THUNDER BAY - A popular summer event may look very different, but Ribfest is still serving up just what people love, delicious, home cooked ribs.
“We can’t change our recipe,” said Darlene Green, owner of the Silver Birch Restaurant. “People come back every year for the same ribs. We make our own barbeque sauce from scratch. We slow roast our ribs for four or five hours and then we put them on the barbeque to get the crispy and delicious.”
Ribfest officially opened on Thursday and due to COVID-19 restrictions, the tables, stage, and even a few ribbers have been replaced with drive-through only service.
But even though things had to be changed, organizers said it was important to keep the summer tradition going, not just for the people of Thunder Bay, but for the community organization it helps support.
“The community needs something to do because everything has been cancelled,” said Kathryn Hughes, executive director with Our Kids Count. “We really wanted the community to have an event to go through. And the main reason obviously is to raise funds for Our Kids Count.”
Ribfest is an important fundraiser for Our Kids Counts and Hughes said they are still hoping this year will continue to provide much needed funds to keep programming going in the city.
“Three quarters of our budget is raised by fundraising every year, so its important to run our programs and keep them running this year,” she said. “Fundraising capabilities is going to be down this year because people have less to give. It really becomes important for us to operate and open our doors.”
It’s still a little too early to tell how successful this year’s event will be and how people will adapt to the new format.
But even after the first hour of being open, cars were already lining up.
“That is really hard to guess. You just don’t know the uptake with the new model. We are hopeful to bring in $40,000. We will see where we get,” Hughes said.
“I’ve had feedback from folks who are not good at standing in line and walking, so they are thrilled to have a drive in. We’ve had 100 cars in the first hour. I’m hoping it will pick up over lunch. I’m not sure how an extra day is going to go, but we’re expecting pretty normal traffic Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.”
This year only includes three ribbers - Ribs Royal and Dinosaur Smokehouse from London, Ont., and local ribber, the Silver Birch Restaurant.
“We usually have more ribbers than that. But with COVID, we just talked about what we should limit it to in order to make it doable in the space because we couldn’t spatially accommodate more ribbers with how we are doing the drive through model,” Hughes said.
And the ribbers of course are always the stars of the event and even though it’s only a drive-through model this year, that’s not stopping anyone from having a little fun.
“We are still out here having lots of fun, jumping around, making it a good time for everybody,” said Terry Eaton, a griller with Ribs Royale. “Just because you’re in a car doesn’t change anything for us. It’s all about the ribs.”
Eaton said Ribs Royal is bringing the same ribs it does every year, which he calls the beautiful taste, because it is all about the ribs for these professional ribbers.
“Love for the ribs,” he said. “We enjoy coming out and having fun with everyone and bringing our nice tasty ribs out. Give your taste buds a little treat.”
And while Ribfest is also about helping out community programing for children in the city, for Green and her staff at the Silver Birch Restaurant, it’s also about giving something back to the people of Thunder Bay.
“Thunder Bay has been very supportive of us. We have been part of Ribfest for years now so it was important for us to support first of all Our Kids Count, a lot of charities have had a tough time during COVID,” she said.
“They’ve had to shut down their programs and are having a hard time doing their fundraisers, so that was important for us. Also the restaurant industry has been suffering a lot during COVID. We’ve faired fairly well. We are super thrilled to be part of it.”
Ribfest is running at the CLE grounds from Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. It is cash only if paying at the event. Drivers enter off of Northern Avenue and exit onto May Street. For more information visit the Ribfest website.
