Barbecue champions
Although the building that Barbecue Stop in Clay calls home is tiny with only a few tables inside, its owners have lived a big life in the barbecue competition world outside of its walls.
Cliff and Debbie Mortimer opened the restaurant in 2013. The front window boasts half a dozen barbecue contest trophies from places across the nation including Reno, Chicago, New York, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan. But even those displayed awards are just a fraction from an impressive collection, numbering past 250.
The Mortimers previously lived in Youngstown, Ohio, where they opened Armadillo’s Barbecue in 1993 and operated it until 2012. Armadillo’s proved itself a winner. Its competition-style ribs won the most outstanding ribs category seven years straight at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival.
The Mortimers competed in about 17 cook-offs a year where prize money can be more than $2,500. Cliff Mortimer has competed in about 300 competitions through the years, and won quite a few of them. About 80 percent of the time, his wins have come from the best ribs category.
“We mainly did ribs and sauce competitions at festivals,” Cliff Mortimer said. “They have really good rib festivals at the places we traveled to, usually in the Northeast.”
He served as past president of the National Barbecue Cookers Association, or NBCA, and has competed under different names, too, including Texas Outlaw BBQ and Texas Thunder BBQ, based out of Kentucky and Texas.
“These are friends of mine that are top-dog cooks who have been in the business longer than me,” Cliff Mortimer said.
What he said he loves most about competitions is bringing the crowd. The events are usually in summer with live entertainment. Along with the beer and soda the contests offered, the festivals would draw about 500,000 or more people. He said he also especially enjoyed the people’s choice division of the cook-off.
“I’ve eaten a lot of bad barbecue being on the road,” Cliff Mortimer said. “It’s not all about your team winning. The best thing is that we’re selling this food in our booth to thousands of people, and they give great feedback. We would have the longest lines. People talk ... about barbecue, that is.”
The Mortimers later moved to Atlanta and then, finally, to Clay. But one thing has remained the same: their method for competition-style barbecue that has been perfected for taste, texture and tenderness.
Working with a smaller menu at Barbecue Stop, they serve family specials, sandwiches, whole butts, salads, burgers, ribs, wings, kid’s meals and desserts, including banana pudding and chocolate cookie pudding.
Barbecue Stop is mostly a carryout restaurant, but it also caters and crafts six sauces from scratch, along with everything else on the menu. It does barbecue the way the Mortimers do it at the cook-offs: smoking pork butts for 14 hours that have the beloved “smoke ring” and fall apart with one look.
The restaurant’s most popular sauces are Southern Peach and Carolina, for those who like a tangy, vinegar-style sauce. Cliff Mortimer also put a traditional Alabama white sauce on the menu a year ago that is often requested.
The secret to great barbecue is in the details, he said.
“One thing I’ve learned is you have to put the money behind the product,” Cliff Mortimer said. “You start out with top-notch produces and reliable equipment. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money.”
Popular with the local Clay-Chalkville students for its pork fries, now dubbed “Cougar fries” — or fries with pork and cheese on top — Barbecue Stop partners with the local schools for fundraisers throughout the year.
Since he has cut back to about two or three cook-offs each year, with their most recent win being Best Ribs at Wausau Balloon and Rib Fest in Wisconsin last year, Cliff Mortimer works at the restaurant every day now, cooking and maintaining each aspect of the business to keep it thriving.
His goals include growing the restaurant and the careers of the 15 employees he has working there.
Birmingham may even have a large barbecue festival in its future, if the Mortimers have anything to do with it.
“We might attract about 35,000 people if we did it right,” Cliff Mortimer said.
Other plans include the possibility of bottling and selling its sauces in supermarkets, he said.
Barbecue Stop is open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, and is at 6633 Old Springville Road. For more information, call 681-5575 or go to its Facebook page at Barbecue Stop.