Lost in the Sauce

“My, what a pretty rib face you have.”

As frequent flyers to Orlando, Florida, the Haynes family tradition never fails: a sit-down for a rack of ribs at the world-famous Floridian food chain, Tony Roma’s. With mouth-watering ribs ranging from original baby backs, hearty beef ribs, spiced plum lamb ribs and their St. Louis style baby backs, these rib racks are finger lickin’ good!

Our dinner started off with complimentary warm, soft and buttery bread. As a complement to this compliment, we ordered an onion loaf to whet our palettes for dinner. These super-size onions are breaded and fried to perfection served with Tony Roma’s original barbeque sauce. The salty-sweet combination of sautéed onions, battered, deep fried and sprinkled with pepper, was the ultimate appetizer.

Alas, our baby backs were served. These soft, juicy, tender ribs were served with French fries and coleslaw. Dressed in sweet and spicy barbecue sauce, the meat simply fell off of the bone, and was gone in minutes.

After the ribs were eaten, and the fingers were licked—we all looked around at each other and laughed. Another Haynes family vacation down in the books. As I scanned the freshly-fed and content faces of my family members, I knew I would be able to remember this moment forever. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “my, what pretty rib faces you all have.”