Hot and new can steal the spotlight, but what about longstanding local favorites? Each month, we’ll visit a Richmond-area restaurant that has been in business 15 years or longer.
Pitmaster Ronnie Logan (Photo by Jay Paul)
During the 2009 premiere season of the Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate,” Southern chef and cookbook author Delilah Winder declared that pitmaster Ronnie Logan’s slow-cooked pork ribs were in fact the “best thing” she’d ever eaten. Fifteen years later, customers who make the trip to The Original Ronnie’s BBQ in Varina (2097 New Market Road) along Route 5 continue to talk about Ronnie’s silver screen debut — and his pork ribs.
“We still get people — even folks who will drive from out of state — who say, ‘Hey, we saw you on the Food Network!’ They’re always rerunning the episode,” says Logan’s niece Melissa Mangrum.
Mangrum has handled Ronnie’s PR and marketing for years, but it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that she started overseeing operations, too.
Mangrum says she and the all-family ownership team focus on maintaining consistency at the restaurant, which offers curbside service only with hours limited to noon to 7 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. The smoked meats and staple sides such as the Sunday-only mac and cheese need no tweaking.
The goal is to expand the e-commerce side of the business, with bottled sauces available online soon, and Ronnie’s rubs going through a test run this summer at area farmers markets.
“I like to tell people we are on the road to $1 million,” Mangrum says. “If we focus on the pillars, I think we will surpass that goal.”
