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'Smoked Meats:' Bib's seems to have winning recipe, but it says it's not barbecue

Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer

With fresh smoked meats and sides made from scratch, it takes about two minutes to prepare any plate, pitmaster Mark Little says.

By Michael Hastings

JOURNAL FOOD EDITOR

Published: March 11, 2009

Bib's Downtown is smokin'. Literally.

Pitmaster Mark Little cooks 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of meat a week over hickory wood in a giant smoker.

And customers are coming in droves to this restaurant across the street from the Central Library on Fifth Street. Bib's has been open since Dec. 8. On a good day, it's serving more than 200 people in just three hours.

Bib's may be getting a boost from curious customers checking out a new restaurant. But the numbers are encouraging for Little and co-owners Robert Moreau and Ricky Seamon -- especially during a recession.

They attribute their early success to almost three years of planning and a concept that included three important points. "From the begin-

ning, our concept has been to have something unique, fast and reasonable," said Moreau, who is also Bib's manager.

Some people might be tempted to call Bib's a barbecue restaurant. Bib's has a meat lover's menu that includes turkey, chicken, beef brisket, ribs, pulled pork and pork loin. Though it's all slowly smoked over wood coals, it's not barbecue, Little said.

"In this area, when you say the word barbecue, everyone thinks Lexington chopped barbecue with vinegar sauce on it. We don't chop anything. We don't have a cleaver in the house."

Little uses his own blend of spices as a rub for his meats. And his sauce is very tomatoey, with little vinegar -- unlike either Lexington or Eastern North Carolina barbecue.

"If we put ‘barbecue' on our sign out here, people would think we're just another barbecue place," Little said. "We're not another barbecue place. We do smoked meats."

Bibs was just a concept without a menu or a wisp of smoke three years ago when Seamon and Moreau started talking about opening a restaurant.

The two were just acquaintances whose wives, Kati Seamon and Tracie Moreau, had become friends. They all ended up taking a week's vacation in Jamaica in April 2006.

At the time, Moreau had his own business selling adhesives to manufacturing companies. But he had dreamed of running a restaurant for years, and he had even scouted locations in the 1990s when downtown revitalization started.

Moreau met Seamon when his wife, an accountant, did the books for Seamon's business, Excel Plumbing.

"None of us had had a vacation in years," Moreau said. "We went to one of these all-inclusive places (where you can eat all you want for one price), so I knew Ricky liked to eat.

"I remember we were in the pool one day," Moreau said. "I said, ‘Have you ever thought about opening a restaurant?'"

"The rest of our vacation was spent talking about restaurants," Seamon said.

When they got back, they decided they would meet for dinner once a week to talk over the idea. "You know how you say to your buddies, ‘Let's do something,' and you fade away from it? We knew we needed something concrete," Moreau said.

Seamon said that though they hadn't known each other long, things quickly started to click. "We're of the same breed. We're businessmen. We knew the concept would work."

In the first couple of meetings, one crucial element was missing: the food. Then Little, who is Seamon's father-in-law, got involved.

Little was a graphic artist and illustrator by trade. He had done catering on the side since college, but he really got into it after he was laid off in 1992. He formed Little by Little Specialties in 1994, using a custom-built cooking trailer for private parties and outdoor festivals while continuing to do portrait work.

By 2006, he was doing about as much catering as he could do without having a commercial kitchen.

"When Robert and Ricky were kicking around this idea, my business was at the point where I was looking for a commercial kitchen to expand," Little said. "I already had spent years perfecting my recipes. Ricky had eaten everything I cooked. Robert started trying things. That's when we started thinking about this kind of place."

The restaurant's name came easily enough. Little is known for wearing bib overalls. "I think he sleeps in them," Moreau said.

The Fifth Street location is probably best known as a former Firestone store, though more recently it had been a different auto shop. When Moreau, Seamon and Little saw it, they knew right away that they wanted the space. "The aesthetics are really cool," Seamon said. "It has the zigzag roof. It has all this glass."

And it has parking, something that a lot of downtown restaurants don't have.

Seamon oversaw the renovation of the space, which took about a year.

One of the keys to the project was the smoker, which weighs 5,000 pounds and measures 10 feet deep by 5 feet wide by about 6 feet tall. "It's built in Texas, but I won't tell you the make," Little said. "It's the only one of its kind in North Carolina, and only one of two on the East Coast."

The smoker can hold up to 1,000 pounds of meat. Little cooks all his meats with hickory. He smokes the larger cuts, the pork butts and briskets, the day before. But all the other meats are smoked fresh the morning they are sold.

The restaurant also serves an assortment of sides and desserts that are all made from scratch. The list includes white and red slaws, freshly cut fries, hush puppies and cobblers.

Customers order at the counter, and the order is written on a paper placemat on a plastic tray and sent to the kitchen. Little slices the meat, or in the case of the pulled pork, pulls it -- to order. Then his staff dishes up any side orders and the plate is ready.

"We can do about any plate in two minutes," Little said.

The owners acknowledge that they were a little nervous about opening in a recession but said they had confidence in their concept. "When the recession hit, it was too late to pull out," Little said. "What I tell the guys is that the food is going to keep up in business."

Bib's started with lunch six days a week and dinner only on Friday and Saturday, but it plans to expand dinner to six nights a week soon.

Judging by customers' reactions, many people appreciate fast service, freshly made food and a good price. A typical plate at Bib's includes slaw, hush puppies, Texas toast, one additional side, plus a meat. Most sell for $7 or less.

Also, Bib's apparently is filling a location void. Many customers are coming from nearby businesses that have never had a nearby restaurant.

"I eat here a couple of times a week," said Joe Jarvis, a co-owner of Douglas Battery, which is around the corner at Sixth and Broad streets. "It's a good portion at a good price. And they get you in and out fast."

Kimberly Conner and Saquana Ingram also have been coming to Bib's two or three times a week. "The chicken and the hush puppies are the best in Winston-Salem," Conner said.

Shawn Kivett, who works at SilkRoad Technology downtown, brought co-workers Jeff Riley and John Sauter with him the other day. "I've been here three or four times," said Kivett, who's particularly fond of the brisket. "I finally started making people come with me."

Moreau said he had dreamed of creating a landmark restaurant. "I wanted the kind of place ... that when you're away, it's the first place you want to go to when you get home."

Little said he is surprised by how much business Bib's has been doing. "I never dreamed it would get to where it is so fast," he said.

"But this is food people can relate to. It's comfort food in the true sense. That's what keeps people coming back."

About Bib's Downtown

• Location: Bib's Downtown is at 675 West Fifth St., at the corner of Spring Street.

• Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Beginning March 23, hours will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

• Capacity: The restaurant seats 120 people, and also offers takeout and catering.

• Information: Call 336-722-0007 or visit www.bibsdowntown.com.