’s

These were served hot and would no doubt have been better if I had let them rest a while. As it was they were fatty, greasy, stringy and lacking meat flavor. Even the spicy sauce was pretty mild and uninteresting- and these ribs needed a good sauce.


Uncle Bub’s

One of my favorites from last year these were stringy and fatty with not much flavor. Nothing like the great ribs from 2008 and more like what I’ve had at the restaurant.

Famous Dave’s

Salty, dry and stringy with a very sweet finishing sauce.

Desperado’s

These were very very dry.

scottsol wrote:I believe his two main points were that the event was for charity, so why be negative, and that the ribbers were very experienced hard working ‘Cue experts who didn’t deserve to be treaty so harshly.

Scott,

The charity aspect of the event is laudable. The rib vendors are selling their product, making money from the event and, in my opinion, are fair game for critique, positive or negative.

Enjoy,
Gary

I am actually considering going this year(after a few year hiatus), not for the ribs, but to see the North Missisippi Allstars tomorrow night.

My review is now available in post # 3

The judges were mostly event sponsors along with the Mayor of Naperville, Naperville’s fireman of the year, a Marine on leave from serving in the Mideast and NBC5 meteorologist Andy Avalos. Representing the Kansas City Barbecue Society was Chris Peters who is running the Great American BBQ Tour along with her husband Mike, and whose BBQ team was one of the top 20% for ribs in the KCBS 2008 rankings. I was fortunate enough to be seated next to her during the judging. There was also a table of what looked like 8 to 15 year olds for the Kids Choice competition.

The blind judging was based on the KCBS style weighted scoring of appearance, tenderness and taste, although the point range was from 1 to 7 instead of 2-9. In this case the appearance score was based strictly on the look of the ribs, there was no bed-of-lettuce “art” as with KCBS. Unlike a KCBS sanctioned event we each sampled all of the 17 turned in ribs. Even those of us who took just a few bites of each rib found it tough going near the end – this is fun, but it’s definitely work too. One disadvantage of this system was that there was a wide discrepancy in holding time from the first to last entry.

The overall quality of the ribs was certainly higher than what I bought on Thursday but there were still quite a few less than great offerings. Chris felt that the overall quality was lower than at a typical sanctioned event where the ribbers do not sell their meat to the public and can just concentrate on the competition. I suspect the way the meat was held may not have helped either.

I did not give a 7 for taste to any of ribs. There was one entry that would have made it if it hadn’t had sauce poured on it, taking away from what was a wonderfully juicy, tender smoky piece of meat. I would say that most of the ribs could have used a lighter hand on the sauce.

As I usually only took two or three bites from each rib I kept the remains in a zip lock bag so I could eat them later without worrying about deadening my senses. These ended up being much more enjoyable than they were during the judging. The resting period resulted in juicier, firmer meat and a better integration of the sauce and rub flavors.

Overall it was a fun and interesting experience, I met some very nice people, and the leftovers were very good.

RIBS

1 Texas Outlaws
2 Sweet Baby Ray's
3 Famous Dave's

Kid's Choice

Porky N' Beans

Sauce

1 Porky N' Beans
2 Pigfoot
3 Howling Coyote

Though traditionally not a "Rib kinda guy", checked this out on Sunday. Best ribs went to porky and beans IMO.

Had to hustle out before Huey took the stage. That band is bad news.

NAV MAN wrote:Though traditionally not a "Rib kinda guy", checked this out on Sunday. Best ribs went to porky and beans IMO.

I felt the same way about the "public ribs". As far as how that reflects on the competition results, I think it's apples and oranges. In addition to just being better in general, none of the ribs I had at the competition, for example, were anything like what I had purchased from Aussom Aussie, Famous Dave's, Sweet Baby Ray's or Desperado's. This doesn't mean that the other entries were similar to their for sale product, just that the ones I mentioned were distinctive enough for me to tell without knowing whose ribs I was eating during the blind judging.

I am planning on going to the 2010 version tomorrow night.

I havent been in a few years, but a free ticket, and a what soundslike good weather tomorrow night will get me to return to my hometown and this event.

