FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

wrote:

Much about NJ Famous Daves...

The no smell, etc of smoke suprises me. The local one (Fargo) has a large
commercial smoker hooked on to the building and there is no doubt that they
are using it as the whole place and the surrounding area smells of smoke.
The food there is not "horrid" but does not even remotely compare to what is
available at the other local establishement, Ribs West by pitmaster Vernon
Tate. (I will say that FD's brisket is not bad so will grab a sandwhich of
that if I am in a hurry).

A side note there was a huge fiasco this past summer when the local ribfest
uninvited Vernon and his crew (who had participated in every one since they
started it) because they only wanted one local entry which was going to be
Famous Daves. Vernon, siting it as too much work anyway was not going to
fight it. Then a local talk show host with the personality of a pit bull
got ahold of the story pointing out the FD's crew was not local but a
competition crew that travels around. The talk show host even made one of
the senators from the state wait an hour one day while he ranted and raved
on this. The ribfest organizer claimed Vernon did not have the equipment to
compete (even though he had done so several times)... no problem, the talk
show host put out the call and many calls came in offering money and or
equipment. I think Vernon borrowed a setup from the Twin Cities and is
either working on or now has his own. To make a very very long story short
Ribs (pun intended) West participated, won and got several days of free
publicity which no amount of money would have been able to buy. Ya gotta
love burecrats especially when they are so wrong and when the story turns
out so right.