Ribfest

It is Summer with a capital S in Bismarck right now. The river is packed with pontoons and bikini-clad teens. The cotton from the cottonwood trees is flying through the air. Dairy Queen is doing brisk business across the street from the public swimming pool. Kids, kids everywhere.


Yes, this is what we live for. Blue skies, sunny days, chirping birds...and ribs.

Welcome to Ribfest. This is the first time Ribfest has pulled into our humble little town. And from the looks of it, us small town folk love us some ribs.

My honey considers himself a bit of a rib connoisseur. He's eaten a lot of ribs in his day, proclaiming Space Aliens to be the best in town. Well, except my own, of course, right hon? Right...?

So being a rib expert, we had to check out Ribfest. It's a fundraiser for the Downtowners, bringing Bismarckians together for food and inflatable fun. $3 gets you in the door, and then you see this:


The end of the line to purchase $20 ribs. Awesome.

There were three rib vendors, none local. They all proclaim themselves to be the best, and you are supposed to vote for the best one. They all have their trophies stacked up in front with long lists of awards...but it looks like they just compete amongst themselves. It's not really competition, it's just a marketing schtick to sell ribs. But hey, if you can get rib grilling to pay the bills, keep on grilling...

We went to the shortest line, the Rib King. While standing in line, I watched the kid in front of us play with his balloon and listened to the local band Betty Does tune up. I love it when bands take a long time to tune. "Test. Test. Test 1. Test 1."

We finally got to the front of the line. We ordered #7 - the Royal Flush, with ribs, chicken, sausage, brisket, potato salad, beans, and cornbread, all served in your very own Styrofoam container. I thought, 'Royal Flush, how appropriate, since that's probably what we'll be doing a couple hours from now.'

Sorry if that was gross.


The food was ok, the ribs were decent, and our rib connoisseur declared them to be edible, but certainly not the best he's ever eaten. We didn't bother voting, since we really didn't want to stand in line again to try the others, and part of me just didn't want to play along with the competitive rib game.


So suggestions for next year? Let Famous Dave's and Space Aliens enter the "contest" as well (with their own pricing) and add more seating.

If Ribfest comes back, we might go next year, but right now, I'm going outside to enjoy every last bit of the longest day of the year.