By Anne P. Braly
Food Editor
Where there’s smoke, there’s barbecue during the Bessie Smith Strut.
Ben Suggs, owner of Big Ben’s Barbecue at the corner of Houston Street and M.L. King Boulevard, is one of several vendors who’ll be serving up plates of this favorite Southern cuisine tonight.
Mr. Suggs started his business on Third Street in 1976 and moved to his current location in 1995. With 30 years’ experience, he knows a thing or two about barbecue. “If it ain’t good, then people just don’t mess with it,” he said.
Because the Strut crowd is different every year, he never really knows how much meat to purchase, he said. Betting on a good turnout this year, he has ordered 200 pounds of pork butts, six cases of ribs and 80 pounds of both beef and chicken to help feed tonight’s crowd.
The Bessie Smith Strut stretches over six and half blocks of M.L. King Boulevard, with stages for blues musicians set up at Miller Plaza, Bessie Smith Hall and near the railroad bridge past the Douglas Street intersection. Vendors will line the streets, enticing strutters with an assortment of flavors.
Many of the barbecue kings are concentrated around Bessie Smith Hall.
“We sometimes have four to five barbecue vendors just on our property —; the lawn and the parking lot,” said Vivian Greene, administrative assistant for the Chattanooga African American Museum, which houses Bessie Smith Hall.
Like the blues, barbecue helps make the strut the strut, Ms. Green said.
“It’s a Southern tradition,” she said. “And people just like good barbecue. I think we have some of the best.”
Michael Kelley, who opened M&T’s Diner on M.L. King in September, said the new barbecue pit behind his restaurant is ready just in time for the strut. Enclosed with cinder blocks, the pit has an exhaust system designed to carry the smoke outside instead of filling up the pit. The aroma of ribs and butts cooking on the smoker should be an irresistible draw, he said.
“Barbecue at the strut is a big deal because there’s not much good barbecue in Chattanooga anymore —; they’re not really smoking the meat like they used to,” he said.
Mr. Kelley said he lets his meat smoke for six to eight hours. A specially seasoned sauce adds even more flavor, he said.
E-mail Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com
Food Editor
Where there’s smoke, there’s barbecue during the Bessie Smith Strut.
Ben Suggs, owner of Big Ben’s Barbecue at the corner of Houston Street and M.L. King Boulevard, is one of several vendors who’ll be serving up plates of this favorite Southern cuisine tonight.
Mr. Suggs started his business on Third Street in 1976 and moved to his current location in 1995. With 30 years’ experience, he knows a thing or two about barbecue. “If it ain’t good, then people just don’t mess with it,” he said.
Because the Strut crowd is different every year, he never really knows how much meat to purchase, he said. Betting on a good turnout this year, he has ordered 200 pounds of pork butts, six cases of ribs and 80 pounds of both beef and chicken to help feed tonight’s crowd.
The Bessie Smith Strut stretches over six and half blocks of M.L. King Boulevard, with stages for blues musicians set up at Miller Plaza, Bessie Smith Hall and near the railroad bridge past the Douglas Street intersection. Vendors will line the streets, enticing strutters with an assortment of flavors.
Many of the barbecue kings are concentrated around Bessie Smith Hall.
“We sometimes have four to five barbecue vendors just on our property —; the lawn and the parking lot,” said Vivian Greene, administrative assistant for the Chattanooga African American Museum, which houses Bessie Smith Hall.
Like the blues, barbecue helps make the strut the strut, Ms. Green said.
“It’s a Southern tradition,” she said. “And people just like good barbecue. I think we have some of the best.”
Michael Kelley, who opened M&T’s Diner on M.L. King in September, said the new barbecue pit behind his restaurant is ready just in time for the strut. Enclosed with cinder blocks, the pit has an exhaust system designed to carry the smoke outside instead of filling up the pit. The aroma of ribs and butts cooking on the smoker should be an irresistible draw, he said.
“Barbecue at the strut is a big deal because there’s not much good barbecue in Chattanooga anymore —; they’re not really smoking the meat like they used to,” he said.
Mr. Kelley said he lets his meat smoke for six to eight hours. A specially seasoned sauce adds even more flavor, he said.
E-mail Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com
