The Shady Rest - Owensboro, KY
Owensboro, KY is a mini-BBQ mecca that we try to get to once every couple of years, and the Shady Rest is our favorite spot there. It's the type of place that the locals go to and is the least touristy out of all the already not so touristy Owensboro BBQ joints (except, of course, Moonlite BBQ).
Our last visit was a bittersweet one...
When we arrived it was dark so we didn’t notice the For Sale signs plastered all over the building. So we dined happily. Comfortable in our ignorance, we ate expertly smoked ribs and pork shoulder. Accompanied by mashed potatoes, mac-n-cheese, gray green beans, coleslaw, and burgoo—the smoked meats were as we had remembered them, except better.
Better, I think because, since our last visit, we have become better home BBQ’ers, eaten in such hallowed halls as Black’s, Central Market in Luling, and Smitty’s, as well as Carolina institutions like Allen & Son. And so with all that new experience in tow, you hope that your memories of greatness hold up, but it is easy to be skeptical. So when I took my first bite, I knew that I had nothing to worry about. We had never had the “sliced pork” before, usually opting for the spare ribs. Smoked Boston Butts are pulled into baseball sized hunks and drizzled with their pork dip. In my estimation this is how pork shoulder should be served up. The Pork Dip gets is name from the fact that this vinegar based dip receives a large amount of its flavor from pork drippings. The other glass bottles on the table contain ancient pieces of masking tape with faded print, “mutton” and “hot.” I’m still not sure what kind of animal drippings get mixed into the “hot,” but I suspect it’s a little bit of everything. All the dips come to your table warm and in varying shades of glistening murk. If Crayola made a crayon the color of this dip, it would be called “Spiced Grease.”
On the way out we took the opportunity to talk to the co-owner Frank Cecil about the For Sale signs. Turns out, he’s just ready to retire. Simple’s that. While he was sawing through a rack of spare ribs for us, we asked him if he thought he’d still be here in the summer. And while no one knows for sure, he thought there’d be a pretty good chance.
The Saturday before the Fourth of July is Frank’s annual BBQ Church Picnic. It’s apparently quite the event in Owensboro—it’s when all of the BBQ mavens come out to show off. A small group of us from Chicago are going to go down this year to join the festivities and hopefully get a chance to eat at the Shady Rest one last time.

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