Blame it on Joel
Honey 1 BBQ

Chowhound JoelS may, just may, ignite a whole new BBQ explosion in Chicago. You see Joel organized a BBQ vanguard, with a dangerous agents scouring the city for potential and wily old masters lending their wisdom. And believe me, Bastille has been stormed. We will soon all thank Joel for his cause. Already, The Reader is being taken over as their reporter, Mike Sula, fights house by house on the pages of his newspaper. Lobbing his bombs of slow cooked and wood against the regime of grill and gas. Soon, we might even turn on our evening news and see such food. Such food you will no longer be able to get to bed. And like any revolution, this one has a shrine, a gathering spot.

I paid my homage today. Meeting the partisans at Honey 1 Ribs, 5135 W. Division in Chicago. Two hours later, my mouth, the inner cells of my cheek, the entirety of my soft palate, well down into my esophagus, remained coated in a lucious film of pork fat. See, while Honey 1 gets a nice veneer of smoke from a mix of hard woods, mostly oak, and a thin Wiv-crisp crust, and even a hint of seasoning, these ribs are all about pork fat. Not fatty let me say. They taste nothing of bacon, only of ribs. Yet, these ribs are strikingly different from the other rib stands around town. The Chicago rib tastes mostly dry. I always think of the meat as striated, as it seems to break into long thin spikes. Honey 1 ribs does not do that. Instead, it provides you a pillow to sink your teeth. Really, it is flat out fun to eat these ribs. Of course it is flat out fun to eat their rib tips and hot links too. The tips ARE fatty, but only in the best of ways. Robert Adams, the pitmaster of Honey 1 has been working on his link method, and his practice is paying off. He's slowed the heat down but also decided to cook the links less. The result is snappy and, well can I say lucious again in this report? These links are coarse but no where as coarse as other Chicago links. You are getting a fully emulsified sausage, no chunks of fat, no bits of gristle, but tons of spice, not many kinds of spice but many handfuls of one spice, cayenne pepper. Mr. Adams has no weak spot.

As has been well noted on Chowhound and the Reader, Robert Adams and his son, also Robert Adams, enjoy cooking their stuff as much as you will enjoy eating it. If you care, they will willingly engage you in Q-ology. And Cubs fans too!
Join the revolution.

It has been well noted on Chowhound that ribs are not necessarily there at Honey 1 unless you call in advance (773-626-5436). Do. Although you can still be quite happy with the tips or links.