Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest 2006

Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest 2006


Ribs

We have made it a family tradition to attend the Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest held on Labour Day Weekend. This year was the 11th Annual Ribfest. It is Canada's largest ribfest with this year's attendance expected to be 150,000. There were fifty vendors, twenty-five food vendors and twenty-two musical artists. The most important attraction are the premium Rib teams from across North America. The Rib teams are affectionately known as ribbers. This year there were fifteen ribbers, listed below. The ribbers are in competition for the best ribs. In the past eleven years Ribfest has raised more than $1.5 million dollars for the various charitable endeavours of the Rotary Club of Burlington Lakshore and their partner charities. The ribfest was held in Spencer Smith Park at Burlington's downtown waterfront.

If you have never been to a ribfest, you really are missing a delightful experience. If you attend the various ribfests you get to know some of the ribbers. A couple of family members had attended a smaller ribfest the weekend before. They raved and raved about one of the ribbers so they were very happy to see that ribber was here. Now a ribfest is all about food and that is quite apparent even before you get anywhere near the event gates.

We park a block or two from the ribfest yet the wonderfu aroma of barbeque ribs fills the air tantalizing every taste bud. The pace picked up as we near the gated areas. Once inside the gate we decide who is getting which ribs or other foods. Then one by one we head off to stand in fairly long lines. Anticipation of the mouth water ribs grows and grows! A full rack of ribs is $20. This year our family went through six full racks, eight cobs of corn, a blooming onion/fried vegetable tray, and a few pints of beer while we sat in the shade listening to the music. With fully stuffed tummies (so I though) I decided to take a few pictures while the rest got huge soft ice cream cones dipped in chocolate. My son in law bought cotton candy for him and myself. Then we walked along admiring the ribbers, through the vendors and finally down along the waterfront.

Most of the ribbers have bottles of their secret sauce for sale. This year I got a bottle of Zestferno Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce instead of rib sauce. The Jet Set Spice Company had a booth so I just had to buy a package of their Herbs De Provence! This is a lovely all natural spice combination.

Well that was our 2006 experience at the Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest. Here is a list of the premium Rib teams aka ribbers:
Turtle Jack's (Burlington)
Gator BBQ (Florida)
Carolina Rib King (South Carolina)
Howling Coyote BBQ (Chicago)
Bibb's BBQ (Florida) - voted best by our family this year
Jack on the Bone (Ohio)
Blazin' BBQ (Chatham, Ontario) - voted second best by our family
Billy Bones (Fort Erie, Ontario)
Kentucky Smokehouse (London, Ontario)
Purple Pig (Toronto, Ontario)
Bone Daddy's (Michigan)
Uncle Sam's BBQ (New Mexico
Silver Bullet BBQ (Fort Erie, Ontario)
Camp 31 (Alabama)
Porky 'n' Beans (Ohio/Florida)

Best Food vender:
Gary's World Famous - best blooming onion ever!