Does anyone know how they used to prepare their beef ribs? IIRC, they did not smoke their ribs and finish on a flame broiler. I do remember something about them claiming being baked in a special way or something like that. Since they were well known for their prime rib roasts, I'm going to assume they used to cut their own ribs with a bit extra meat on them. I would tend to doubt they actually baked the ribs unless they par boiled them. They didn't have that spongy texture as I recall. I'm venturing a guess that they were prepared in draw broilers like steaks and turned once and then basted with sauce. Would anyone know how they did them or any of the chains like The Depot back then for that matter. They had to turn them out pretty quickly for the all you can eat. I don't see that happening in a deck oven or a parboil process.
Oh, man, I remember these and I loved them as well. It sure seems to me they were cut off the roasted whole rib roasts and then crisped up under the broiler or in the oven, sauced and crisped up again. But I have no inside knowledge and my memory may be playing tricks on me.
I miss this chain, especially the Universal City location. I used to go there before every concert at the Amphitheatre during the summer, when it was still open-air. Ah, good times. Not Haute Cuisine, but what they did, they did well.
Edit: Just did a Google search and came up with two interesting items: an old newspaper ad from 1980 which says the ribs were "slow-baked in our barbecue sauce" and a Yelp review which characterizes VS as "vile." To each his own, I guess.
ac-thanks for a great memory! I had totally forgotten about going to VS before the concerts in the summer. That was a staple for me too! I don't remember what we ate,probably cause we were too busy drinking but I remember we did. I'm sure I had beef ribs at least once since I love them.
Thanks for jogging my memory, might never have remembered it without your post.
So a look at the menu from this last remaining VS in the US reveals this description:
"Slow roasted Angus beef ribs served “all you can eat” flame kissed and finished with our housemade Bloody Mary BBQ sauce"
which makes me think my guess above is pretty close. My guess is they cut them off the cooked Prime Ribs (probably just standing Rib Roasts, may or may not actually be Prime) and finish them in the broiler with some of the sauce.
Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean this is how they did it in the old days (back in the day, as the kids like to say these days).
They offer several different sizes of the Prime rib, including a couple with the bone in, so it makes you wonder how many people order which size, in order to have enough rib bones left over to be able to offer all-you-can-eat ribs every day. I know a few places that used to offer the ribs once a week to use up the leftovers, but every day? They must move a lot of the small boneless cuts to have that many bones left over, or else they buy extras.
As a followup -- I had the all-you-can-eat ribs tonight. Definitely broiled with the sauce -- a rich, sweet, spicy BBQ sauce, served with onion rings and the salad bar. Big, chunky ribs; I only made it through four. Also had their signature Wharf Rat drink (a tropical rum drink, nice and fruity). Good service, attentive, clean, nice evening!
Thanks for the follow up B_O. I guess based on what you reported and ACgold's find that they slow roast and "flame kiss", it sounds like they are slow baking around 275-300 enough to render the fat and finshing them on a flame/char broiler. That's not the way they used to do them years ago. I don't ever remember any charring on theirs down here. The sauce was a rather unremarkable brown institutional KC type sauce back then. Sounds like they have ugraded the ribs. How meaty were the rib tops? It's virtually impossible to buy beef ribs from a meat packing house anymore that haven't been trimmed bald right to the bone to maximize the yield on boneless rib eye steaks or roasts. If they are trimming their own,they must be moving a LOT of prime rib. I think I remember their marketing schtick in the 80's that they moved millions of pounds of prime rib. Locations down here used to be packed. Sure miss them and Beefsteak Charlie's.
The rib tops were pretty meaty, but they varied a lot from rib to rib -- they're all-you-can-eat, so I didn't mind that some were more like little drumsticks. I should note that in the three times I've been to Victoria Station, they only had ribs twice... they recommend that you call first to make sure they have some. Their salad bar's still nice, by the way :)
I used to work at Victoria Station in Illinois as a prep-cook. I miss working and eating there more than most other restaurants. We took the entire prime rib rack with the meat (weighed a ton!), placed it in a deep aluminum pan with a rack at the bottom and poured a 2 cup mixture of salt and pepper covering over the ribs with the bones on top. Several of these would be placed in the convection oven for ? hours in the morning and afternoon. When they were taken out of the oven the entire meat center was cut out of the bone section leaving the bones attached to each other to be divided later for each order, depending on how many ribs were in the order. The prime rib meat was left intact and sliced according to orders. I think the Trackman's Cut was the biggest--over 32 oz. cut. The ribs, which were cut off, leaving a generous portion of meat (and fat) on the bones, were cut apart from each other per order and dipped in bbq sauce that was poured from a large glass gallon jug into the bottom of a deep aluminum pan. I wish I paid attention to the name on the jug. Sorry. The ribs were then placed on the grill under high heat and turned once or twice until crispy and dripping with juice, sauce and fat. What I liked most was that they were very flavorful, crispy AND sticky. They were the best (in my opinion)! So, roast with the prime rib roast, cut off the meat, dip in bbq sauce, and grill until crispy. --BeefRibMan
I also worked at VS in 1977 and the name of the BBQ sauce was French's Cattelmens BBQ Sauce.
I rotated the prime ribs in the display case windows and prep them for cooking, also the beef back ribs we would stand them up back to back in the same rib pans and after they cooled we cut them and rolled in the BBQ sauce, place them on a large sheet pan then finish off in the broiler and serve 5 to an order.
Thursday nights the San Diego Chargers would come in for the ribs.
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