Empire Building: Larry Tucker’s World of Meat
Chicago may be considered a rib town, but relatively few places outside of black communities make genuine barbecue. Most restaurants parboil or prebake the meat, then finish it on a grill. You get a mushy texture and little real smoke flavor this way–losses no sauce can compensate for. Tucker’s culinary gift to the north side is the real thing: great ribs, Texas brisket, and Tennessee pork shoulder, as well as chicken and turkey. His sauce is a slightly sweet, complex, red potion with good spice but little peppery heat–a family recipe he claims is 100 years old.
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The restaurant features a style of Pacific and Caribbean cooking Tucker calls “stick barbecue,” in which marinated and grilled sticks of chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or veggies can be dressed with your choice of ten sauces: Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Jamaican, Indian, Philippine, “tropical,” tamarind, and “Tucker barbecue.” The menu suggests which flavors go best with which meats. A $9.99 order consists of three six-ounce sticks and eight sauces.
Dellamarie Parrilli, owner of Hoxie’s at 1801 W. Lawrence, closed her two-year-old barbecue place on July 22. Parrilli says that health problems resulting from a dog attack in mid-June made it impossible for her to continue operations. The business is currently up for sale. –Don Rose
