Rodney Beasley

Beasley’s Best Bar-B-Q
602 17th Ave.
Meridian, MS 39301
(601) 595-9238

"[My favorite thing about barbecue is] knowing I’m the best….God gave me a talent, and I’m going to put it out there." – Rodney Beasley

A native of Flint, Michigan, Rodney Beasley always had a passion for cooking. At sixteen, he started teaching himself how to barbecue in the backyard of his parent’s house. Eventually, he built his own smokers and perfected a fruit-infused sauce recipe that he uses to this day.

After working for General Motors for twenty years, Beasley left Michigan and came to the South in hopes of pursuing his dream of owning his own barbecue restaurant, despite taunts from his peers that the regional differences in taste and technique would pose a challenge.

Opening Beasley’s Best Bar-B-Q in downtown Meridian in December of 2009, Beasley has proved the naysayers wrong. While his restaurant is new to the Meridian area, Beasley’s Best has already established a loyal fan base, ranging from mothers who buy his barbecue in bulk to feed their families to nurses who stop by on their lunch break from nearby Riley Hospital. Beasley hopes to share his unique style of barbecue not only with the people of Mississippi, but with the rest of the Southeast, as well.

NOTE: What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

EDITED TRANSCRIPT

Subject: Rodney Beasley, owner
Date: June 29th, 2010
Location: Beasley’s Best Bar-B-Q – Meridian, MS
Interviewer & Photographer: Meghan Leonard

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Meghan Leonard: Alright. I’m sitting here with Mr. Beasley at 3:07 at Tuesday, June 29th. We’re at Beasley’s Best Barbecue in Meridian, Mississippi, and can I ask you to state your name, your occupation, and your birthday?

Rodney Beasley: Rodney Beasley. Birthday February 12th. Occupation Beasley’s Best Barbecue.

When did you open Beasley’s Best Barbecue?

December 10, 2009.

How long have you been in Meridian?

Two years.

Can you tell me a little bit where you came from?

I came from Flint, Michigan. General Motors capital.

Why did you move to Mississippi?

Because God showing people how good my barbecue is.

Now your barbecue is pretty good. It’s pretty delicious. I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about what makes it the best.

Well, I cook it real tender and make an old fashion barbecue sauce and tropical base. And I take my time and cook it real slow.

Your cooker that you have out there, did you make that yourself?

Yes, I did.

How long have you had it?

For about a year.

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Tell me a little bit about how you learned to do barbecue.

Well, I started cooking at home in the backyard of Flint, Michigan, and I started making sauce out of barbecue sauce that I mix up. And I started liking barbecue and finally, it took me thirty years to learn how to cook barbecue. So I been cooking barbecue about thirty years and making a homemade barbecue sauce that’s old fashioned, back in the thirties, that I make.

How would you describe your sauce?

Finger-licking good.

Everybody says that. What kind of base do you use?

Base is like a tropical base that I make out of lemon, mango, onions, butter, vinegar, chicken fat, sweet sugar, and tropical juice to where it’s real tasty to where it’s marinates your food all while you’re cooking it. And it’s real good.

That’s your own recipe. You created that yourself, right?

Yes, I did.

Tell me a little bit about your competitions. I know you’ve competed in some barbecue competitions; tell me a little bit about that.

Well, competitions ain’t nothing. I go in to win, and I have won.

Where have you won?

When I was in Detroit, and I won the Midwest tournament. Then in Atlanta, Georgia, and I won the Midsouth Tournament. Then I won one here recently at Meridian Yamaha.

Where else do you want to compete? Do you see yourself competing in Memphis in May?

Yes, next year.

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What all do you have on your menu?

Well, I have pulled pork sandwiches, whole pulled pork, rib sandwiches, rib dinners, half a slab of ribs and slabs, and barbecued chicken and rib tips and Polish sausage.

What kind of sides do you guys have?

Collard greens, candied yams, mac’n’cheese, black-eyed peas, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw.

What’s the most popular item on your menu?

Baked beans and potato salad.

What about for your meat? What’s your favorite meat item?

Ribs. Spare ribs.

