'Calories do not count this weekend'

When it comes to attending Sudbury's annual Ribfest, Jay Gouba and family come armed with a plan.

Each family member stands in line at a different rib stand and buys a rack of ribs. Then they sit down and try all of the different kind of ribs.

“Last year, I probably have to say Ribs Royale (was the best),” Gouba said, while waiting in line at one of the rib stands during the evening of Sept. 1. “The sauce is good. It wasn't too spicy.”

The festival, which began Aug. 31 at noon and wraps up at 5 p.m. Sept. 2, includes six pro ribbers and several other food vendors, a lineup of local musicians, kids' activities and a car and motorcycle show.

A portion of Elgin Street has been closed to traffic to accommodate Ribfest.

“Sudbury has to do something with their downtown, and this only spices it up,” Gouba said. “There's a lot of people here, so you can see that it's only a positive for downtown Sudbury. We've got to do something like this a little more often.”

Randy Austin, the manager of the Jack the Ribber stand, spoke to Northern Life for a few minutes while cooking up barbecued ribs, chicken and pulled pork for the hungry suppertime crowd.

He said the key to the stand's fall-off-the-bone, flavourful ribs is to smoke them for four-and-a-half hours at 300 degrees, using a combination of hickory, cherry and apple woods.

Then the ribs are dressed with homemade rubs and barbecue sauce, and lastly cooked over a hickory wood fire.

“The aroma from the wood treats them,” Austin said. “It gives it that extra flavour. A lot of people say they can tell the difference.”

The Jack the Ribber stand travels to festivals across the province, including Windsor, Stratford, Sarnia, Kemptville and Thunder Bay. Just last week, Jack the Ribber won best ribs at the Thunder Bay festival, Austin said.

Ribs weren't the only fattening treats for sale at Ribfest. Delores Bennett and Tracie Trotter enjoyed deep-fried Mars bars. “Calories do not count this weekend,” Bennett said. Trotter quipped that the treat is a “replacement for sex.”

Roland and Raymonde Mallette were spotted eating spiral-cut deep-fried potatoes on a stick before they got in line to order ribs. Roland had finished eating his by the time the couple finished speaking with Northern Life.

“It's always nice to come down and see all the people coming to Ribfest,” Raymonde said.

“You see people that you haven't seen for quite a while. It's real fun. We like it. Then there's the old cars. It's always nice to see, because we had some of those during our younger years.”