John Lewis

Order the Mesquite-Smoked Beef Back Ribs at Rancho Lewis

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Name: Rancho Lewis
Date: 4/14/23
Address: 1503 King St, Charleston, SC 29403
Order: Beef Back Ribs “Half The Cow!” with cowboy slaw, charro beans, and a green chile baked potato (link to menu)
Pricing: $$$

Monk: John Lewis established his barbecue restaurant Lewis Barbecue in 2016 after having made the move as the well-regarded pitmaster at La Barbecue in Austin. As the story goes, John had received rapturous feedback from his food festival stops in Charleston over the years and finally made the leap east in 2015. Since opening his first restaurant in 2016, he has opened a second Lewis Barbecue location in Greenville in August 2022. This capped off a busy year that started with the opening of his upscale Tex-Mex Rancho Lewis in Charleston in April 2022. I think it’s fair to say that it’s worked out well for Lewis in the Holy City.

Rancho Lewis didn’t start out of nothing, however. What was then known as Juan Luis occupied a food stall in the Workshop food hall at the location where Rancho Lewis sits today. While I never made it to Workshop, I did force my family to make a quick detour a few years back to the Juan Luis food trailer that sat outside Lewis Barbecue and served some amazing breakfast tacos.

As soon as I opened the menu, I knew there was one item on the menu that was a must order as soon as I saw it. Behold: the beef back ribs, “half the cow!”

As stated on the menu, this item is a “whole full rack, slow cooked overnight in our mesquite pit.” According to our waitress that night, the $48.95 order comes with somewhere between 6-12 ribs. Thankfully I got on the lower end of that spectrum with 7 since I was the main eater of the dish at our table and was going to be at a music festival for the next two days without access to an over to reheat. The ribs themselves were fantastically tender, more so than my previous experience with beef back ribs. Perfectly smoked, the mesquite wood did not overpower the meat or the tangy sauce. I would for sure order these again with a large group next. The sides themselves were worth sharing as well.

Its pretty well established that green chiles are part of the larger pet project of John Lewis spreading the cuisine from his West Texas upbringing in El Paso. For the past 5 falls he’s even hosted an annual Hatch Chile Festival, with the 6th planned for sometime in October 2023. To that end, I was told by our waitress not to sleep on the green chile baked potato, and I can report back that she did not steer me wrong.

The other sides of cowboy slaw and charro beans were also executed to a high level, and I do have to mention their version of the paloma called “So Far So Bueno” which is a “big clay bowl filled with tequila, citrus juices, sparkling grapefruit.” Not the easiest to drink without spilling, but it added some fun to the meal. And while Rancho Lewis (and its pricing) certainly reflects an upscale Tex-Mex restaurant, we did get to enjoy the half-priced happy hour drink specials available on the patio shared with Edmund’s Oast before being seated.

Rancho Lewis takes the Juan Luis concept to another level and while its certainly more Tex-Mex than Texas barbecue, I can’t recommend it more highly. If you’ve got a Tex-Mex fan in your life (as I do with Mrs. Monk), you owe it to check out a different kind of cuisine at Rancho Lewis in Charleston.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Beef Back Ribs – 4.5 hogs
Sides – 4.5 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs

Linkdown: 1/18/23 – The Clyde Cooper Anniversary Edition

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Featured

North Carolina’s oldest barbecue restaurant will celebrate its 85th anniversary on February 11. That’s right, 85 years! Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue has seemingly been invigorated by the “BBQ Karen” controversy from late last year and will take its newfound energy into its 86th year in existence. A big congrats to them!

Native News

Eater has released an updated restaurant list for the Triangle

A construction update of the Raleigh location of Midwood Smokehouse

Ray Nathan’s recently celebrated their 4th anniversary earlier this month

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Jon G’s has rolled out a separate “Carolina chopped barbecue” service out of their trailer at Barbecue Saturdays in Peachland

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Have you tried the foil boat method?

