Pappy's baby back ribs in the smoker
It’s been 12 years since Pappy’s Smokehouse burst onto the local scene and taught St. Louisans a thing or two about barbecue.
Now, the storied barbecue joint is heading west with a new location.
The award-winning restaurant plans to open a second store in St. Peters, in a former Blaze Pizza location at 5246 N. Service Road, in late September or early October. The space seats 75, about half the number of the Midtown location.
"There's not much barbecue in that area and not a lot of independently owned restaurants," says managing partner John Matthews. “Pappy’s in Midtown is holding its own, but the growth areas—right now, anyway—are out west. Plus, our new landlord really wanted to see the Pappy’s name out there.”
The menu will be the same as the flagship—ribs, brisket, pulled pork, burnt ends, turkey, chicken, and sides—with one exception: no deep-fried items, due to the lack of an overhead hood system.
“To fill that gap, we’re rolling out a natural pairing for barbecue...cornbread,” says Matthews. It may be baked in the wood-burning pizza oven that was left behind. “We have a lot of ideas for that oven,” says Matthews.
Prior to the arrival of Pappy's in 2008, locals tended to grill (or boil and then grill) pork spare ribs before slathering them with a sweet, tomato-based sauce. Ribs were considered at their finger-lickin’ best when they “fell off the bone.”
Pappy’s changed all of that.
Co-founder Mike Emerson, along with pitmaster Skip Steele, both alums of Terry Black’s Super Smokers trailblazing venture, turned the picnic tables by introducing a different cut (baby back ribs), preparation (rubbed with sugar and dry spices), and cooking method (slow smoked). Barbecue sauce would be an option, not a mandate.
St. Louisans took to the style immediately but were slower to accept Emerson’s philosophy of not holding product over until the next day. To ensure freshness and maintain quality, Pappy’s closed when it ran out of product, rather than at a prescribed hour. Locals learned to accept a common-sense policy that should have been adopted in ‘cue shacks here long ago.
Matthews recalled that if the restaurant could get a line past the carpet runner—6 or 7 feet from the order counter—"we’d be doing just fine." A month later, the line snaked through the restaurant and into the parking lot. The 45-minute queue became a social event where friends were made and relationships forged while the ever-jovial Emerson plied them with samples of the soon-to-be-legendary baby back ribs. (One day, a customer had an Imo's Pizza delivered and shared it with his line mates.)
Local awards came quickly, and national recognition followed. Man vs. Food host Adam Richman paid a visit in December 2008, and the day after the episode aired, the pilgrimages began, recalled Emerson. Visitors toting suitcases became as common at Pappy’s as the smell of fruitwood smoke. “I could always tell when we got some national press,” Emerson recalls. “Literally the day after, the lines would be longer, and there'd be more suitcases.”
In 2010, former St. Louisan Danny Meyer invited Emerson to haul a fleet of smokers to New York to participate in the prestigious Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in Madison Square Park, where lines for Pappy's baby back ribs stretched around the block. In 2011, Skip Steele's Hogapalooza team finished fifth at Memphis in May.
Pappy’s was featured on The Chew in 2013. Emerson and Steele appeared on The Wendy Williams Show in 2014. Pappy’s soon began to creep onto on national barbecue lists. In 2015, TripAdvisor ranked it the 10th best barbecue restaurant in America. The next year, Food Network laid on a superlative: Out of the Top 5 Barbecue Ribs in America, Pappy’s ranked No. 1. In 2017, Zagat gave Pappy’s state bragging rights in “50 States, 50 Favorite Restaurants.”
So with other popular barbecue restaurants expanding in recent years—Salt + Smoke opening its fifth location this year, for example, and Sugarfire Smoke House growing even more quickly—why did it take Pappy’s a dozen years to open another location?
“It really didn’t,” explains Matthews. “We opened sister concepts, Bogart’s and Dalie’s, and were involved for a time with Southern, just nothing under the Pappy’s name."
Matthews adds, "Pappy's should do very well there."
Google maps
The future home of Pappy's Smokehouse, 5246 N. Service Rd. in St. Peters
