(Throughout the month of February, every Thursday TLO will celebrate and highlight various Black-owned eateries across the OKC Metro. – Louis)
It was all a pork and dream, I used to read Bon Appétit magazine…and even in the most fevered of those nocturnal missions, I never once encountered the rumbly-tumbly meat-machine that is the Rollie Ollie.
The pride and joy of Big O’s Pork and Dreams, 285 S. Santa Fe Ave. in Edmond—a somewhat new BBQ place in a town I very rarely, if ever, get down in—my stamina in the face of the Rollie Ollie quickly dwindled. One hand on the table and the other on my fork, I inconspicuously let out a minor series of yelps until I pushed the substantial sandwich away, utterly defeated.
Ran by a former Edmond teacher, Big O’s started off as a family food-truck and eventually became popular enough to open up a busy storefront that relied on handed-down recipes that seemed to strike the right sauce-covered nerves with the BBQ-starved suburb, visions of briskets and ribs dancing in their hungry heads.
The highly recommended Rollie Ollie ($11.50), however, reduced me to cosmic tears, my lucid stomach weighed down by the mere view of it on the metal tray.
Overflowing with multiple meats in every discernible direction, the chosen combination of pulled pork and hot links were effortlessly connubial and entirely carnal, warm juices making a mess in my masculine facial hair; topped with a generous amount of yellow potato salad, baked beans and grated cheese, this sandwich truly was the waking image of barbecued perfection.
As the astral sandwich began to ruthlessly fill me, I tried to wickedly imbibe the homemade Black Cherry Lemonade ($2.50) and, comically, the side of Steak Fries ($2.50). Though obviously hand-cut and fried until golden brown, they sat there, barely touched, the Rollie Ollie taking up far too much of my noontime daydreams to even make the slightest dent in them.
That being said, I heard through the meat-vine that Big O’s signature dessert, Momma’s Oreo Dirt Pudding ($3.99), is a baptismal secret that has been passed on to Big O from, as you could guess, his mother.
Served chilled from the icebox, I pushed my meal to the left, allowing the gratuitous Oreo topping and creamy custard-like pudding to transport me to a wholly uncharted dreamscape that, if I’m being honest, I’ll be thinking about again as I travel to slumberland tonight, Big O and his Pork and Dreams taking me far away from this often cruel, usually meatless world. Cómpralo ya!
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Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler and Instagram at @louisfowler78.
