NOW SERVING: Big Ernie's Rib Shack parks for good in Escondido

By LAURA GROCH - Staff Writer | Wednesday, December 3, 2008 10:06 PM PST ∞

After years of being on the road, Big Ernie has finally found a roost.

The peripatetic barbecue chef has opened Big Ernie's Rib Shack on East Valley Parkway in Escondido, where he's serving flavorful ribs, chicken and brisket, just as he did from the mobile barbecue trailer he operated for many years.

Ernest Kinsey Jr. of Escondido is Big Ernie, a true baron of barbecue, who learned how to cook at age 10 at home in New Orleans. "The first thing I remember cooking was fried chicken," he said. To reach the stove, "I stood on a fruit box."

Cooking was a way of life for him and his siblings at a very early age. "It was mandatory for boys. You cooked and you sewed," he said. "It was a part of growing up and being independent."

Kinsey cooked in college ---- Alabama A&M in Birmingham ---- as he worked toward his business degree. "I had my own barbecue grill, and sold meat." After college, he entered civil service and eventually came to California in the '90s, where he worked at the Mare Island shipyard in San Francisco.

He was still cooking at events and parties, and had built his own smoker by then, out of 48-inch-wide pipe. When he was transferred to Escondido in 1996, he took a class in welding "to build my own smoker, my way."

The special recipes and cooking techniques he had developed through the years found a receptive audience locally, too.

"People told us how good the food was," he said, so he decided to go mobile. He had a trailer specially built in Indiana, got his catering license and health department permits, and took Big Ernie's Rib Shack on the road. For several years, he dished out pork and beef ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and barbecued chicken at events and street fairs from Escondido to Vista to San Diego.

But eventually he tired of having to get parking permits for the trailer. On July 11, he opened the doors to his first permanent restaurant.

Kinsey estimates he serves about 220 pounds of pork ribs and 90 pounds of beef a week, with the pork ribs being the most popular. The beef brisket is right behind it, with customers going through about 45 pounds a week.

Dale Wiesman of Escondido was finishing a pulled pork sandwich at the restaurant recently, and then ordered a couple of prime rib steaks to take home and cook. "Their meat has a good quality cut and he knows how to cook it," he said of Big Ernie's. "It is good food."

Kinsey credits his personal-recipe dry rub with making his meats taste so good. Though he won't give any clues to the rub's ingredients, he does have tips on how to barbecue ribs:

"Remove all the loose fat and the (silverskin) membrane so your dry rub can penetrate and be absorbed by the meat. Massage that dry rub into the meat like you used to massage your girlfriend before you got married," he said, laughing. "There's an art to it.

"Use direct heat; always keep your meat moist. Never get more than 5 feet away from the barbecue," and always keep a spray bottle filled with water seasoned with whatever seasonings you're using.

Spray that water liberally on the meat, he advised:

"Keep the water hot so it activates the seasonings, and spray the meat to control the flames. It also helps steam the meat. Poke some holes in it to relieve the stress on the meat." Using the spray bottle will help replenish any moisture lost.

And never, never brush the cooking meat with barbecue sauce. All that does is burn on the meat, he said: Put the sauce on the meat after it is cooked.

"Our sauce comes on the side, so you can enhance the flavor and the texture of the many seasonings used in the rub," said Kinsey. Right now, he's serving a tomato-based sauce, but he'll soon be introducing a vinegar-based, South Carolina-style sauce.

Big Ernie's serves Barbecued Pork Baby Back Ribs starting at $11.95 for a plate of three ribs with two side dishes, up to a 12-bone slab for $23.95. The BBQ Pork Spare Ribs are priced similarly. You can also get a Baby Back Rib Sandwich or a Spare Rib Sandwich for $7.95, each with three ribs of meat.

Pulled pork comes as a plate with two side dishes ($9.95), as a sandwich ($5.95-$7.95) or as a Pulled Pork Burrito ($5.95).

Beef ribs run from $18.95 for a 10-bone slab to $8.95 for a three-rib plate with two side dishes, or a Beef Rib Sandwich for $5.95. You can also get a BBQ Beef Burrito ($5.95).

Beef brisket comes as a plate ($9.95) or sandwich ($7.95); you can also get beef hot links ($7.50-$4.50) and barbecued chicken ($11.95, whole chicken; $9.95, chicken plate; or $6.95, chicken sandwich). Several items are also available by the pound.

The homemade side dishes are macaroni salad, potato salad, cole slaw, corn on the cob and baked beans, which also have a special ingredient in the sauce. (Note: Get some.) French fries, onion rings and batter-fried green beans are also available.

For dessert, there's ice cream, but more important, there are also sweet potato pies ($8 large, $3 small). "My wife makes them," from his mother's recipe, Kinsey said.

Besides his wife, Patrice, a human resources accountant, daughter Sherria and son Ernest III also help out at the 24-seat restaurant. A third daughter, Erica, is attending college in Sacramento.

Plans include adding smoked turkey at $4 a pound, and smoked turkey legs. Next Thanksgiving, he'd like to offer a turkey dinner.

Kinsey said he has two more goals. One is to open two more restaurants in the area. "I've got three children, and I'd like for each to have one restaurant ---- so they can pay me back."

The second goal? "Then I can get in the motor home, pull the trailer and go around the country entering barbecue cookoffs."

NOW SERVING: Big Ernie's Rib Shack

WHERE: 1815 E. Valley Parkway, Suite 7, Escondido.

HOURS: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday; 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.

CONTACT: (760) 432-9553; www.bigerniesribs.com.