I guess the question needed an answer, it's one I have not been asked for so many years, goes back well over fifty years, back to old Elko, Nevada. Elko was a very small town in those days. I was working the Ranch Inn during the evening and after my shift there I would walk down to the Stockman's Hotel and do a shift there. I had heard some of the "old timers" talk about the Stockman's and it was another one of the things I wanted to do before heading back to Ohio.
Bob Goodnight had the pit at the Ranch Inn, and he gave me the job. It was right on the main East-West highway, so anyone coming or going passed by the Inn, so we stayed busy, generally not heavy business, but steady. I forget who bankrolled the games, I think he was a real estate developer from San Francisco who had a ranch, and I do mean a ranch, it was called North-East Nevada. His place had a couple of towns on it. He invited some of us up and we drove and drove and drove to get to his house. We had been on his land for an hour of so.
The story we got that he was driving to his place from San Francisco one night, got tired, and stoppe and at the Ranch Inn to spend the night. There was a convention or something in town and they had no rooms left. He made a few phone calls and they got him a room, he bought the place. I think that is pretty much a true story.
Anyway, prostitution is legal in that county, and there were a number of "houses," one of which was rather large and had a nice bar, and that is where many of the locals and dealers hung out .... just the bar, not necessarily anything else. There was another bar where the "merchandising" went on. The bar we frequented was pretty much just that, and we hung out there.
One girl I got to know a little was from West Virginia, I was from Ohio, so we talked about things back home, no sly thoughts, that's all there was. We even ate out a few times. The "girls" were pretty well known and not allowed in the clubs downtown, so we ate at a diner type thing just outside of Elko.
One dealer I got to know, can't think of his name, he was from a wealthy family, and had recently been released from a "rehab" center. He was an excellent dealer, at times, and had worked in quite a few places around the state, even Vegas. He was still having a problem with drugs, got busted one night and sent back to rehab, anyway, he and I and another guy were sitting having a drink. In those days, my drink of choice, was a double Courvoisier with a beer back, putting it down pretty heavy in those days.
For some reason the discussion got around to barbeque and how there were no good BBQ places in Elko. There were many "Basques" in the area, so the menu was pretty much meat and potatoes in most of the places. The three casinos in town, had a variety, but no BBQ.
As we were talking, the gal from WV joined us in our BBQ conversation. She told us that when she went home she helped her Mom out in a small restaurant she owned, I forget the town. She said they were known for their BBQ, and explained to us how her Mom did it.
My dealer friends left, and she and I talked some more and she asked if I wanted her Mom's recipe for the BBQ sauce that they served in her place. She wrote out the recipe.
I have used it now for many years, three restaurants, a few competitions, one that I came in first, and it is used in a nice bar and restaurant in New Jersey. I gave it to the owner and he used it under his wifes name.
It is great, some day I will share it ........... and that is where it came from, a "House" in Elko, Nevada.