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Where do you see Beasley’s going? Do you want to expand or stay in this location?

Going on all over the Midsouth and the Midwest.

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Does your family have any background in barbecue?

No, just me.

Why do you think that is? Were you the only one with a passion for it?

Well, no. It’s something that I like to do. Cook on the grill.

Are any of your kids interested in it?

I have a daughter named Tashiva Beasley. She’s very interested in selling my sauce.

Do a lot of people buy your sauce—just the sauce?

Yes, they do.

Do you want to keep Beasley’s Best in the family?

Yes.

You hope she’ll take it over one day?

Yes.

What’s your favorite thing about being in barbecue?

Knowing I’m the best….God gave me a talent, and I’m going to put it out there.

How long have you been barbecuing?

Ever since I been eighteen years old. Now I’m 54.

That’s a long time. Have you changed the way you barbecue over the years?

Yes.

How so?

Well, I change the way I barbecue about twenty-some years ago to where I learned twenty seven years ago how to barbecue.

What change did you make?

Cooking the meat right and making my own barbecue sauce.

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Tell me a little bit about the ribs that you’re making right now. How do you do them differently than other people?

Well, I take my time. I try to get them tender where you don’t have to wrestle with the meat. You can just—you enjoy eating them. They’re not tough. Lot of people say you don’t need no teeth to eat, but they lie. This one here, you don’t need no teeth to eat them. They fall off the bone.

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What made you choose this location in Meridian?

I’ve been coming down to Meridian for about nine years, and I saw that people loved to eat barbecue and I said that I would like to get them some ribs to taste, show them barbecue.

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Now being from the North and Meridian here is in the South, how do you think that’s influenced the way you do your barbecue?

Well, they say can’t no northerner cook barbecue, but that’s a lie. This northerner will cook all over these southerners.

What do you do differently than these southerners?

I cook the meat.

You cook it better than the southerners?

Yes, I do.

What’s more important to you – the sauce or the meat?

Everything plays a major part.

What—do you rely on one thing more than the other? Do you rely on your sauce—?

I rely on me cooking it. If I perform and cook it right, it ends up being good.

How do you—where did all your recipes come from? With your sides, is that family, passed down or you just learned?

I just learned, and I make my own recipes.

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Do you have any competition in the local area?
           
Well, you can call it competition, but it’s nothing to me.

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What is your favorite thing on the menu that you think, personally, is the best?

Spare ribs. Pork spare ribs.

The last time I was here you told me that you could do the ribs anyway anybody wanted them. What kinds of ways—different ways can you do them?

I can do them jerk style. I can do them wet, dry, any kind of way they want me to do them. They just got to let me know.

How do you do them? If you were to eat your ribs, how would you cook them?

Well, I would marinate mine in my own marinate for at least a night, overnight. And then I would slow cook them to where they get a real juicy flavor to where you really don’t need sauce to eat them.

How long do you cook most of your meat?

Well, the first slice of meat I just put on the grill, that would be three hours on that grill, slow cooking.

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Do you want to describe them [your smokers], how you made them?

Well, I did all the welding, cutting them out for the doors and stuff, and welding the handles, spot-welding the handles together, and putting them on the—I can’t [inaudible]. I just make them.

Tell me about the wood you use because I know you don’t use hickory, which a lot of people in Mississippi do use. I want to know about the wood you use and why.

Well, I like hickory but a lot of people in Mississippi use pecan. But I prefer hickory, but I use pecan just to put a smoky flavor in there and try to put another color on it but I prefer hickory.

What is the difference between the flavor of the meat that the pecan gives as opposed to the hickory?

It just puts a smoky flavor in there and that’s a flavor that a lot of people look for with their meat, and I try to cook it in hickory—I mean, pecan. That’s what I’m getting ready to cook it in in a minute once its brown.

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What do you think the difference is in difference in Mississippi—the Mississippi barbecue tradition, as opposed to North Carolina, South Carolina, or even Alabama?

Well, it's the difference—a lot of people in Mississippi can't cook barbecue.
Maybe that's why there is no tradition.

What do you think—if you had to describe the tradition, what would you describe it as?

Fair.

