Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

As soon as Lucille was tall enough to clear tables, Granny put her to work during summers and on weekends. She shared her secrets with Lucille on how to make the best Bar-B-Que…special spice rubs and savory wet ‘mops’ and sauces Lucille had to swear she’d never share with a soul. Most of all, she showed Lucille how to cook Bar-B-Que nice and slow, for hours on end in the gentle smoke of hickory wood, until the meat became sweet and succulent and so tender it would fall off the bone if you so much as looked at it.  When Lucille married Joe before World War II and followed him out to the naval yards in Long Beach, California, she discovered that the folks back home were right: Granny’s Bar-B-Que was the best. She and Joe couldn’t find anything like it anywhere from San Diego to Santa Barbara and beyond.  So she found herself a place in Long Beach and started cooking Bar-B-Que just like she used to eat at home - with Granny’s permission, of course! Naturally, Lucille added some of her own special touches, like buttermilk biscuits and peach cobbler. After the war, Joe joined her in the restaurant. When they had children, and later grandchildren, they helped out, too.  And Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que grew and grew and just like they did when she’d eavesdrop on the customers back at the lunch shack, folks started talking.