A Hot Welcome to Ronnie’s

Friday, September 11, 2009

If you haven’t been down to Ronnie’s Ribs yet, you don’t know what you are missing.

Located in a parking lot at the corner of 25th and East Main Streets, the storefront is an unassuming trailer, but the food is out of this world — and quickly gaining quite a following. In the two years they’ve been in operation, including just one year at their current location on Main, Ronnie’s Ribs has gained significant national exposure. The Food Network featured Ronnie’s Ribs in their Best Thing I Ever Ate: Bar-B-Que show, and The View recently dished them up on one of their episodes.

When I asked owner Ronald Logan, a Varina native who’s lived in the area his entire life, what he thought was the secret to his success, he immediately had a one-word answer: love.

But it didn’t take much longer for his deeper meaning to come out.

“To a lot of folks, it’s my attitude and how I feel about my food,” Logan says. “The way we set up in the parking lot, people can come right up to us and talk to us, can see the meat cooking, can smell it and have the interaction. I get to know customers by their first names.”

Logan also loves cooking.

His passion started when he was much younger and cooking with his dad. So when Logan lost his job at a local banking firm after 29 years of employment, he began looking for the next step.

He was smoking meat at his home, and his son would bring dishes in to work events. Requests quickly came from people who wanted to buy a slab of ribs. Before long, his son asked him if he could cater a work event for 95 people. Logan agreed. And word spread from there. In fact, to this day, Logan says he’s barely advertised his company.

“The smoker uses indirect heat and hickory wood,” Logan says. “The flames don’t hit it. That helps a lot. And the meat is slow cooked. Ribs take 3 ½ to 4 hours, and wings might take an hour and a half. There’s a lot of love going into it before, during and after.”

Logan points out that he makes his own sauce and his own rub — a truly defining feature.

Menu items are very well priced and include staples such as his famous hickory smoked ribs, North Carolina-style pulled pork barbeque, jumbo wings and beef brisket. Combos include a side dish and a drink, or you can order a la carte.

In looking to the future of Ronnie’s Ribs, Logan says he hopes to open a restaurant in Rocketts Landing within the next couple of years. They are planning to add dinner delivery that would service downtown Richmond and Rocketts Landing residents. They will also soon expand their operating hours in order to meet increased demand.

“To do what you have a passion for and squeak out a living, it’s not easy,” Logan says, “but we’re a family-run business, and when you love to do something, you don’t mind doing it.”

Ronnie’s Ribs is currently open Thursday – Saturday, Noon to 8 p.m. You can visit them online at Ronniesribsandwings.com.