Barbecue becomes restaurateur's salvation

NEW YORK - Meat over fire.

Oldest trick in the book.

Maybe the Good Book.

Best clear the pulpit: London restaurateur Koye Rhodes preaches the power of barbecue.

Sure, many Americans, South Carolinians and Charlestonians consider the food sacred.

Only Rhodes sees it as his salvation.

He visited New York to attend the fifth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party on June 9-10, where he got a few pointers, some additional know-how.

Not long ago, Rhodes was given his biggest tip. He was living in Lagos, Nigeria, working in the granite/marble industry, though he longed to return to London, where his wife and children lived.

'I said, 'OK, I'm going to say a prayer,' ' Rhodes remembered. 'I said, 'God, show me what I can do in London to spend more time with my family.' '

Two or three hours later, a voice came to him, like a dream.

'Barbecue.'

Pardon?

'I said, 'God, you can't be serious.' '

He knew little of the food, so he went to a computer, searched 'barbecue machine.'

He found Southern Pride, a company from Illinois that makes cookers, a great coincidence. Rhodes graduated from Southern Illinois in 1982.

'God was telling me to go back where I started.'

He ended up attending the National Barbecue Association Convention in Houston two years ago, meeting Mike Mills, barbecue impresario and author of 'Peace, Love and Barbecue.'

'I became a disciple of Mike Mills,' said Rhodes, 45.

Seven months ago, he opened a small restaurant, Rhodes Bar-B-Q Shack, near Canary Wharf in the eastern part of the city, where he's likely got the market cornered. He knows of only one other barbecue establishment in London.

Rhodes serves St. Louis-style ribs, barbecue beef and barbecue pork shoulders, 'just like Grandma's cooking,' so says his menu.

He prepares the food in a nontraditional manner, cooking off-site in a warehouse he calls the smokehouse. There, he chills the meat, puts it in vacuum packs, then reheats it in conventional microwaves at his restaurant.

His place has done well. The magazine Time Out London reviewed the Shack, giving it four stars out of six.

Just one catch: Rhodes isn't exactly spending more time with his family.

'They don't see me,' he said, laughing, shaking his head. 'I end up spending more time at the smokehouse, working all night.'

Reach Rob Young at 937-5518 or ryoung@postandcourier.com.