Hill East Burgers in DC cold smokes their burgers with brisket trimmings for their take on smoked smash burgers

John Lewis’s Rancho Lewis makes the Charleston Hot List from Eater Carolinas

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Adrian Miller dropping some Colorado barbecue knowledge

Linkdown: 9/14/22

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Featured

Monk: Greenville, SC has added a heavy hitter in barbecue today as Lewis Barbecue has opened the doors of its second location. John Lewis has taken over the former 30-year location of Tommy’s Ham House, and even earned the blessing of owner Tommy Stevenson. The original Charleston location earned a 4.5 hogs from both Speedy and Monk in separate visits in 2017 and 2018.

Eater Carolinas has all the behind the scenes information:

Lewis Barbecue is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Native News

Midwood Smokehouse has made it to the finals of the News & Observer Barbecue Bracket against Wilber’s Barbecue; voting ends Thursday, 9/15 at noon

Chopped vs pulled: who you got?!?!?

Three pitmasters – Dr. Dana Hanson of NC State, Michael Markham of Big Mike’s BBQ in Raleigh, and Matthew Register of Southern Smoke – give their tips for backyard smokers and beginners

Non-Native News

Adrian Miller joins the Southern Foodways Alliance Fall Symposium

I haven’t listened yet but I’m already pre-jealous of the Tales from the Pits epic bourbon and barbecue roadtrip

Kerlin BBQ in Austin had its last day of service after 9 years this past week

Barbecue Bros AV Club: First Impressions of “World of Flavor With Big Moe Cason”

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Monk: In addition to “BBQ Brawl” and “BBQ USA,” “World of Flavor with Big Moe Cason” is another welcome barbecue/live fire cooking show in the current peak tv landscape. However, it differs from those shows in that its more of a travelogue show about live fire cooking in the Anthony Bourdain tradition mixed with a National Geographic show that teaches you while showing you something pretty through some gorgeous scenery and camerawork. Also, it’s worth mentioning that while Big Moe Cason is not a new face to the barbecue world and has appeared on earlier seasons of “BBQ Pitmasters,” he is a newer face to this kind of show that offers diversity and a different viewpoint and that is welcomed by me.

The first episode takes place in an around Charleston, SC where Moe meets with pitmasters Rodney Scott and John Lewis in addition to learning about the Gullah Geechee culture and food traditions to connect to his own heritage and culture. In particular, he admires Scott for his role as a black pitmaster and entrepreneur and notes that he doesn’t really see that in Iowa and the Midwest where he lives.

Through these interactions he gets inspiration for his dish that he served at last November’s Holy Smokes Barbecue Festival, a Gullah Geechee-inspired red rice dish with fresh caught crab and oysters and homemade beef sausage he collaborated on with John Lewis.

In episode two, he goes abroad to Colombia to learn their live fire traditions of cooking beef done by their cowboys, or llaneros, going back generations. He tries different foods and customs before again applying what he’s learned to the cooking of a large meal of veal llanero, fried piranha, grilled plantains, and yuca for a festival of llaneros by the end of the episode.

Through the first two episodes, the situations can be a little contrived in terms of filming Moe coming up with a menu through a series of filmed interactions before a big cook by the end of the episode. But in the end, “World of Flavor” is eminently watchable and Moe is a likable host between his big teddy bear exterior as well as his desire to learn about different cultures and apply it to his own cooking. I’m happy to follow along his journey across the world.

“World of Flavor with Big Moe Cason” airs Monday nights at 9pm ET on Nat Geo

Description: The Navy veteran and champion pitmaster Big Moe Cason sets out on an incredible journey to discover mouthwatering dishes cooked over an open flame. Cason dives for fresh conch in the Bahamas, roasts gator in Louisiana, connects with his roots in South Carolina, and wades into piranha-infested waters in Colombia. Moe explores the connections between American barbecue and cultures around the world along the way. While spanning the world, he serves up dishes that are sure to make the locals proud.