Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.
Note: this article originally appeared earlier this year in The Smoke Sheet, a great national barbecue newsletter that I regularly contribute to. For more information on how to subscribe, visit bbqnewsletter.com.
Monk: The Original Ridgewood Barbecue is an east Tennessee institution, founded 75 years ago by the Proffitt family in the shadows of the famed Bristol Motor Speedway. The Proffitts still own and run the restaurant that was carved into the side of a mountain in Bullock’s hollow, with a third generation of family working there now. In “The Proffitts of Ridgewood: An Appalachian Family’s History of Barbecue,” author Fred W. Sauceman (now there’s a name for a barbecue writer) tells its history as well as the stories of not only the Proffitts but many of the longtime staff many of whom have worked there for decades.
Ridgewood’s barbecue is different from what you’ll find in North Carolina or even a few hours away in Memphis. They smoke just the hams of the hog and then thinly slice them before dressing it with their famous barbecue sauce and a mayo-based slaw. It’s like nothing you’ll likely have ever tasted but it has its fans, many of whom travel from hours away. Even North Carolinians like the late NASCAR driver Junior Johnson or author John Shelton Reed (who is originally from Tennessee and is a friend of Sauceman) sing praises of its barbecue; Ridgewood is the only barbecue restaurant outside of NC mentioned in Shelton’s seminal book “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue.”
Another NC note: in the preface, Sauceman compares Ridgewood to Red Bridges Barbecue in Shelby not because of similar barbecue styles but because they are roughly the same age and have been traditionally run by strong women: Grace Proffitt at Ridgewood and Lyttle Bridges, Debbie Webb, and Natalie Webb Ramsey at Red Bridges.
In the book, Sauceman chronologically tells the story of the family’s roots in the area – the farm down the road dates back to 1856 – and how the restaurant evolved through the decades, from the building itself to what it served. As the story goes, Ridgewood originally started as a roadhouse bar before being forced to pivot when the county went dry in the 50s to a full service restaurant that served steak and eventually barbecue .
Along the way, we learn the story of how the building was physically expanded using wood from the Proffitt family farm (which also supplies the hickory for the wood-fired pits to this day), how the barbecue came to be hams instead of shoulders or whole hogs (to them, shoulders from hogs were for sausage), and how the famous secret barbecue sauce and its 20 ingredients (which only two people know how to make) was developed over time and through rigorous testing.
For the Proffitts, Ridgewood Barbecue is their legacy, and they are proud of it. And in “The Proffitts of Ridgewood,” Sauceman (who is originally from the area and teaches at East Tennessee University in nearby Johnson City) crafts a love letter to Ridgewood, which he has been visiting for decades. It is a concise but well-written book of 91 pages with plenty of full color photographs from over the decades of the family and restaurant. It makes for a quick but worthy read for any serious barbecue fan wanting to learn about an underrated barbecue joint.
For more information and ordering, visit Mercer University Press
