Ask any Southerner, and they will assure you that the best barbecue comes from the South. That’s what Reo’s Ribs’ pit master, Erris Varnado, believes, and it goes back to his father, the late Reo Varnado, and their Mississippi roots. The origin of America barbecue goes back to the indigenous tribes Christopher Columbus observed on the island of Hispaniola, according to Smithsonian magazine, and was “a unique method for cooking meat over an indirect flame.”
The Spanish explorers who came after Columbus brought the cooking technique with them, and in 1540, close to present-day Tupelo, Mississippi, the Chicksaw tribe cooked a feast of pork over the barbacoa, as they called the original barbecue method, for explorer Hernando deSoto. Varnado’s own history of barbecue goes back to the barbecue expertise of his father, who started a Reo’s Ribs as food truck in Aloha with Myra Girod, who owns the present Reo’s Ribs at 4211 Northeast Sandy Blvd.
Reo passed away three years ago, but his legacy lives on through Reo’s Ribs, with Erris as its pit master, Myra’s chief employee. Reo and Myra met at a Portland night club and became fast friends, and he confided in her his desire to start a barbecue business. “If I just had a grill, people would come” he said. Myra came across a food truck, which Reo said would work, and then he found a grill, a twin grill with two pits side by side, on the side of the road, and that was the beginning of a business that went from a food truck to several restaurants in the area to the present location.
But the move wasn’t without its problems, starting with three fires in recent years started by arsonists, who were on drugs and/or had mental problems, that caused shut downs of a year or two years each time since the move there in 2017. “We’ve always had challenges along the way,” Myra said. But she never gave up and always met them head-on with Erris by her side.
The business had grown recently with the addition of a 15-seat lunchroom in the front of the building, a former real estate office. Beautiful, thick wooden tables, which Myra got from Tropical Salvage, are graced by a huge vertical driftwood standing in one corner.
A huge 18-foot, three-pit barbecue stands outside the building, which attracts people driving by with the smell, said Erris. “The smell grabs them by the nose and pulls them in,” he said. Since its beginning in the late ‘90s, the selections from Reo’s Ribs have been spread by word of mouth, Myra said. “We’re known all over.”
Today the most popular items on the extensive menu, which can be found on their website at reosribs.com, are baby back ribs, brisket, catfish and pulled pork, Erris said. And it’s not just grilled meat, but whole meals as well that include sides like cornbread, fried okra, yams, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, collard and mustard greens, hush puppies, coleslaw and French fries.
The side dishes are prepared by Isabelle Garcia, who’s been with Reo’s Ribs for 15 years, as has Erris. Garcia who also works a cashier, as does recent hire and line cook Bruno Gordillo Zubillaga. “It’s very much a family affair,” Myra said.
In addition to in-house offerings, a big part of the business is delivery orders through an arrangement with Uber Eats, as well as catering for big parties and events, from 10 to 200 orders. “Just let us know a week in advance,” Myra said. “It takes at least three days for big orders.”
For large orders, call Reo’s Ribs at 503-310-3600. For its winter hours, Reo’s is open on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Sunday and Monday. “We’ll open longer in the spring and summer,” Myra said. The popularity of Reo’s Ribs goes back to the skills Reo Varnado learned in Mississippi, but don’t ask is son how it’s done. “We use secret recipes,” Erris said.