Ribs from the Golden Age of Dining

On a recent jaunt up to north Orange County, I stumbled across a childhood favorite of mine, Chris' & Pitt's BBQ. Until recently, I had thought that all the Chris' & Pitt's had gone out of business; dinosaurs from a homier day of dining.

To some, Chris' & Pitt's may look dingy and run down after all these years. From my memory though, nothing has changed. The restaurant was dimly lit. The booths were always made out of a red naugahyde, which presumably allows for easier clean up of BBQ sauce. And the waitresses, still my favorite part, have always looked like something from Mel’s Diner on that TV show “Alice.” Almost sure as shootin’, a visit to a Chris' & Pitt's will yield a waitress named Flo or Betty, who’s sporting a beehive hairdo and thinks your name is “Honey.”

For lunch or dinner, I’d recommend either the full “melt in your mouth” rack of ribs or the rib and chicken combo. Both will run you just under $20, but easily come with enough food for two people to split. In addition to the meat, each entrée comes with an incredible salad drenched in dressing, some garlic toast, and a couple of sides.

All the Chris' & Pitt's have a dining counter in addition to the booths, which is a great way to circumvent the loyal dinnertime crowd. The restaurant also offers a full bar including a pretty mean Bloody Mary.

If you are feeling like BBQ but want to gorge yourself in private, Chris' & Pitt's is more than happy to pack it to go. In fact, that’s how I first discovered Chris' & Pitt's – it was our family’s choice for Christmas dinner all throughout my childhood!

Chris' & Pitt's accepts all major credit cards and is located at 601 North Euclid in Anaheim. There are also three additional locations just over the border into LA county (Downy, Bellflower, and Whittier).