BBQ, music share headline at blues festival

This Thursday, the Momma's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ kitchen will hum as employees line smokers with pound after pound of pulled pork and apply their secret dry rub to thousands of wings.

It might seem excessive, but it's all necessary to get ready for the business's largest event to date — the 18th annual Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival, where music has often taken the lead but now shares the headline spot with another contender: the food.

It's not good enough for festivals to have only typical fair food anymore, organizer JenniferWashlesaid, and as Louisville becomes more of a foodie city, the blues festival has jumped on the trend by getting the best local barbecue restaurants, including Momma's, on board.

"People's expectations when attending music festivals nowadays is that the food has to be good quality," saidWashle, promotions manager for theBisigImpact Group, which produces the festival. "That's just as important to them as the music they're coming to listen to. People have acquired a taste with food trucks and restaurants and what's out there now, it's just so much better than it used to be."

The festival will take place Friday through Sunday at the Louisville Water Tower, 3005 River Road. Ten bands are lined up to playthroughthe weekend, and a beer-tasting tent will return for the second year, serving brews that can't be found at the event's main bar.Washlesaid the beverages will pair well with the barbecue, provided by Boss Hog's BBQ, Rack House BBQ and first-timer Momma's.

Momma's is relatively new to Louisville's barbecue scene, springing up only three years ago with its first restaurant on Bauer Avenue, pit master Jamie Givan said. It has since opened a second location on Hurstbourne Parkway and introduced its food truck last year.

The food truck — a 1987 25-footer named Janine, an inside joke between Givan and a friend — was originally supposed to be the business' starting point, but as Momma's owner Chad Cooley poured money into getting it running, he stumbled into the Bauer Avenue location.

The restaurant has since turned Momma's into a barbecue staple, with both its ribs and wings mentioned in Johnny Fugitt's book "The 100 Best Barbecue Restaurants in America." But the food truck has allowed the business to take its dishes on the road, traveling to downtown businesses on weekdays and larger events such as the Louder Than Life Festival and Blues, Brews & BBQ.

Givan said he attributes the restaurant's success to its Kansas City style of cooking, which emphasizes the dry rub — a mix of seasons and spices that go on the meat before it's cooked — instead of the barbecue sauce or smoking technique.

"A lot of places use a dry rub, but we use a dry rub on everything," Givan said. "On our wing, on all our meats, and it even goes in some of our sides. ... There's good barbecue in town, but there's nothing as good as Kansas City barbecue, and there wasn't any in town, so that's what we did."

For the blues festival, Givan said he plans to bring about 50 racks of ribs, hundreds of wings and as many pounds of pork as the truck can handle each day. The pork will be smoked overnight at the restaurant, but the ribs will be smoked on-site and pulled off to order.

"The ribs that they'll get next weekend will be from the smoker to their mouth, and it's going to be good — while they last," Givan said.

Along with the barbecue, festival attendees can test dozens of beers in the tasting tent to find the perfect pairing. Givan said he tends to stick with Coors original when eating at the restaurant, but he said hoppy beers go great with Momma's smokier dishes, such as burnt ends.

For the tasting tent, Lindsay Shepard, a marketing manager for Anheuser-Busch, said her company will bring beers from four craft breweries that are distributed locally: Goose Island Beer Company, Blue Point Brewing Co., Kona Brewing Company and Widmer Brothers Brewing. The beers will be a mix of brews that sell well and that are available seasonally.

Shepard said Anheuser-Busch has sponsored the festival for almost 15 years, and she's excited to see the beer options growing with the tasting tent.

"It went great (last year). I think it went way beyond our expectations," she said. "They were calling us, saying, 'We're going to run out of beer.' I think people are looking for experiences like this where they can try a sample of something and figure out what they like. Then they can go to the store and make a purchase of the whole package instead of just taking a shot at it and not knowing if they're going to like it."

Remember to drink smart, drinksafe. Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at (502) 582-4646. Follow her on Twitter at @bloosemore.

MOMMA'S POTATO SALAD

Pit master Jamie Givan won't give up the secret dry rub recipe for Momma's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ — "It's like the Colonel's recipe," he said — but he did offer two side dishes you can make on your own. Serves 12.

Vinaigrette

¹/₃ cup canola oil

¹/₃ cup Momma's mustard

¹/₃ cup cider vinegar

1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp coarse ground pepper

Dressing

²/₃ cup Momma's mustard

²/₃ cup sour cream

²/₃ cup buttermilk

2 cups mayonnaise

4-5 green onions (sliced thin)

1 cup red onion (sliced thin and halved)

1 tbsp granulated garlic

1 tbsp garlic in water (or garlic in oil)

2 tbsp kosher salt

Potatoes

6 lbs red potatoes (scrubbed and cut into ¹/₄ to ¹/₂" cubes)

Forvinaigrette, stir mustard, vinegar,saltand pepper together. Slowly whisk in oil. Set aside.

For dressing, stir all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate.

Put potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are fork tender. Strain and place warm potatoes in a bowl. Pour on vinaigrette and gently stir.

Place in refrigerator uncovered for one to two hours, stirringoccasionally,or covered overnight. When potatoes are cooled, stir in dressing.

MOMMA'S SLAW

Serves 15-20

Slaw

5 lbs shredded green cabbage

1 medium red onion quartered and sliced thin

1 cup shredded carrot

Dressing

3 cups mayonnaise

¹/₃ cup white vinegar

¹/₃ cup buttermilk

¹/₃ cup Momma's rub

¹/₄ cup sugar

1 tbsp kosher salt

Toss vegetables with dressing. Chill for one hour.

BLUES, BREWS & BBQ

The 18th annual festival — presented by Hershey's and Kroger and produced by the Bisig Impact Group — will return this weekend with 10 bands, barbecue from several local businesses and dozens of craft beers.

When: 5-11:30 p.m. Friday, 4-11:30 p.m. Saturday, 1-7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Louisville Water Tower, 3005 River Road

Cost: Admission to the festival is $12 before 6 p.m. and $16 after. Buy a three-day pass online for $30. Children 10 and under are free. Admission to the beer tent is $5 and comes with two tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets can be purchased for $1 each.

More info: Find a music lineup and buy tickets at www.LouisvilleBluesandBBQFestival.com. Check out the event's Facebook page at Louisville Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival.

FIND THE FOOD TRUCK

Momma's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ operates a 1987 food truck that serves a condensed version of the restaurant's menu. Find it around town by following the truck's Facebook page: Momma's Foodtruck. Not into eating from a truck? Visit the restaurants at 102 Bauer Ave. and 119 S. Hurstbourne Pkwy.