Tag: 17th street

Me & The Legend

I have the good fortune of living in the middle Mike Mills’ BBQ empire. I’ve enjoyed the BBQ at his restaurants in the midwest for quite awhile, and frankly it’s the yardstick that I use to measure most other BBQ restaurants (not to mention my own BBQ). I’ve also had the pleasure of making the virtual acquaintenace of Mike’s daughter Amy via the very active BBQ community that exists on the internet.

Last night my family treated me to dinner at 17th Street Bar & Grill, Mike Mills’ restaurant, for my birthday. As I commented via Twitter on the way to dinner, “If I can’t BBQ myself then I’ll gladly eat at 17th Street”. Amy picked up my message on Twitter and let me know that it so happened that Mike was going to be at the O’fallon joint for last night’s airing of “Food Feuds” on the Food Network. She let Mike know I was on my way and asked him to say hello.

Sure enough, Mike found us shortly after I arrived and I had the opportunity to chat with him for several minutes about the Food Network competition, eating and enjoying other folks’ BBQ, and the possibility of joining him for one of his On-Cue classes after the first of the year.

In spite of his accomplishments, Mike was as common as cornbread. He is exactly who I thought he’d be after reading his book “Peace, Love, and Barbecue“. It was like chatting with an old friend. Mike even sent around some special appetizers for us to sample and made a second stop by our table just to make sure that things were good.

Mike Mills and his family are perfect examples of the kind of folks that I’ve had the good fortune to meet along the way as I’ve enjoyed this uniquely American pastime called BBQ.

Oh, and congratulations to Mike and the crew at 17th Street for the win over Pappy’s Smokehouse on Food Feud last night.

Cheers,
Braddog

Magic Dust

My favorite BBQ restaurant is 17th Street Bar & Grill. I enjoy their BBQ and have enjoyed reading Mike Mills’ book “Peace, Love, and Barbecue”. It’s chocked full of recipes and today I put together a batch of Mike’s rub that he calls, “Magic Dust”.

I had all of the ingredients in my cupboard, so I figured it was time that I kept with one of my New Year’s resolutions and tried something different. When I got the rub together, I compared it with the little bit of store bought Magic Dust that I had left. It looks, smells, and tastes pretty darned closed to the commercial version.

It’s on the pork butts now. I’ll be firing the smoker this evening and will report back on the end results.

Cheers,

Braddog

Review: 17th St. Bar & Grill Original Sauce

I’m a lucky man. I grew up & still live within spitting distance of the home of Mike Mills and 17th Street Bar & Grill, one of the best BBQ joints in the country. Mike is referred to as “The Legend” based on his record as a competition BBQ team, his restaurants (So. Ill, New York, Las Vegas), not to mention his outstanding BBQ. I’ve written about the restaurant before, you can find that blog post here.

I’ve become a regular at the O’Fallon, IL restaurant and thoroughly enjoy the ribs there. 17th Street’s ribs are dry rubbed and served with just a touch of their house BBQ sauce, so on my last trip I picked up a bottle of sauce for home.

Since then I’ve tried it on brisket, pulled chicken, and pork steaks. And it’s a great compliement to all of them. It’s a thin, vinegary sauce with just the right amount of pepper & spice. I’ve gone through nearly an entire bottle of the past 2 weeks, so that should tell you something.

It’s avaialble by the bottle or by the gallon at http://www.shop.17thstreetbarbecue.com/ . Give it a try, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Cheers,
Braddog