SAVOR encore
Dynamic Deli Duo
Ribfest winner and her mom carry on Dip’s tradition by
Dianne Charles
L
John A. Lacko
John A. Lacko
ast August Jessie Patterson stood behind her tantalizing display of ribs, mixed greens and macaroni and cheese, serving long lines of people that sometimes extended out to the curb. She was one of 18 vendors at Ribfest, an annual festival and rib-cooking competition in downtown Kalamazoo that is organized by Kalamazoo Community Advocates. She represented Kalamazoo’s Park Street Market. Some of the other vendors came from as far away as Arkansas, Texas and Ohio. She says that when she won first place for “Best Ribs in Kalamazoo County,” Mo Pritchard, of Big Mo Ribs and a perennial winner, told her, “You beat me. You’re good.” “I was intent on people liking my food more than winning a prize,” says the 50-year-old Patterson, who
14 | Encore JANUARY 2014
Park Street Market’s deli manager, Jessie Patterson, right, and her mother, Willie Mae Joyce, cook up tantalizing home-cooked food from Joyce’s recipes that were used at Dip’s restaurant, which closed after 18 years in business. Their ribs, at left, were voted the “Best Ribs in Kalamazoo County” at last summer’s Ribfest.