Ridgewood Barbecue: Secret's in the Sauce

During race weeks, it's even busier.

"Junior Johnson comes in and gets him a load of stuff like he used to," says owner Larry Proffitt. "It's packed. We don't have a lot of parking. It's a destination rather than a place to go. You have to know where it is. On weekends, I tell friends that if they want to come and eat, don't come on weekends, go on Monday or Tuesday."

Proffitt's family started selling barbecue in the 1950's after he, his parents and brother went on vacation to Florida.

"My mama and daddy started this restaurant in 1948, it was a little beer joint in the country. In 1951, Sullivan County (where it's located) went dry and they had to make a living selling food. In the mid 1950's we went to Daytona Beach on vacation and we saw this restaurant that had BBQ, they were piping smoke, they had the fire here and piped it over and was cooking chickens as I was told. We came back and about 50 yards from here he built him a BBQ pit."

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