Cbot wrote:This BBQ joints has been open since 1966 dang....anyone hit it recently?

I think I read somewhere that Santander was there earlier this week, and that it was very good.


I've been recently, and it was just fine, the way I have usually found it. Not as good as the stalwarts (eg, Uncle John's, Barbara Ann's, Lem's) but solid like Best's, I-57 etc.

A friend of mine often brings the rib tips from Ribs 'n Bibs to weekend lunch parties, and they're usually pretty good if a little on the chewy side. (Got tips from Uncle John's last night which were awesome.)

Does anyone know whether Ribs 'n Bibs in Hyde Park will ever reopen? I read something to the effect that they were closed by the state of Illinois for failure to pay sales taxes. If they're gone forever it's a real shame - they've been under the same management for 45 years, though the owner (Vince Schoenberg) died a couple of years ago and his family has been running it since. I've been going there for 40 years.

I am not a ribs zealot or maven, either on the preparation or the consumption side.
My views are moderate and ecumenical.
I like them, but I do not make pilgrimages to them. I live 1.5 blocks from Ribs n' Bibs, and so that's my ribs place.
Caveats done, I just want to say that last night's 2 slabs were the barkiest, meatiest, chewiest, juiciest, most generous and satisfying ribs I have eaten, even accounting for how low that bar is set.
I ordered sauce on the side and when I got them home, found he had forgotten to include the sauce. We talked about running back and then just decided, the hell with it, let's just sit down and eat together. I was chafing at this a bit, really missing the sauce, until I started in on the ribs. With just the amount of rub/seasoning that coats them without sauce, they were delicious. I would go so far as to say that all but the most sublime of sauces might even have masked the deliciousness of the ribs themselves.
They come on the classical bed of sodden bread, and next to a pile of orthodoxly limp fries.
I stand open to correction by my betters on the subject but pending such correction (and without being able to attest to long-term consistency, as we don't eat them that often), I say these are damn fine ribs. Haven't tried links or tips. My son loves the fried chicken (which, for some reason, they frequently run out of).
I'm just talking about the ribs.

Ribs N' Bibs
5300 S. Dorchester
773/493-0400
(Closed Mondays, if memory serves)

Looks like the end, and I couldn't be sadder. Windows papered over, and not even a fig leaf cover story like "remodeling." Just "closed until further notice" on a scrap of white paper.
A slab of ribs from them just a week ago was perhaps the best I'd had. My son was devoted to their fried chicken. The current operator always treated me right.
If they're really gone, the value of my house has probably just dropped about 20%. (At least, if there's any justice it has.)
As Hyde Park is increasingly transformed into something more like the current Evanston, the loss of a genuine neighborhood spot looms larger. It's not just the national chains like Chipotle taking the personality out of the place, it's the combined effect of lame quasi-local outposts, like the "deli" at 55th and Woodlawn---the name as forgettable as the food, Berg-whatever---or the spanking new Porkchop, back of the spanking new hotel on 53rd and Harper, which may do decent Q for all I know, but it's a dressed-up joint with $20 plates. Fine for visiting parents on graduation day, no doubt, but not for me and my family every day.

I also had a dynamite tips plate from them just last week. I have seen this place open and close, and burn and rebuild, about a dozen times in 20 years of observation. I'll wait to see what the next few weeks and months bring.

Porkchop is not bad (slow service and small portions but tasty good trumps that for me), Bergstein's is acceptable but missing some heart, and I do have a soft spot for Native Foods, which seems to be be doing a very good job at this location. I could take an IV of the watermelon-mint agua freca. The Harper Court Chipotle is the pits (clearly popular, really poor and inconsistent execution).

Plein Air is trying very hard to get things right, and I think doing a lovely job. The outdoor dining under the Italian longbricks at Robie is really something special. Beyond that, A10 has still not won me over, and I've had some highs and lows at Pho 55, but the highs offer significant promise.

I am curious to see what the next years bring for mom-and-pop places like Corea, Rajun Cajun, and Kikuya. Snail won't die and was even featured on the Scav Hunt list this year (construct a rigid Lord of the Rings blade from Snail food items).

Sad to hear. I haven't been in that area much in the last two years (although we rent out a place on 55th), but Ribs and Bibs was one of my local favorites. I can't imagine Hyde Park without it.

As a now infrequent visitor to HP, it's nice to see that a formerly modest old anchor like Cedars has made the transition to the newer, shinier HP. That's a silver lining. But Ribs N' Bibs is essential HP and needs to be saved. For starters, I'm not sure how easy it would be for a new aquarium cooker to plop down in the center of things. Continuity and grandfathering-in is important in the realm of open flame cooking amid gentrification. I also think we are ready for Ciral's to return riding the tiki wave.

Maybe we could build a Ciral's around a Ribs N' Bibs. . .

I've been to RnB probably fewer than a dozen times in the past seven years and never had anything all that great, but I'd be sorry to see it go.

Santander wrote:The Harper Court Chipotle is the pits (clearly popular, really poor and inconsistent execution).

No way it's worse than the Qdoba in the Reynolds Club. A more apathetic crew I have yet to find. It's not that they appear to not understand burritos...it's that they seem to hate them. I'd go to Pepe's before going there again. I'm eating frozen enchiladas from Trader Joe's at my desk and counting my blessings.

Santander wrote:Plein Air is trying very hard to get things right, and I think doing a lovely job. The outdoor dining under the Italian longbricks at Robie is really something special. Beyond that, A10 has still not won me over, and I've had some highs and lows at Pho 55, but the highs offer significant promise.

Thanks for the reminder about these places. What have you liked at Pho 55?