Q & A with Bludso's BBQ Kevin Bludso: Smoke, Termination, and HTTPs

J.H. Starr

Kevin Bludso and his pit

Does Kevin Bludso make the best brisket in town? There are certainly a lot of people who think so. The Compton man with Texas roots opened Bludso's BBQ about three years ago, and his small shop was quickly discovered and pushed through the cycle of Internet food fanaticism. In short, he got the blogosphere bump. Bludso's has since been reviewed by our own Jonathan Gold, and featured by L.A. Magazine, where he has been praised for his tender greens, hulking beef ribs, and of course, that fatty, smokey brisket.

We met with Bludso on his day off (they're closed on Mondays) in the empty concrete parking lot beside his restaurant. After pulling some tattered old chairs into a shady spot off in the corner, we looked on at his sleeping barbecue pits, and spoke on subjects like family history, his time spent with the Department of Corrections, and whether or not white folks (and Asians) know anything about barbecue. Turn the page for part one of our interview and check back later for the second part, and a recipe.

Anne Fishbein

Angus beef ribs at Bludso's BBQ

Squid Ink: So you come from a long line of Texans, right?

Kevin Bludso: Yes sir, yes sir. I'm a fourth generation.

SI: How long has your family been making barbecue?

KB: Man, I guess -- my granny's 90. And her father -- she's been making it since she was 10 so -- I just got back from Texas. I guess we've been saying over a hundred years.

SI: Is she still making it?

KB: She still is. She still is now. 90 years old. Still drinking Hennessy, still making barbecue. They try to keep her away from the pit, but she gets on the pit, you know, so...

SI: Did she have a restaurant back in Texas?

KB: She used to have a kind of like a stand back in the day, like a roadside stand. They were there on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays. In Corsicana, Texas.

SI: Were you learning down there from her?

KB: From the time I was 9 -- I'm from out here -- I was sent to Texas from the time I was 9 years old, every summer, so I wouldn't get in no trouble in Compton. I would work with her all summer. You know, I started playing football so that used to cut my summers, but I used to always swear up and down I was never gonna go into food service. And she would say, "You're gonna have to go into food service. You're gonna have to have your own business, because you're too much of an asshole to work for somebody. You think you know everything."

So after I graduated college, I came back here and I worked for the Department of Corrections, and I ended up getting terminated because I was an asshole. I hated it, you know what I'm saying?

SI: What did you do to get terminated?

KB: Just, you know, it's a long story. I ended up winning my case. But put it like this, I saw the out and I took the out. I took the out and that's what really financed me on doing what I'm doing later on down the line. I was young, but I saw the out, and I said, "you know what?" I knew I couldn't do that. I'm 45 now. I left the department when I was 30, I think. 31. But at 30, I knew I couldn't do it for the next -- they might not get me now, but they'd get me. You know what I mean? So I took the out.

SI: How long did you work there?

KB: 11 years.