Not really looking forward to any of the bbq offerings there, but I know I will try at least a little bit(rasta joes, texas outlaw, porky-n-beans only). it is what it is.

If any vendors are selling beef ribs, please let us know.

I'm pretty sure that there are no beefy one's ...sigh...

[quote="jimswside"

Not really looking forward to any of the bbq offerings there, but I know I will try at least a little bit(rasta joes, texas outlaw, porky-n-beans only). it is what it is.[/quote]


Outlaws and Porky are typically among my favorites at the fest but they were both worse than normal this year. Outlaws' ribs had very little flavor, and while I have always enjoyed them without added sauce, they desperately needed it this year. The Porky's came with sauce poured on- and the sauce is pretty good- but the ribs themselves were lacking in flavor as well. 2 years ago the most common problem was over smoking, last year stingy meat and this year lack of flavor.


Of the nine ribs I tried the only ones I really enjoyed were Sweet Baby Ray's. They were juicy and had texture ranging from tug-off-the-bone to "bite off". More typical at the fest is bite off to fall off. There was a good balance between meat, smoke, rub and glazed sauce and none of the overly sweet character that many of us find in their standard sauce. SBR does not offer a taster portion. A half slab at $12 is the minimum.

There was a new rib vendor this year from Alabama- Camp 31. They were my least favorite. The ribs were over done, had no flavor and the sauce had only one note-sweet.

If you've been there recently you will find that the layout has completely changed with separate North and South sections, so don't be alarmed at the apparent diminution of vendors.


MODERATOR- You might want to transfer the newer posts to a new topic- Naperville Ribfest 2010-or not.

scottsol wrote:MODERATOR- You might want to transfer the newer posts to a new topic- Naperville Ribfest 2010-or not.

You are the OP. you can change the title.

I went, and enjoyed myself, the bbq I decided to try was average to bad as expected, but it was a nice night, and good family time.

The fest was already pretty packed @ 4:30 when we walked over, and the smell of bbq had me wanting to try some ribs right away. I have had the local representations ribs before at their spots, and have not been impressed so I knew I wasnt going to either of them.

I really wasnt starving so we only tried a few things, a nice lunch @ Double Li, and a stop @ El Pulpo for some tacos on the way home from Chicago had me kind of full.

So I went over to Armadillos, and got a decent 1/2 slab of spares, a little fatty, but tender, and a smoke ring. No real smoke flavor, I got them unsauced(these were lightly sauced when finished I didnt want them drowned in additional sauce) since i have little use for bbq sauce on ribs other than perhaps a glaze when finishing them. Overall Armadillos was ok.

We also hit the Bob Chinns stand for some fried shrimp and french fries. Not bad, freshly out of the fryer, and no line.

Last stop was Porky and Beans. Got a sampler of their spares, not good, tough, membrane on, and did I mention tough. Too bad because their rub had some nice spice undertones, once again the ribs were unsauced as asked for. I also got a K.C. sandwich from them, A bun, chopped brisket, a slice of white bread, and a mound of pulled pork, topped with their sauce. Sauce wasnt that good, and didnt go with the pork, it actually worked with the chopped brisket. The pork had almost no smoke flavor, tasted like roasted pork which isnt a totally bad thing. The brisket, actually pretty nice, chopped, some smoke, good flavor, and a smoke ring. Probably the best bbq item I had last night.

I did see beef ribs at a couple spots, one was Porky and Bean, and I cant remember the other. Beer was expensive($5 each,), glad I had some tequila with me.

As 8:00 and Sammy Hagar approached the place was packed, The side of the event with the main stage was closed off and they were only letting folks in as people left. We got out of there.

For kids there is a nice free play area with bouncy slides, etc. Also a petting zoo with pigs piglets, a huge bunny, goats, sheep, etc.

All in all a fun event if you are not going there in search of great or even good bbq, but for a family night on a nice summer evening it was fun, but a little expensive. Also the people watching is top notch.

Ive got some pics and may download them later.

some pics from last night:

Armadillos spares:



porky and beans spares:



porky and beans K.C. sandwich(brisket and p.p.):



shay eating some pulled pork(not sure where she gets the attitude.. ):



elephant ears, and chocolate banana:



petting zoo fun: