THE DOCTOR IS IN – MY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Driving home from the post office today, I was thrilled to see a blast from the past – the food bus of Dr.Bar-B-Que, aka Ray Nolan – parked at Evergreen and Jackson, just a few blocks from my house. I’ve written about him over the years, first when he had this rig set up on Danny Thomas, and later, 3-4 years ago, when he had a restaurant on South Main.









The restaurant didn’t have a long life despite serving great barbecue. At the time he opened, he was just a few blocks from some tough competition down South Main – Central BBQ and what was then the Double J Smokehouse. We were sad he didn’t make it, but today’s discovery has erased all of that.

I already had with me a free burger and hot dog courtesy of our credit union. I stuck them in the fridge when I got home, grabbed a camera and went back for a sandwich. Business was brisk around 12:30 p.m.





and the air was fragrant with smoke from a smallish rectangular cooker. The massive drum smoker/trailer was serving as advertising.









The sandwich was as good as I remembered, with huge chunks of pulled pork, coarse slaw and sauce with nice zip – the perfect bite.





I asked the woman at the window how long they might be set up there. She guessed it could be a good while. Good, though I should walk the few blocks to get a sandwich. I told her that if they were ever interested in another restaurant venture again, a spot was available just a few feet away at 1689 Jackson. That would be the old Cave’s Soul Food & More, run by Carl and Veronica Johnson for four years or so until Carl’s untimely death (page 4 on this site).

I wrote about Cave’s many times. Carl worked as a teenager at Gridley’s, and built an honest-to-god pit on this building that used to be a laundromat. He smoked ribs, never shoulders, so you couldn’t get a sandwich there. I thought I had figured out a way to get one from him, but never got to give my plan a try. I miss this place.

The intersection of Jackson and Evergreen (actually a block to the west at Jackson and Auburndale) was part of the city’s barbecue history circa 1971 when the Loeb family sought a zoning change to put a barbecue restaurant at that location, adding to their dozens of ‘cue shops already around the city at that time.







This was one of those dumb-luck discoveries while reading microfilm several years ago. I think my post is back on page 9 of this site.

