Best Barbeque
STAFF PICK: For barbeque of righteous soulful feel, Rod's K.C. B-B-Que, on the west side of Fourth Avenue at Fifth Street, can't be beat. Like another of Tucson's legendary barbeque-grandees, Laura Banks, Rod George's family came from Kansas City, and his mother Irene went to college with Laura and both taught together in Tucson schools. Rod's wife Dee came to Tucson from Oakland, a place where different styles of soul cooking have yielded some of the best home-style in the country. Today, there's not a place in town that can match the home-cooking of Dee's kitchen or the careful smoking that Rod gives the meat on premises. The sauce is made from a recipe Rod's grandfather, Asie Mahone, passed down. It's a most satisfying blend of sweet, earthy fire, tinged with pepper and the pungent nose of vinegar just-so. At Rod's, hickory smoke and the sauce made from scratch curls through the roof of your mouth like the corkscrew tail of the pig who so generously gave the meat now savored. Barbeque's not for dainty eating, and the portions won't let you forget that. They're more than ample. At Rod's you'll also find the best house-made hot links in the whole state. These are for aficionados, with coarse meat texture and enough pepper fire to wake your taste buds for a redeeming slice of peach cobbler, another traditional mark of soul barbeque.
