Georgia ‘Ribpublicans’ win Eastpoint cookoff

Eastpoint’s Most Wanted, which finished second, included, from left, Ty Gillikin, Fred Register and Kevin Halulko, [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

Bill Keith, from Blakely, Georgia, puts the finishing touches on his entry for Hitman’s BBQ. [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

Ira Kelly, with Bayshore Porkers, uses an eight-year-old Nahunta wood-fired reverse flow smoker. He recently started the Middle and South Georgia BBQ Network, which helps start-up events bring in judges and competitors for the popular foodie sport. [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

Richard “Crash” Radford, a longtime member of the Eastpoint fire department, won the Liar’s Contest with a tale of how he once shot a buck. [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

Rob and Charlotte Crombie, from Bristol, used hickey and pecan wood to heat their ribs for Crombie’s Smoke Crew. [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

The “Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em” team, led by Patrick Ferguson and Ron Copeland, used a Recteq Wood Pellet Grill that they bought at Ace Hardware, that cooked with a mixed fruit blend of wood pellets. [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

Jimmy Crenshaw prepares his Honorable Mention entry together with Laura Thorpe. [ David Adlerstein | The Times ]

A pair of good ole boys from Georgia with the politically charged name “Ribpublicans” took the top prize at the silver anniversary Eastport Rib Cookoff Saturday. 

But teammates Jonathan Sands and Tony Morris, both from Adel, insist the name doesn’t mean what you might think.

“It’s got nothing to do politically,” said Sands, pointing to the team’s vanity license plate that boasts of “red meat” and “blue smoke,” both aspects of a well-prepared rack of ribs.

He said that when they started competing five years ago, they wanted a name that would comprise food, as in “rib,” and drink, as in “pub,” and what they like to do, as in “I can.”

“I like to eat and drink, and we partake,” said Sands, a project manager for a steel building company..

“We’re heavenly eaters,” added Morris, retired from the Army as well as the Georgia Department of Corrections. “We don’t miss a meal.”

The Ribpublicans captured the $1,000 top prize among the dozen teams in the 25th anniversary charity cookoff, which raises money for the Eastpoint Volunteer Fire Department.

“It was hard fought against some special teams,” said Sands. “Anybody out here could have got first, and that’s what makes it so fun to come back and compete.”

Balancing out what has recently become an ongoing Florida-Georgia rivalry was Eastpoint’s Most Wanted, a team led by Ty Gillikin that has competed in all but the first event. Together with teammates Fred Register and Kevin Halulko, they took the $750 second place prize.

Finishing third, and pocketing $500, were Andy and Charlene Dickens, out of Andersonville, Georgia. In addition to whipping up their competitive ribs in a smoker, the duo cooked up pans of smoked macaroni-and-cheese, which they later gave to officers at the sheriff’s department, and folks at the Red Pirate and the Bayshore Travel Park.

St. George Island’s Jimmy Crenshaw, working with teammate Laura Thorpe, won a tiebreaker among three teams for Honorable Mention, and $250.

People’s Choice, as well as Best Rig, honors went to John Solomon’s 10-4 BBQ, which added $955 to the event proceeds, which make up a third fire department proceeds.

Fire Chief George Pruett said final tallies aren’t in yet, but that sales of 216 racks of ribs, and 680 total meals that also included pulled pork and chicken, as well as generous support from sponsors, will bring in much-needed funds for the volunteer department.

Rex Pennycuff, chairman of the department’s board, said he expects proceeds will go towards operational costs as well as towards the purchase of a tanker truck, to replace the department’s 20-year-old one.

“Prices have skyrocketed,” he said, noting that a tanker will cost in the vicinity of $550,000, well in excess of the department’s last purchase of a needed truck, which ran about $350,000.