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Meet Charlie Robinson Number One Vendor at the World's Number One Outdoor Food Fair
SPECIAL TO SAFEWAY SELECT MAGAZINE |
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Taste of Chicago, the world's largest outdoor food event (last year 3.65 million people attended), and the second biggest tourist attraction in the State of Illinois (the Museum of Science and Industry is the first). And once again Grant Park, famous for majestic Buckingham Fountain facing Lake Michigan, will be transformed into a huge food carnival. More than 70 restaurants serve their specialties from festive tents. And every day, from morning till night, ongoing entertainments are staged: free concerts, performances, dancing, rides, cooking demonstrations, home and garden showcases, celebrity appearances and more. Charlie Robinson, the 53-year-old founder of Robinson's #1 Ribs, has been in the thick of it as a participating restaurant for 14 years. And for the past 12 years, he has been the Taste of Chicago's Number One vendor, outselling everyone. Robinson's particular genius -- aside from his award-winning ribs and sauces -- is in being able to rise to all occasions, which, in his case, always means bigger. For starters, he comes from a big family. Born in Lambert, Mississippi, one of eight children, after graduating from college, he came to the Chicago area with no job prospects, but took an entry-level job with a national ice cream manufacturer -- which quickly lead to his own distributorship. In his spare time, in his home kitchen, he decided "to play around with" his grandfather's barbecue sauce, a recipe that had been in the Robinson family for generations. ("It has about 17 or 18 different spices," is all he will say.) In 1982, Chicago-based columnist Mike Royko boasted that he made the best ribs anywhere and organized the Mike Royko Ribfest of 1982 to prove it. More than 400 contestants showed up to disprove it, and a panel of impartial judges picked Charlie Robinson's ribs as Number One. "There was such a demand, that I was sort of forced into this business," says Robinson. So he opened a catering business -- which is still growing -- Robinson's #1 Ribs restaurant in Oak Park, a second restaurant in Chicago, bottled his family's sauce (and a line of other sauces and seasonings), signed a licensing agreement for 15 additional Robinson's ribs restaurants, and, of course, became the Number One vendor at the Taste of Chicago. "Taste of Chicago gives us high visibility and so many opportunities to do other things," Robinson says. Among those other things are having Robinson's Ribs on United Airlines flights during the 30-day period that surrounds the Taste, and being one of the vendors at McCormick Place for every trade show that takes place there. "Of course, I have help," he says. Robinson heads the highly lucrative catering business ad special events such as Taste. Robinson's wife is in charge of the sauce company and his son, Cordell, now 26 and a graduate of the University of Arkansas, runs the business which includes the concessions at McCormick Place. "And we have help at the Taste of Chicago, too," he says. Robinson staffs the tent with two shifts of 40 workers each that are hired from one of the City of Chicago's summer jobs programs for underprivileged youths. "The kids who do well at school, do well at the job," he observes. Robinson's overall system for his food station at Taste works so well that people visit him to observe. Last year officials from the annual Memphis in May International Festival came to observe him in action, and the year before organizers of a festival in Canada. As soon as Robinson folds his tent from this year's Taste, he starts work on the next one. "We have to start to buy ribs early so we can lock in the price, otherwise we could be selling ribs and losing money." His advice to the home cook: "You can do a good job on ribs, if you follow a few guidelines. First, buy the best quality meat. Be sure to take the silver skin off, and season it with a dry rub and marinate it in the refrigerator overnight. This not only seasons it, and seals in the juices, but tenderizes it as well. Use charcoal and wood chips but keep in mind that the meat picks up 90% of the smoke in the first 30 to 40 minutes of cooking. Burn the charcoal off to white before you start cooking and cook over indirect heat. Don't put any sauce on till the very end or it will burn. Keep the temperature low. Spraying with water or closing the vent helps slow down the cooking."
Safe and Sound But his sales are astounding. Last year Robininson's #1 Ribs sold 83,000 orders from a 20-x20-ft. tent. The top two sellers, in order, are the boneless rib sandwich and BBQ baby back ribs, accounting for the 9 tons (18,000 pounds) of ribs Robinson used. Sound sanitation procedures keep this huge volume of ribs safe. At a USDA-approved food plant, the ribs are marinated overnight in his signature seasoned dry rub. Then they are slowly hot smoked at 220°F for 4-1/2 to 5 hours. The cooked ribs are frozen and packed into 30-pound boxes. The boxes of frozen ribs are loaded onto a 40-foot-long refrigerated trailer with a zero-degree or below temperature, that is parked outside his tent at Taste. When the ribs are needed, it takes just minutes to rethermalize them in smokers (at 400-500 degrees), sauce and serve them.
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