TACOMA, Wash — Talk about your smoke signals!
For decades everybody in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood has known that when the pit on 11th street is smoking, it's time to gather at Bob's Bar-B-Q Pit for the best Texas-style barbecue around.
"Yeah buddy! Barbecue ribs, baby!" Jonathan Clark said as he carried a tray of steaming ribs through the crowded restaurant. "Right off the grill!"
"You can ask anybody in Tacoma and the first thing they'll tell you is 'Oh yeah, I know Bob's. I know Bob's Bar-B-Q'," said owner Carolyn Littles-Clark.
Sit a spell with Littles-Clark, known as Miss Kay in the neighborhood, and she'll tell you about her parents who started it all, an army cook and his wife who moved here from Texas.
"And they couldn't find any barbecue here in Tacoma and they couldn't believe it," she said. " No barbecue? In Texas there was barbecue everywhere and my dad had learned to cook ribs when he was nine years old."
In 1948, Bob's started serving pit-smoked ribs, pulled pork and chicken. All cooked slow and low. It's an art form that takes patience.
The founders' grandson, Jonathan Clark, is the pit master now. The more he has learned about barbecue, the more he's realized his grandfather knew what he was doing. The recipes remain the same.
"The ribs I can cook a little faster, a little hotter, because you want to burn off some of the fat that's on there and then you apply your special mop sauce, which we call hot dip," he said.
The mop sauce holds all the secret ingredients.
"If I told you, I'd have to kill ya," Clark laughed.
Back in the kitchen the meat is sliced up for dinners to go. Among the favorites, the spare ribs plate which was served to us with mac and cheese and collard greens. We also tried the slow-cooked beef brisket which came with baked beans and potato salad. For dessert we had the peach cobbler. One of the nicest surprises was a big sweaty glass of Sweet Tea!
The food isn't the only reason to visit Bob's Bar-B-Q Pit.
"I've been coming here probably 22 years and each time I come in here I've felt so welcome," Troy Jackson said.
That's the Miss Kay effect. In this neighborhood, she's not just family. She's "Mom," usually sitting at a small table with her phone playing church sermons on YouTube. Jonathan Clark has become used to sharing her.
"The customer tell mom things," he said. "They ask her questions. They give her a hug. They bring her presents."
When we asked him how nice it was to have his mom around, his eyes pooled with tears.
"I feel blessed," Clark said. "And I love her. She's a special person. Got special powers."
Sure the food is special.
"They're addicting, absolutely addicting," Jackson said.
But the secret ingredient that keeps Bob's Bar-B-Q Pit going just might be love.
Bob's Bar-B-Q Pit is open from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. They're located at 911 S 11th St, Tacoma, WA 98405.
Jonathan Clark has started a Go Fund Me page to raise funds for fix up the building.
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