Nunya Bidnits wrote:
> Nonnymus wrote:
>> I'm curious about how and when you all got started grilling and
>> barbecuing?
>>
>> In my own case, my folks would get ribs from a black beer joint a few
>> blocks away (Bruner's). Ocey cooked the ribs slow over smoke and
>> sauced them with his own KC-type sauce. I'd almost eat the bones
>> they were so good. I was just a grade schooler when my dad let me
>> purchase my first shallow tray-type of charcoal burner. I'd not
>> cooked before, but quickly learned how to cook burgers and steaks
>> over the charcoal.
>
> Yowza! Check out the Jameson book Smoke and Spice for information on the
> legendary Bruner's. I cut my childhood KC barbecue teeth at another
> legendary joint, Boyd's.
>
> MartyB in KC

Ocey's place was just 2-1/2 blocks from my dad's house and 3 HOUSES away
from Mrs. Nonny's. His sauce was commercially marketed for a while, but
I've not seen it in years. It was a really "jumping" beer joint back in
the '50;s. This was during the days of semi-segregation, so most of the
white folk would call ahead and Ocey would bring the ribs, wrapped in
the Democrat News newspaper out to their cars.

I believe that his niece or some other fairly close kin still has a
place there in Marshall- behind the Wood and Houston Bank branch on
Arrow Street. My daughter "discovered" it while attending Missouri
Valley College, and we felt that the ribs were as good as we remembered
old Ocey cooking. We're going to be in Marshall this August for a class
reunion and I'll report in about whether the place is still there and is
as good as it was in the 90's. It was in a single family residence
then, and it's probably still in the same place.

Local legend has it that Ocey sold his sauce recipe back in the early
50's to the good folk making Hunt's (now Hunt's original), but I have no
proof of that beyond legend. I don't have the book you mention, but if
there's anything about Bruner's online, I'd sure appreciate the URL.
--
Nonny

Nonnymus
A penny saved is obviously a
government oversight.