Bar-B-Q Heaven

This is a truck parked at the corner of State and Bradley. They usually set up on Fridays starting just before noon. Things are little slow in the winter, so they are irregular and you just have to see if they are set up.
I picked up 3 platters of ribs and tips a couple weeks ago for my family and we have been craving them ever since. Tender juicy meat that falls off the bone, nicely seasoned, with sauce on the side. The sauce is tomato-​based, like something off the shelf, but nothing I’m familiar with — probably customized a bit. It’s mild, sweet-​sour-​tangy but not hot/​spicy. I happen to like it a lot, but I know others want more heat.
The ribs and tips platter is $ 8 and enough to serve 2 people or 1 very hungry person. Comes with bread and chips.
These ribs are great, and I can’t stop thinking about getting more. Just the smell is awesome. In fact, these guys have no signage — the smell is what sells it.
I understand they also do catering. You can find their number if you do some deep Googling, but I’ll leave it off here in case they don’t want too many random calls.

This business is owned by Jimmie Smith and Otha Burrage.
They pay $ 312 per year for a City of Champaign street vendor permit. I’ve seen them set up at the corner of State and Bradley in Champaign on Saturdays.
The half chicken meal was $ 5.75 and came with a lot of chicken, two slices of Wonderbread and a bag of chips.
Chicken was amazing — smoked to perfection. But the barbecue sauce was extra, extra mild and had that fresh-​off-​the-​grocery-​store-​shelf taste. A real barbecue joint would make its own sauce and it would make at least some of it hot. Who eats barbecue with mild sauce? Soup sandwiches do — that’s who.