Dueling rib tips

Just down the street from each other, two pit masters perfect savory rib tips

It’s going on 3 o’clock in the afternoon on a hot September Saturday. After the lunch rush, Ronnie Colvin is watching over a smoker full of meat before the suppertime hungry show up at his Memphis Town BBQ at the intersection of 14th Avenue North and 20th Street in Columbus.

“Be an hour or so,” he calls out to drivers who pull in and then walk toward the big cooker he mans outdoors. The converted commercial warmer billowing smoke stands in a bay of what used to be a car wash. It’s filled with Boston butt, chicken and a menu item that’s enjoying a surge in popularity — rib tips. Those short, savory sections of pork are cut off when the ribs are trimmed and then smoked to a crusty char. 

“I don’t cook by fire, I cook by smoke,” says Colvin, who is often at his post from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. “That’s why it’s so tender. The hard part is taking it out without it fallin’ apart.”

In the South, where barbecue can be a primal experience, good cooks can’t give away their secrets, but Colvin doesn’t mind announcing that he uses no marinades, no salt. 

“I don’t marinate any of my meat. I don’t believe in none of it,” he declares. 

He will, however, say there is lemon pepper involved in this union of meat and smoke going on at the business he opened about two years ago. There’s an art to it all, Colvin says. He began learning it by watching his mother.

“Mama taught me well,” he grins. “But I learned grilling on my own. I just know what meat’s doin’ ... ”

A few blocks south at 20th Street and Seventh Avenue North, Ronnie Clayton tends two custom cookers behind his Brother’s Keepers BBQ. Smoke rolls out and up, finding escape at the edge of the metal canopy overhead. 

“Rib tips used to be a by-product, just like wings were, but pretty much rib tips are outselling ribs now,” he says, loading long strips of tips into the smokers with tongs. When finished, the strips will be cut into individual tips. “I like the low and slow method,” Clayton adds. “You get all the smoke and all the seasonings coming together.”

A couple of lawn chairs are nearby, in the shade of a massive tree. Piles of wood are close at hand. Clayton uses a combination of charcoal and wood — hickory and pecan. The first order of business on any cook day is to get the pits “right,” get them hot, up to about 225 to 230 degrees.

“The meat’s gonna do pretty much what you want it to if you get that steady temperature,” he says. And those seasonings? He uses six — but don’t ask.

Clayton opened Brother’s Keepers about eight years ago. Like Colvin, he found early inspiration at home.

“I used to watch my grandmother,” Clayton says. “I was fascinated to watch when she used that wood-burning stove.”

Both meat masters practice their mouthwatering craft not far from their childhood homes, in the neighborhoods they are rooted in. They cook not just for the customers who drive up but also for the gatherings that bring people together, the parties, reunions, funerals and celebrations at the heart of any community.

“You got to have a love for cooking,” says Colvin, brushing off the hardships of cooking outdoors come rain, shine, heat or cold. He has no plans to stop. “I love what I do. I never get tired.”

“I love people commenting on it,” says Clayton about what keeps him cooking. “ ... People sayin’ they love it — and the smiles on their faces.”

Memphis Town BBQ is located at 1927 14th Ave. N. in Columbus.

Brother’s Keepers BBQ is located at 1925 Seventh Ave. N. in Columbus.

Story by Jan Swoope

Photos by Jennifer Mosbrucker