Rodney's Ribs

“There is no sincerer love than the love of food”

--- George Bernard Shaw

RODNEY’S RIBS

(No fixed address, this is a trailer, it moves.)

626.818.RIBS   (626.818.7427)

(Website domain name expired and waiting renewal)

rodneysribs.com

@RODNEYSRIBS     (Twitter account works)

Sharon and I had a good laugh the first time we saw the Rodney’s Ribs trailer.  It was parked on Lake Street in Pasadena...In front of a weight loss clinic!  We though it hilariously funny, cruel, but funny.

The Los Angeles area is the home of the taco trailer and the barbeque food truck.  Rodney’s bucks the trend being a barbeque trailer.  The trailers tend to be at a certain location on given days while the trucks go all over, to the extent that you have to follow them on Twitter to find out where they are on any given day.  The trucks are usually at one location for lunch and another for dinner.  Rodney’s moves around too, and has a Twitter account, but they seem to stay longer at a location than the trucks.  We have consistently found Rodney’s Ribs on weekends at the northwest corner of Lake and Mountain, just to the west on Mountain, in front of the O’Reilly Auto Parts store.  Since Rodney’s is strictly take-out, the O’Reilly store has been cooperative about Rodney’s Ribs customers parking in their lot.

We always say that you should get barbeque from someone that specializes in barbeque.  Rodney’s Ribs is about as specialized as they can get.  The only meats they do are Pork Spare Ribs, Rib Tips and Beef Brisket.  There are five meals on the post card sized menu, Rodney’s Dinner, 4 to 5 ribs (depending on cut), two sides and bread, Rodney’s Special, 2 to 3 ribs, one side and bread, Bobby’s Brisket, a brisket sandwich, Bobby’s Brisket Plate, about a pound of brisket, one side and bread, and Tuttie’s Tips, about a pound of rib tips, one side and bread.  You can also order a full rack of ribs to go.  Pricing seems to be about the going rate for decent barbeque at most places.

There are only three side dishes, Baked Beans, Green Beans, and Potato Salad.  The sides can also be ordered separately.  The choice of beverages is six soft drinks and water.  At Rodney’s they certainly know how to keep it simple.

Sharon and I didn’t have to work too hard to get a good sampling of the que.  We ordered a Rodney’s Special and a Bobby’s Brisket Plate.  The sides were Baked Beans and Potato Salad. Our orders were ready in what seemed to be no time at all.  The food was in typical fast food foam, compartmented containers (only black, not white) and came with a packet of plastic utensils, and napkins.  We found that the servings were traditional Southern style with a big slice of white bread.

Beef Brisket

I’ll bet that when they took this brisket out of the smoker and put it on the cutting board it quivered.  The meat was fork tender, had a good smoky flavor and was about as good a brisket gets.  This serving had just a bit more fat than I would have considered perfect but that didn’t hurt.  My only complaint was that it came with the sauce on it already.  To be fair, I didn’t ask for sauce on the side, and this sauce is also about as good as barbeque sauce gets, not too sweet, and not too hot.  You might say it’s the Goldilocks of barbeque sauces.

Pork Spare Ribs

Since the ribs are their namesake they better be good.  They do not disappoint, they are great!  The ribs are meaty and pork flavor comes through the smoke and stands up to the sauce.  Prepared by Rodney they are fall-off-the-bone tender (Seriously, I was able to shake the meat off one bone!) They may have had a slight bit more fat than I would have liked, but again, this didn’t hurt at all.  They have the right to use these ribs as their namesake.

Baked Beans

They are what I would call main dish baked beans but they are a good sided dish, not too sweet and with a barely detectable bite to the sauce.  There are noticeable slices of green onion in the beans, which was a problem for Sharon since she is allergic to onions.

Potato Salad

While it was overly creamy, to my taste, this potato salad has potential.  It has all the right things, potatoes, pickles, celery, peppers, onions, and apparently, hint of mustard in the mayo, however, it comes out tasting bland.  Although I found it bland and not chunky enough, a couple of shakes of Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning and it was more than acceptable.  In my humble opinion, if it were drier and had a bit more ‘pop’ it would be very good.

OK, so it’s a food trailer.  You have to walk up to the window to order and take your food somewhere else to eat it, so it does not get high marks for ambiance.  We would say the que is a nine plus.  The sides are average and since it is not a restaurant destination, we would give it an overall rating of eight plus.  To review them we made a round trip drive of 34 miles to get the food and take it home.  It was worth it.