By Tim O'Connell
Daily Staff Reporter
Ann Arbor lies 2,500 miles north of Mississippi, but when you sink your teeth into Jesse Campbell's "Soul on a Roll" barbecue sandwich at Mr. Rib's Soul Food, you'd hardly know it.
"I'll tell you what makes me happy," Campbell said. "It's seeing young people who haven't eaten here come up and ask for the Soul on a Roll."
The sandwich, Mr. Rib's finger-licking bestseller, consists of a mound of hickory-smoked pulled pork soaked in barbecue sauce and a bed of rich coleslaw barely contained in a huge bun. Hot sauce optional. Worth all 450 cents.
Pulled pork? Well, it's something like brisket in texture. Pulled off the shoulder bone with the grain, Mr. Rib's pork is stringy and delicious.
The place has ribs by the slab, too, for $15.40. One regular described the ribs as being so tender that a flick of the wrist sends pork flying.
What dominates all of Mr. Rib's barbecue, whether ribs, pulled pork, beef or chicken, is the deep hickory flavor that penetrates the food.
Campbell, who grew up in Mississippi and has spent the past 25 years cooking barbecue around Ann Arbor, credits his grandfather with teaching him how to preserve meat as a child.
"My grandfather kept a smoke house in the early '50s," he said. "That stuff kept with me."
Campbell smokes all the meat on site - in a hickory smoke house behind his store.
"I can do 320 slabs of ribs at one time. That's 1,000 pounds of meat."
Mr. Rib also offers a slew of extras: black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, green beans, fried corn, beans, potato salad, country greens, red beans and rice and fried okra.
Don't be fooled by the strip-mall location - Mr. Rib is the real thing. You don't get any more genuine than a rib joint that offers a UAW discount.
But Mr. Rib is just one of several barbecue/soul-food establishments in the area that are keeping their customers happy with pork, beef, fried chicken and all the extras.
DeLong's Bar B-Q-Pit, located in a converted filling station across from the Ann Arbor Farmers' Market, has served up barbecue takeout for more than 30 years.
The pork and beef dinners at DeLong's are less stringy than Mr. Rib's, and the meat comes in small slices. The sauce is sweeter, and it may suit the Michigan palate better.
DeLong himself (just DeLong, thank you) cooks the ribs slowly over a gas rotisserie while mopping on his special sauce, but he says that his catfish is even more popular.
"I can't keep that stuff in the store," he said.
The catfish is crispy and tasty, just like his outstanding fried chicken. Even a thigh-and-leg man will be reaching for breast at DeLong's. The breast is as tender and juicy as any to be found in the city. It's got a flavor you can't quite put your finger on.
And don't try to order a nine-piece bucket - DeLong's parcels them out by the half-chicken.
While Mr. Rib is set in the modern strip mall, DeLong's has that authentic, count-your-change atmosphere. (I was shorted a Hamilton, but I'm sure it was an honest mistake. It was remedied posthaste.)
A bit of caution about DeLong's and Mr. Rib especially: Your take-out order's aroma will soon take over the car, and you will find yourself speeding unavoidably.
For students who need a quick barbecue fix without driving, Joe's Deli & Grill serves up their mighty "B.B.Q. Chicken" sandwich on the corner of State and Hill Streets.
Joe's, previously known as Joe's Chick-n-Ribs, delivers the sandwich until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Joe's menu and food were a labor of love for Joe Atchoo's wife, Ban, who tries everything out on the family.
"She's the backbone of the operation," he said. Joe's opened for business last September.
The chicken sandwich is a favorite of the Michigan Hockey Team, Ban said, and is almost as good as Joe's fried chicken. The dish even has the stamp of approval from legend B.B. King, a man who has assuredly seen some fried chicken in his time.
After the caterers ran out of food at his February Ann Arbor gig, King ordered up some of Joe's chicken. After bringing nine pieces, the delivery boy had to come back for more.
The following day, King stopped by to drop off an autographed poster and commend the chef.
"That made me so proud, to have that man compliment my cooking," Ban said.
WARREN ZINN/Daily
Jesse Campbell, owner of Mr. Rib, stirs his secret recipe rib sauce.