BBQ Alley serves up brisket, pork and chicken amid a sea of Fords, Nissans and Hyundais

The menu seems endless at the Ricart MegaMall.

Around the 67-acre car dealership on the Southeast Side just outside Groveport, you can get a Ford Bronco or Ford Escape, a Nissan Altima or Maxima, a Hyundai Sonata or Santa Fe, or any of more than 3,000 new or used cars, trucks or SUVs.

Or, in the middle of it all, you can order up some good smoked beef brisket, a side of greens or baked beans, and some freshly baked honey-and-buttermilk cornbread.

A restaurant called BBQ Alley sits inside the boundaries of the car lot that’s bigger in acreage than the entire village of Brice, seven miles to the northeast. BBQ Alley is near Ricart’s Fuel-n-Wash station and used-car appraisal office, at the intersection of two driveways that are regulated by their own traffic light.

“It is truly a mom-and-pop diner in the middle of the MegaMall,” said Terrie Burch, who opened the place in June 2022 with her husband, Danny, who died of lymphoma months later.

“He got to realize his dream,” she said of her late husband, who won a 2007 state barbecue championship in Virginia and had always hoped to turn their trailer into a 10-seat restaurant where the couple could see their food-is-happiness philosophy play out in a more idyllic setting.

There are 10 seats shared by three tables inside BBQ Alley. Rick Ricart, president of the third-generation dealership, sat at one of them on a recent Wednesday for his favorite lunch: a pulled pork sandwich topped with coleslaw. Terrie Burch calls it “Rick’s Way.”

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There used to be a Subway in the space now occupied by Burch. It was there for about six years before shutting down.

“We wanted something just to let our employees have a place to eat without having to leave the property,” Ricart said. There are about 500 people employed at the Ricart MegaMall in sales, finance, service, parts and management.

“You come to Subway every day for six years, you’ve had every combo possible,” Ricart said. Asked if he’s had everything yet on Burch’s menu, he added: “When you find something really good, you don’t mind being a creature of habit.”

As Ricart began looking for a new restaurant tenant, it so happened the Burches were looking for someplace to land their barbecue business, begun in 2006 as OD on BBQ. By mid-2019, their landlords at Smith Farm had asked them to move, and they found a roadside spot nearby.

A Ricart technician and his wife recommended that the car dealers seek out the barbecue masters to move into their restaurant space, and everything worked out.

“We’re a faithful lot,” Terrie said. “There was a plan.”

Terrie, a racing fan, was immediately taken with the location and came up with the new name. Decorations include her racing mementos and one of Danny’s prized possessions: a framed print of a pig, mid-air, as it dives into a lake.

There was no spot for it in the trailer. The Ricarts built a half-wall in BBQ Alley just so it had a place to hang in the restaurant. Behind the counter hangs what has become one of Terrie’s prized possessions: A photo of her and her husband of 47 years, sitting exhausted but arm-in-arm, on a bench outside the restaurant at the end of their grand-opening day.

The Burches’ daughters, Tracie Mohler and Becky Waters, work at the restaurant now, along with grandsons Joseph and Lucas. Their youngest grandson, 4-year-old Kilian, serves as the meeter and greeter, Terrie Burch said.

Ricart employees are the steadiest source of BBQ Alley customers, although OD on BBQ regulars have found the new location, too. The restaurant’s hours are tailored to the car dealership’s, although Burch opened on Thanksgiving Day so customers could pick up their smoked turkeys.

The regular menu includes beef brisket, pulled pork and pulled chicken, which are smoked daily and sold by the pound or in sandwiches. BBQ Alley also serves ribs and rib tips and sides of greens, baked beans, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, corn pudding, potato salad and house-made pickles. Sauces are sweet, spicy and extra-spicy, although Burch said “our goal is not to fry the tastebuds.”

“How was your turkey, Mr. Ricart?” she asked during the post-Thanksgiving lunch as Ricart ate his pulled pork sandwich. “Fantastic,” Ricart responded. He said he also enjoys Burch’s homemade cookies, although his promise to take them home for his family are sometimes not kept.

(Burch said Ricart employees, including executives, were told early on not to expect discounts or freebies from BBQ Alley. They were all treated to free food on the restaurant’s opening day, but the auto dealer paid the tab.)

Ricart, the face of his family’s business in its “We’re Dealin’!” TV ads, knows good food. His maternal grandparents were involved in restaurants such as Shade’s in Canal Winchester, the Good and Plenty on Brice Road, and LK Restaurant in Chillicothe. He used to enter barbecue competitions himself, he said, and although he tries to eat healthier these days, “when I do want to indulge, I want the good stuff.”

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Since her husband passed away, Burch’s daughter, Tracie, oversees the smoking. She worked with her father, too, in the food-trailer days. The smoker sits just outside BBQ Alley, and she said it’s nice to have a warm restaurant to run back into now. After meats are smoked and then sliced or pulled, they’re placed back in the smoker in their pans.

Some take up to 18 hours.

“Consistency was Danny’s thing,” Terrie Burch said. “Even though we know it in our heads, we always follow the recipe.”

BBQ Alley is a “neutral site,” Ricart said, meaning customers at the restaurant won’t get a sales pitch with their pulled pork.

Sometimes, though, sitting among acres of new cars can be sales pitch enough.

The five people who work at BBQ Alley have purchased three cars among them since the restaurant opened for business, Burch said.

rvitale@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Barbecue restaurant thrives at Ricart MegaMall car dealership