By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com

This wacky spring weather activated two of my nobler primal urges - for smoked meat and superior trailer food. So with magnolias dead before their time and lilacs stillborn on their bushes, I made my annual pilgrimage to Opening Day at Hawgeye's BBQ. The Ankeny barbecue shack is the best of Central Iowa's fine line-up of warm weather food stands. Unlike its closest competitors for that title, it brings no controversy to the table. Hawgeye's sits in the parking lot of T & T Landscaping, where it shares ownership and tax liabilities with that business. It doesn't undercut permanent sit-down restaurants in its neighborhood with lower prices and similar menus. In fact, it's unique, at least within Ankeny.

Mike Tucker, a card-carrying member of the fundamentalist wing of the Iowa Barbecue Society, owns Hawgeye's. His smoke master and shack manager is Ellie Booth, whose devotion to old school methods makes Tucker seem like a corner-cutting faddist. The only charcoal Booth uses is pure lump, and only from Three Oaks - the made-in-Iowa gold standard. The only hard wood she uses is cherry, except for special requests and off-the-menu specialties. Such insider information is for members of the church of the smoked pig, a growing sect in Central Iowa.

But Hawgeye's also has great appeal to the average lunch goer. First, remember this is the opposite of fast food. Booth has cut her regular hours back drastically. Instead of being open six days a week, this year the shack will be open only on Fridays, from 11 to 7. That gives her a chance to concentrate on the catering and special order business, which is always open (for $100 minimum orders). Duty demanded I test both segments.

This year's shack menu includes pulled-pork shoulders, beef briskets, pork loins, whole chickens and baby back ribs. You can complicate the menu with a variety of post-smoking treatments, some hotter, others sweeter. While Hawgeye's carries the area's most comprehensive line of barbecue sauces and rubs, that part of their game is far too subjective. So I pre-requested an order of everything "naked." If you don't pre-order, the pulled pork always comes sauced.

Ribs starred. Booth does not skin them, which gives more crunch and less smoke flavor. Ours were competition perfect, meaning they tore easily between ribs without slipping off the bone (which would indicate the meat had turned to mush). Only a Q-illiterate thinks that falling off the bone is a good thing. It may win praise from oblivious newspaper critics, but it gets a hopeful rib master kicked out of the "Memphis World" competition.

Caution: no one gets ribs consistently perfect. There's only a 15-minute window within a six-hour process when smoked ribs are in their prime.

Our happy luck lasted through the brisket, which was quite good for so early in the season. Booth buys whole briskets, but mostly sells the flat (leaner) cuts to shack customers. Deckle freaks can get the fattier cut, but I suggest calling ahead one day if that's your preference.

Pork loins are too lean for the tedium of smoking. But Booth insisted I try hers and it was surprisingly moist, with a nice ring. Her chickens suffered the inconsistency of most whole birds - dark meat was excellent, but the breast was too dry. Skin glowed like olive oil, though.

As a supreme test of the special order service, I asked for a point cut of pastrami, which is fatty beef brisket that has been brined (making it corned beef) before smoking. Real pastrami has virtually disappeared from the local deli scene - Maccabee Deli and South Union have it on occasions. Otherwise it's usually an abomination made from rounds. In two weeks, ours was done like a New York dream. Now, we're working up to a more common test - Hawgeye's specializes in whole hogs, smoked in Ankeny and delivered to your function for $6 per pound, hanging weight.

Hawgeye's BBQ
1313 Ordnance Road, Ankeny, 515-963-4397
Fridays 11 a.m. to 7p.m.
Special orders ($100 minimum) and catering anytime

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