Sports Illustrated

# 1. Ribs at Archibald’s in Northport, Ala. (Metro Tuscaloosa)

Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples recently picked the 25 best college town meals to feast on during the 2017 College Football season. The ribs at Archilbald’s in Northport Alabama ranks # 1 in the country!

A minor controversy erupted this week when it was announced that Georgia would serve Dreamland barbecue — which originated in Tuscaloosa — in Sanford Stadium instead of something from an in-state purveyor. The locals in Tuscaloosa must be thrilled to hear this. They love when everyone talks about Dreamland, the formerly great rib joint that has turned into a pure tourist trap. Those who live in Tuscaloosa know the best ribs in America can be found in a shack next to a house on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Northport. That’s where George and Betty Archibald began serving those juicy, perfect ribs in 1962.

A few years ago, I asked George Jr. — who took over for his dad and has since given way to a third generation in the form of Woodrow Washington III — what temperature he smoked his ribs at and for how long. “I don’t know,” George Jr. said. “I just know when they’re right.” He does. And no one makes them more right than Archibald’s.