During our recent visit to Atlanta for the annual CEDIA Expo, my boss and one of my colleagues had to go out to dinner with an account one evening. My remaining colleagues were in a minor quandary as to where to go for our dinner. One of our guys, Ian, suggested barbecue and there was a barbecue place not far from our hotel in Buckhead - One Star Ranch. We decided to give it a try.
I had been in Atlanta a number of years ago when the CEDIA Expo was there for a couple of years and I met up with my friend, Eric Van Fossen, one evening for a night out. He took me to a rib place that, from what I remembered, was pretty good. It was sort of a dive place - plenty of picnic tables and a lot of beer signs on the wall. But the barbecue was good. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the name of it, nor could I tell you exactly where it was. When I pulled up in front of the One Star Ranch, it immediately jogged my memory. This was the place Eric took me to about 12 years prior. (He confirmed that was the place when I talked to him a couple days later.)
Except it wasn't called One Star Ranch at that time. A little over 20 years ago, Frank and Pam Bonk opened their little rib place in Buckhead and called it the Rib Ranch. When they opened their second location in suburban Alpharetta in 2001, they decided to change the name of their restaurants to One Star Ranch. The waitress at One Star Ranch told me they changed the name when they got a "one star" rating by a local food critic for their barbecue. Considering many people had thought of the Rib Ranch as being the best barbecue in Atlanta for over 10 years, the Bonk's decided to play up the bad ranking. It was kind of a funny story.
One Star Ranch is a little tough to find (see map). When I pulled up, there's a large parking lot next to the place. Except there was - maybe - two or three cars in the lot. One of our guys said, "This might not be good. There's no one here." We got out of the van and started to walk toward the restaurant. The waitress who eventually ended up waiting on us leaned over the railing from the outdoor seating area and said, "Hey, are you all comin' in here for food?"
We said we were. She said, "You can't park there or your van will get towed and we certainly don't want that. Go ahead and park across the street."
Sure enough, I looked around and saw these warning signs that vehicle that weren't authorized to park in that lot would be towed. I looked across the street and saw that the smaller lot over there was nearly full. But someone was pulling out of a spot and I took that. Oh, yes. There were a lot of people in the restaurant.
The guys had commandeered a picnic table outside as I parked the van and they immediately started to order up some beers. Our waitress gave us each a menu and one of the guys said, "Hey, can we get an order of onion rings right off the bat to tide us over?"
She said, "You all want a whole tub?"
We all kind of shrugged our shoulders and collectively said, "Sure!"
Being that I'd been there before, some of the guys were quizzing me as what to get. I said, "All I remember is that the food was good, the beer was cold and they had football on the televisions in the dining room. It was a fun night."
We downed our beers pretty quickly, to the point that the waitress suggested that we just get a couple buckets of beer to go with our ample - and excellently greasy - onion rings. We ordered up another "tub" of rings, as well.
One Star Ranch bills itself as a Texas-style barbecue rather than the mustard sauce-based, pork-centric style that you get in the Southeast. I was torn between their brisket and the pork ribs. And they didn't have a combo plate like you get at most other barbecue places. So, I decided to get both. The only problem is that you get two sides with each platter. I went with double baked beans and fries. I wouldn't eat the fries, but I'm sure other people at the table would.
One Star Ranch is famous for their beef ribs. If you grew up watching The Flintstones, you remember some of the exaggerated ribs that Fred or Barney would be gnawing on. When they brought out the beef ribs that a couple of guys had ordered, well, it was then when I decided that I needed to get a camera phone. These things were huge! Just absolutely huge! And they brought out not one, but TWO per plate! We all got a large laugh out of how big they were.
My "regular" pork rib plate consisted of four meaty ribs. And the brisket plate had a generous portion of sliced beef on it. And both were very good. And the beans were very good, as well. I liked their sweet, yet sort of spicy barbecue sauce. It was a great complement to the meat and beans. But it was a lot of food. I was able to finish the ribs and the brisket, but a lot of the beans were left over and I didn't even bother with the fries.
Our waitress was just excellent. She had a sassy sense of humor and was quick on the requests. She got a hefty tip for putting up with us.
One Star Ranch was everything that I remembered the old "Rib Ranch" was and more. I'm more partial to the Texas - Kansas City style of barbecue with the sweet and spicy sauces, juicy ribs and flavorful beef brisket. And that's exactly what One Star Ranch is. And I'll tell you - it's far from a "one star" rating. I'd like to find that critic and find out what the deal really was on their visit.
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