North Main BBQ in Euless, Texas, claims to have the best ribs in the world, and it has the awards to back up that claim. More to the point, it has the juicy pork ribs to support its lofty assertion.
You won’t go wrong trying anything on the menu at North Main’s $12 all-you-can-eat buffet. This joint serves chicken, pork shoulder, and a variety of side dishes to make a full meal. The pork ribs and beef brisket are legendary on both sides of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
The secret to great pork ribs is to slow-cook them, says Hubert Green, proprietor of North Main BBQ. When a rack of ribs comes hot out of the smoker, the pit boss coats them with barbecue sauce. “That seals in the juices and flavor,” Green says.
“With brisket, you have to start with good-quality meat,” he says. Then he cooks it with the fat side up so the juices filter through the meat. After the excess fat is trimmed off, you’re left with a succulent slice of beef.
Green learned barbecuing by practice. Back in the Eighties, he owned a trucking business that specialized in hauling dirt and stone. “Every Friday, a friend and I would meet at a fella’s back yard over in the Love Field area for barbecue,” Green says. “Best damn barbecue in town, but he didn’t have a permit, and the city shut him down.”
Without a place to drink beer and eat barbecue, the two friends rented a portable smoker and put it behind Green’s office. “We started in 1981 with 25 pounds of ribs that we fixed on Friday afternoons for employees, customers, and a few friends,” Green says. Pretty soon they were up to 50 pounds of ribs per week, and by 1982, they were charging folks $5 per head.
After seven years of hauling dirt during the week and slinging barbecue on weekends, Green decided that one of the businesses had to go. “The price of fuel and tires were going up, but the price of hauling wasn’t,” Green says. On Dec. 1, 1988, he devoted himself to the fine art of slow-cooking meats.
For a number of years, Green and his wife traveled the barbecue cook-off circuit. They placed in the money four times at the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off in Sparks, Nev. His crowning achievement came in 1988 and 1989 when he won the World Invitational Rib Championship in Richmond, Va., giving him the right to claim the best ribs in the world.
North Main BBQ is at 406 N. Main in Euless, about two blocks north of U.S. 183 and three miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The restaurant is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 9pm and on Sundays from 11am to 4pm and is BYOB. For information, call 817/283-0884.
903rd in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of “Day Trips” 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
This article appears in October 24 • 2008.
