South Side rib tips is a signature dish of United States; we have verified places to eat it in Chicago. Pork-rib trimmings smoked in aquarium-style smokers over oak and hickory, sliced into cartilage-knobbed cubes, sauced in a sweet vinegar-based barbecue mop. Start with where to eat South Side rib tips in Chicago.
South Side rib tips · Chicago
Pork-rib trimmings smoked in aquarium-style smokers over oak and hickory, sliced into cartilage-knobbed cubes, sauced in a sweet vinegar-based barbecue mop.
Chicago's barbecue tradition runs through the Great Migration: African-American cooks from Mississippi and Tennessee brought wood-smoking up to the South and West sides between the 1910s and the 1960s. The Chicago particular is the aquarium smoker, a glass-and-steel cabinet packed with oak and hickory, designed for the city's lots and ordinances. Rib tips (the cartilage-rich trim from St. Louis-cut spare ribs) became the everyman cut: cheaper than ribs, deeper-flavoured, served in cubes with hot links, white bread and a tangy-sweet sauce. Lem's Bar-B-Q on 75th Street, open since 1954, is the cathedral. Honey 1 in West Town and Uncle John's on the South Side are the second tier.
Where to eat in Chicago:
- Lem's Bar-B-Q
- Honey 1 BBQ
- Uncle John's BBQ
Where to eat South Side rib tips in Chicago: the editor picks