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Have you always been in barbecue, or have you had other jobs and you just kind of fell into owning your own barbecue place?

Well, I worked at GM for 20 years. But I still cooked barbecue on the side, and I got to liking to cook barbecue to where I just started cooking it to where it's something I like to do.

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Beasley's Best is not your first restaurant, am I right?

No.

Where were you before? Can you describe restaurants you've worked in before this one?

Well, I've worked in the Golden Fry up in Michigan and Chicken Affair in Michigan, Mac Beef in Michigan. I had my first restaurant in Winona, Mississippi. Not successful. Now I had a concession stand in Philadelphia. Not successful. And then I had a [inaudible] in Atlanta, Georgia. Successful. But I still came to Mississippi to start my barbecue dream.

What made you choose Meridian?

Long story.

Let's hear it.

Well, I met a friend of mine that stayed in Meridian. And she ordered some ribs and said that, "You should come to Meridian and barbecue." So, I came down to Meridian, tasted a few barbecue samples at different places, and I said, "They need to taste barbecue." So that's what made me want to come to Meridian.

To change the name of the game?

Right.

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Where do you think your passion for cooking came from?

When I was a little kid, I started cooking with my mother. And I started liking to cook.

Your mom cooked all the while when you were little?

Mm-hmm.

Did she ever do barbecue?

She tried.

She wasn't very successful?

No.

So you're self-taught on barbecue?

I taught me how to barbecue.

When you first started barbecue, like, for a business, was there a standard that you tried to meet, or did you just try to be the best?

I tried to be the best. I go barbecue.

What kind of barbecue did you eat growing up in Michigan if there was any?

Pork spare ribs and chicken on the grill, hot dogs on the grill.

Just regular grilling out foods?

Mm-hmm.

Did you know what you were getting into when you opened your own barbecue business?

No, I didn't.

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Do you feel a responsibility to the people of Meridian to cook them the best barbecue?

Well, I want to give them a chance to taste the best barbecue.

They won't go back after that?

They get to tasting this, and they won't go back.

Your smoker is old school, and it's amazing. What do you think about electric smokers, electric cookers?

Electric cooker don't put the flavor into the meat the way I charcoal grill cook the flavor in there and wood flavor. Gas don't do it neither.

Why do you think that is?

It's a difference in the taste.

How would you describe that difference?

In the gas cooker, you're not getting the smoke that's coming into it. You're not getting the outdoor air that's coming into it. You're just getting direct gas. A flame broiled or a char broiled.

Every time that I've been in here, which I mean, this is only my second time, but you're here. You're the man of Beasley's Best. How important is it for you to be in your restaurant?

Well, it wouldn't be ran without anybody here.

If you're not here, nothing?

Right.

I like that about Beasley's. I think people like that about you too. Are you planning on expanding your menu anytime soon?

Yes.

What are you going to add to it?

Well, I'm going to add the coleslaw on top of the pulled pork if I can get people to buy it, see. That pulled pork sandwich is famous in the Carolinas and made it to Memphis to where the people in Meridian don't know nothing about it. They know about it, but only a few know about it. They would ask for it, but the rest of them want it straight up. I'm going to put that on the menu all the time.

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The last time I was here you told me that you can do the sauce anyway people want it.

Anyway they want the sauce. They want vanilla, banana, pineapple, cherry, strawberry, peach. I'll make it that way for them.

[laughs] How would you do that?

Well, that's my secret.

Yeah, you don't want to tell me everything. I totally understand. Now you told me you wanted to go to Atlanta. Is there where else you would want to go?

Well, I want to go to Memphis in May next year to win that worldwide contest. I'm the best.

Would you ever want to go back up North and do barbecue up there?

One day in the near future I will go back home.

Back to Detroit?

Mm-hmm.

What about somewhere like New York or even out West, would you take barbecue out there?

Well, I would show somebody and teach them how to barbecue, and if they want to go, they can go.

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Does she [your daughter] know all your recipes, or are you going to let her learn for herself?

No, I'm going to teach her my recipes. That way she can carry the dream on.

And what dream is that?

To be the best I am.

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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

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