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Awards Sojourner's Truth Newspaper Article Toledo City Paper Article The Sojourner's Truth We Are Ribs Captures Top Prizes at Rib Off Sojourner's Truth Staff published September 4th 2007 
Who won the top prizes at this year’s 24th Annual Northwest Ohio Rib-Off held at the Lucas County Fairgrounds?Let’s take a look at the possibilities. There were a lot of big boys there from around the country. Had to be one of those guys, eh? Hog Wild Barbecue from Memphis, TN - home of the barbecue - was there as was another Tennessee outfit - Buddy’s Barbecue. Texas Outlaw was there from, well... the other home of the barbecue, the Lone Star State. And a little closer to home, Sgt. Oink’s was there from Tiffin. They bill themselves as a "national cooking team that has competed nationally for 12 years." In between Texas and Tiffin, a score of other competitors went after the top prizes. But as it turns out, you don’t have to go as far as Tiffin or Texas to sample some prize winning ribs. At the corner of Wenz and Hill - righthere in Toledo - there is a barbecue shop called We Are Ribs and if you hadn’t already guessed the answer to the above questions by now, let us clue you in: We AreRibs captured two of the three first-place prizes at this year’sRib-Off - the People’s Choice Award and the Golden Rib Award. James McDay - owner,chef, ribber, saucier - has been at the barbecue business since 1993. He has the 21 Wenz Street location which is open from 3 p.m. to9 p.m. on Wednesdays through Saturdays; he has another location named We Be Ribs Mobile at Cricket West, which is currently open on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. According to McDay, however,the Cricket West location will soon be open on Thursdays as well. But the bulk of the McDay We Are Rib business is his catering operation. Year-to-date, McDay has catered 115 affairs from groups as small as 50 to those exceeding 600. At any given time, 22 part-time employees will be assisting his efforts to bring his rib delights to the masses. For more information on the We Are Ribs site at Wenz Rd, call 419-537-9268. For the catering services or We Be Ribs Mobile, call 419-810-3736 or 419-870-1959. Or McDay and company can be reached via the Internet at www.weareribs.com. Click to visit The Sojourner's Truth Toledo City Paper Best bones in the country TCP grills the People's Choice winner of the Rib Off by Jason Webber published September 5th 2007 
The people have spoken and McDay’s sauce-slathered pork ribs are the best tasting bones in the area, bestowing the eternally grinnin’-n-grillin’ chef with the People’s Choice award at this year’s Northwest Ohio Rib Off. He also walked away with the Golden Rib trophy -- the judges’ choice -- in the local competition category.Obviously, the guy knows a thing or two about sauce, good meat and good times. "We tried for 10 years to get [the awards]," says McDay, taking a short break from manning his portable grill trailer We B-Ribs, parked at Michel’s Tires at 5860 W. Central, just across from Cricket West. "We couldn’t believe we finally got ‘em." One bite of McDay’s fabled ribs or the baked beans -- which he’s slowly perfected for 18 years -- for the fabled ribs and you’ll see what the fuss is about. Spicy, tangy, served hot right from the grill, McDay’s technique is the result of close to 30 years of cooking. And it all started over a friendly cookout competition between friends. In the late ’70s, McDay, an area native, began cooking ribs for friends and family members. they couldn’t get enough of his rib sauce, which he created himself after trial and error. In the mid-’80s, his friend Steven Grube, a Jeep employee, who took pride in his own rib recipe, asked McDay to participate in a rib contest between a few Jeep workers. McDay won without much of a fight. Soon, Jeep workers asked him to cook dinners for them on premises, and McDay happily obliged. In the meantime, he continued to work on perfecting the rib sauce, which, though acclaimed, he knew could be better. "The sauce was a [work-in progress] for years," McDay says, after serving a trio of women who have stopped by the We B-Ribs trailer for lunchtime ribs. "But by the mid-’80s, we had it down." In 1989, McDay opened We Are Ribs at 21 Wenz Road and started the mobile We B-Ribs extension in 1993. A few years back, his baked beans earned the approval of an executive of the Bush Beans company. McDay was catering a family reunion, and a man came up to him and told him that "Bush Beans needs this recipe." "That was one unforgettable compliment," says McDay with a laugh. And, no, Bush Beans never got the recipe. We Are Ribs also arranges pig roasts and catering, which of course, includes racks and racks of the prize-winning ribs. And just what is in that sauce, anyway? He’s not telling. But that’s OK, James. Just keep grillin’ -n-thrillin’. We Are Ribs is located at 21 Wenz Road and is open from Wednesday-Saturday from 3-9:30 p.m. We B-Ribs (the mobile unit) is at 5860 W. Central Ave. on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (Thursdays will begin in mid-September) 419-537-9268/www.weareribs.com Click to visit Toledo City Paper |
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