UP IN SMOKE
Rib Fest and its fans return to Heinz Field
On Monday, the streets outside of Heinz Field were jammed like it was 2019.
Generators hummed. Flipflops smacked. Miley Cyrus was singing “Party in the U.S.A” over the loudspeakers, and all of it was enveloped in great big clouds of rib smoke.
Rib Fest, which was canceled last year — like all joyful things — because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was back in action.
Even though new cases of the virus at this time last year were a fifth of what they are now, loyal fans and newbies came out in droves to get a taste of the return — to football, to school, to some semblance of the before times.
Michael Haynes was taking it all in while routing would-be patrons to his booth, Fine Smoke, of Columbus, Ohio.
The company was voted second best for ribs on Sunday evening and Mr. Haynes was holding the trophy.
“2019, we had the best sauce,” he said. “2020 the world closed down. 2021, we got second,” he said.
Not bad, all things considered, he said.
“We’re just here to make friends and sell ribs.”
A little further down Art Rooney Avenue, John Caldwell also was making friends, loudly, at After Hours BBQ, from Orrville, Ohio.
“Nothing’s good here,” he shouted. “Everything here’s great!” The short line just means the service is fast, he said as the event, which ran from noon until 7 p.m., was just getting underway. Presumably, there was an equally good explanation or the long line that developed by midafternoon.
“I see ya’ll looking here,” he called out to a group eyeing their options. “You better get some ribs here before you go on and get disappointed (elsewhere).”
Before they could answer, Mr. Caldwell reached over them to shake the hand of a passerby wearing a Vietnam Veterans baseball cap.
“Thank you sir for your service,” he said. He then returned to the group for further charming.
Over in the children’s corner, Meghan and Ryan Moore, of Ross, watched their 3-year-old, Ayla, bouncing in a bungee harness, her blond ponytail swinging up and down on each flight.
The family would still need to visit with the Mister Rogers statue before they would decide what to eat.
Ms. Moore, though “not a rib eater,” has been coming to Rib Fest every year for the past decade. Each year, she likes to pick a different booth and sample the goods. Maybe, she thought, she’d go back to Bad Azz BBQ again.
The Pittsburgh-based joint picked up the People’s Choice award on Sunday and was
correspondingly packed on Monday.
The festival’s top honor went to South Carolinabased Big Boned BBQ, which was ranked best ribs and best sauce.
As sons Patrick and Ben Nelson slathered the winning sauce on ribs inside the booth on Monday, their mother Gloria Nelson stood in front advertising their newly won trophy and singing their praises. The family has been coming to Pittsburgh for Rib Fest for 15 years, Ms. Nelson said, and has won first place a handful of times.
The booth had loud signs boasting champion titles from prior years at festivals around the country.
To make up for a year of canceled events, there was a sign for 2020 that predicted that Big Boned “would have won” BBQ battles in Fort Wayne, Ind., Minneapolis, and Mankato, Minn. Under Pittsburgh, it hedged: “might have won.”
The Pittsburgh rib festival that accompanies the start of football season has been around since 1990, back when it was staged at Three Rivers Stadium.
But Tom and Phyllis Naughton, of Washington, Pa., were enjoying it for the first time on Monday.
While the younger contingent of their family ate in a circle on the grass, Mr. and Mrs. Naughton, found a spot on a stone bench to tackle their sandwiches. They had just come from the nearby National Aviary, Ms. Naughton said.
So much has changed in the recent past, they said. Pittsburgh has changed and they are enjoying rediscovering it. Rib Fest was their third time in the city in a week.
While they had barely made a dent in their food, their 9-year-old granddaughter ran up from the grass with leftover ribs and handed them to Mr. Naughton.
“I’ll see what I can do about that,” he promised.