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Dining Divas at Champs
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Anonymous user Fri Jan 18, 2008 09:57:34 PST
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0 responses 0 comments In every issue of Bakersfield Life, our Dining Divas take a look at one of Bakersfield’s premier restaurants. This month the ladies take in the tastes and aromas of Champs BBQ. Our divas took notes of their experience to bring you an inside look at what has become a local dining tradition.


Lydia Rowles works for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools and is married to Jon Rowles. Originally from the East Coast, Lydia moved to Bakersfield 12 years ago. She enjoys food that’s a little different and appreciates a creative menu. 

Katie Kirschenmann says she joined the Junior League of Bakersfield to meet people. Despite her dedication to volunteering she pursues her passion for art and food. The California landscape is an inspiration to her painting and Bakersfield’s unique ethnic dishes are an inspiration to her palette.

Tracy Walker Kiser says she gains enormous amounts of energy and requires very little sleep when the sun is shining.  She loves to garden and be outside on weekends.  She enjoys house cleaning and organizing in early mornings as well as entertaining and getting friends involved in the kitchen.

Penny Rafferty is a busy real estate agent and says her meals are not elaborate, but consist of simple foods that can be prepared in a crock-pot or cooked in the oven. Her culinary skills are limited by time and not by ability. Thankfully her husband and children are not big fans of a multi-course meal.



Excitement about Lunch

Katie - I was born and raised in the Deep South, so when I found out our group was going to dine at Champs BBQ for our next lunch date I was more than thrilled. I am four months pregnant and recently have been craving nostalgic foods. A lunch date at Champs was a chance to answer all my cravings at once.

Lydia - I don’t usually eat a lot of barbecue. That’s always been my husband’s thing. Nothing makes him happier than a big ol’ plate of roasted meat dripping in sauce. I just figured barbecue was a guy thing, right? Apparently, not so much. By the end of my visit I had a very happy belly and a new appreciation for the good things that can happen when smoke meets meat.

About Champs

Penny - Champs BBQ is a gem in the Northwest. If you have not been out by Pegasus Drive or 7th Standard Road recently you are in for a surprise. Champs has been in the same relative location for the last 10 years and has a strong following.

Tracy - Champs owners Tim and Carrie Champness started in the catering business and later opened the restaurant in conjunction with their thriving catering facility.

Ambience

Tracy - The aroma of tasty barbecue gets your attention immediately getting out of your car since their smoker is outside in the back.  I can’t imagine working in the area with all those aromas in the air; I would be hungry all the time.

Lydia - At Champs you order at the counter and seat yourself. The dining room is clean and open with polished concrete floors. Seating is a mix of high-top and regular tables with a few picnic style tables outside.

Penny - The atmosphere is casual and decorated in a laid back Caribbean theme. The walls are painted with palm trees, sand and water. The place was empty when we arrived at 11:00 but every table was full and people were eating outside when we left at 12:30.

A Look at the Menu

Lydia - The Champs menu is pretty much what you’d expect from a barbecue place –meat, meat and more meat. There’s barbecued tri-tip, pit beef, pulled pork, turkey, chicken, hot links and of course ribs. In addition, their grill menu includes fish, lamb and flat iron steak.

Our Meal

Lydia - My diva friends wasted no time staking claim to the menu item of their choice. Tracy went so far as to call dibs on the barbecued chicken salad days before our lunch. That left Katie and Penny sparring over who got to order the pulled pork sandwich. In a brilliant maneuver, Katie played the pregnancy card and won the battle. Penny relented and went with the pit beef sandwich. Part of me really wanted to try the pork ribs. But seriously, chowing down on a pile of ribs with a photographer poised to document every smear of sauce and chunk of gristle in my teeth… I think not. I went the daintier route and ordered the barbecued chicken plate.
   My plate was piled high with chunks of chopped chicken breast. This was a seriously huge portion of meat. Biting into a piece of the chicken, the flavor echoed the wonderful smell that had greeted me outside. The smokiness was pleasant and fresh tasting but not overpowering. Penny pointed out that I should try the chicken with Champs barbecue sauce. The sauce was not at all what I was expecting. This was a thinner reddish-brown mixture that was obviously homemade. It was surprisingly sweet. The sweet clean taste of the barbecue sauce perfectly balanced the smokiness of the meat. I declared it, “genius.”

Tracy - I had the Champs BBQ Salad with BBQ Chicken on top and served with chopped walnuts, crumbled blue cheese and a corn bread muffin.  This salad is just wonderful and different, healthy and tasty.

Penny - I ordered the Pit Beef sandwich with a side order of Macaroni and Cheese. The beef was tender and perfectly seasoned. The sandwich is huge. To really spice it up I added the BBQ sauce. The Mac and Cheese was perfect elbow macaroni swimming in cheese sauces. This is a great place to get your comfort food fix!

Katie - I ordered the Pulled Pork Sandwich with a side of cole slaw. When my sandwich arrived I promptly took my side of slaw and dumped it inside my sandwich. Why? Because in the South, that is just the way it’s done. From first bite to the last my sandwich was divine. The Pulled Pork Sandwich is sized for a big guy and I am not ashamed to admit that I ate the whole thing. The pork was perfectly tender and served in a slightly sweet sauce that holds up to my fond food memories. The cole slaw was a creamy and crunchy, delicious side.

The Sides

Penny - Champs offers pinto beans, red beans & rice, mashed potatoes with gravy, smothered green beans, macaroni & cheese, French fries, potato salad, macaroni salad or coleslaw as sides.

Lydia - While the meat at Champs is certainly the star of the show, I cannot pass up the opportunity to rave about the sides. At Champs the sides totally rock. Friends had told me about the wonders of the mashed potatoes and they were not kidding. A creamy pile of potatoes with bits of skin mixed in with a delicious brown gravy. Ask Katie, she tasted them and unapologetically declared, “These are mine now.”

Katie - I can say with absolute certainty that all the sides that Champs serves are not mere “sides.” They are stand-alone dishes that are worthy of being the center of a meal. Again, my craving for culinary nostalgia was answered inside a Macaroni and Cheese that is definitely better than my mother’s (sorry, Mamma). Upon tasting Champs version of Smothered Green Beans I was transported to my Nanny’s screen porch helping her snap the ends off the stringbeans we had purchased that day from the farm stand down the road. Needless to say, I went home with a quart of Champs Smothered Green Beans for dinner.

Dessert

Penny - Tim and Carrie Champness were very gracious hosts. Carrie brought us three different kinds of desserts to try; chocolate cake, lemon cake and peanut butter pie. These are family recipes and truly worth saving room for. My favorite was the lemon cake; the frosting was sour cream and cream cheese! Of course there were leftovers and Katie took them home too!

Impressions

Lydia - I have to admit, as much as I was impressed with their barbecued meats, it was the quality of the side dishes and the desserts that really wowed me. At Champs they don’t overlook a thing. The food is full of flavor from start to finish.

Katie - I don’t know where I heard the phrase, but it applies to the cooking at Champs: “food remembers.” Meaning, the thought and care put into cooking food lingers inside the dish after it has been made. Champs BBQ is a jewel where the food is made with sincerity and authority. I am sure to start treating my own little family to barbecue now that I know that I can relive a genuine taste of the South.


Champs BBQ & Catering
35315 7th Standard Rd 130
Bakersfield, CA 93308

(661) 391-8334
Lunch and dinner
Monday – Sunday
11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

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