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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Big Shoe's Barbecue left behind hard shoes to fill in Terre Haute


“We barbecue everything but the baby, we boil him.”

So reads a now fading hand-painted sign facing a gravel parking lot at the former location of Big Shoe’s Barbecue at 1112 S. 12th St. in Terre Haute, Ind.

Big Shoe’s slogan once was “the most slyly vicious in the business," noted authors Greg Johnson and Vince Staten in their book, “Real Barbecue.” "The dark humor springs from a gentle soul … a slow-moving bear of a man with the kind face of a basset hound.

"After a handshake and a friendly hello, the joke is obvious: The baby would be absolutely safe with Big Shoe, although a stray spare rib might be in serious danger,” they added.

Alas, Ellis Mills, a.k.a “Big Shoe,” is no more and neither is the historic barbecue joint the Tennessee native operated with his wife, Gladys. Two large signs in the shape of boots still hang outside the building where area-born celebrities such as actors Scatman Crothers and Phil Harris, sportscaster Chris Schenkel and Indianapolis 500 legend Tony Hulman once frequented.


I wish that I could write that I also was among them, but all we found on a recent visit to Terre Haute was a shuttered operation. A fire pit and a couple of smokers stand idled inside one of the buildings, with a couple of sauce mops hanging nearby.

A “closed” sign appears in front of familiar looking checkered curtains in a window.

Big Shoe’s web site -- http://www.bigshoesbarbeque.com/ -- had given us false hope that we would be able to eat at what was once one of only three good barbecue joints in Indiana listed in Johnson and Staten’s guide way back in 1988. Apparently the site remains online in order for the family to market their sauce.


According to various sources, Ellis and Gladys Mills (pictured here) moved to Terre Haute in 1936 and opened the restaurant around 1950, after he had worked for years as an iron worker. Because they had 10 children, they decided to sell barbeque on the weekends to supplement their income.

They sold it around town and later at fairs – including at the Indiana State Fair.

She cooked the meat and prepared sandwiches. He sold the barbeque at various "after hour joints." Because he wore a size 15EEE shoe, he earned the nickname "Big Shoe," which became the name of his business attached to their home.

In the place's early days, at a time when Terre Haute had a reputation as a party hearty river town, Big Shoe’s was the kind of place to go when other places closed. In order to shut things down in the wee hours of the morning, Mills would turn up the jukebox and punch a particular selection, “You Don’t Have to Go Home, But You Can’t Stay Here.”


Today, the jukebox is gone, along with nearly everything else. “Big Shoe” died in September of 1994. Gladys followed him into death in January of 2010.

Their children operated the restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays after his death, but all that is left is a web site for sauce. The phone number doesn't work and I wonder whether anyone will respond to an e-mail.

It would be nice to try their “sweet yet spicy” vinegar-based red sauce.

As I wrote earlier, I never had the privilege of eating here, but I’ll conclude by sharing thoughts from an appreciative, anonymous reviewer from San Antonio, written in December of 2008:

“I ate there at Big Shoes over 50 years ago when "Big Shoe" was the grill-master. I have always considered their Bar-B-Q, by far, the best in the world," he wrote. "The small restaurant was just a room with a sawdust floor in one large room with a pit grill. The furniture was just miss-matched old used tables and chairs with butcher paper for table clothes … The flavor was so good that if I could have eaten the bones, I would have.

“There was no where in the world that I have eaten Bar-B-Q that was as good or that came close. Not in Terre Haute, Indiana -- or anywhere else … Here in San Antonio, Texas, people brag on Texas Bar-B-Q, and it is good, but nothing I have ever eaten compares with Big Shoes in Terre Haute, Indiana.”

That's quite a statement.

Big Shoe's Barbecue on Urbanspoon

16 comments:

  1. I miss "Shoes" BBQ more than you can imagine. Everything is still in place. Maybe someday one of tghe family members will re-open this plain and simple yet outstanding old fashioned BBQ joint.

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  2. I agree, from all the way back to the 60's.

    Rod Staley

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    1. My father Lloyd Ransforwas the meat man for Big Shoe. In the summers I would help my father deliver spare ribs and other meats for Big Shoe's restaurant. He was a very nice mN and so was his whole family.

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  3. We went there quite often when I was a kid. Dad worked with Big Shoe. He definitely was a giant of a man. I loved playing the juke box cause as a little white girl I had never heard music like that and I LOVED it. But I loved the barbeque more, it was to die for. I was listening to BB King tonight and thought of it for the first time in years. We moved back here after 30 years gone.

    I went there when I was in college and ate a few times. The place had a concrete floor then and was likely cleaner but there was no Big Shoe mopping sauce on the chicken and ribs and it wasn't the same. Also the flavor just wasn't as good, I have never eaten sauce as good as that anywhere in all my 67 years. Hate to see an icon like that shuttered.

    Good memories

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  4. you can buy big shoe sauce in terrehaute today.

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  5. I grew up one block over from there also was good friends with two of his children I miss them, Big Shoe and his food so much !

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  6. apparently it is still being sold by the bottle in Terre Haute at Mikes Market and Baeslers Market.

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  7. One of my classmates at Rose Hulman found this and we ate there as often as we could afford. I can still smell the smoke lingering in there with the Coke machine over on one side, the huge stove and that pile of pallets outside. Might have to see if I can figure out how to get some of that sauce again. Won't be the same without their ribs or pork though.

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  11. Big Shoe was a member of Ironworkers Local 439 in Terre Haute. I went to Shoe ' with another Ironworker in 1978 for a work completion party after finishing the smokestack at the Merom Power plant.It was a very good and memorable time.

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  12. Me and two other guys we're doing a big rigging job and Sullivan Indiana and we went to big shoes ....this was back in 88 and it was a fabulous place we met the owner and had a wonderful meal I will never forget it....we were a couple Yankees from Connecticut and he took a liking to us

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  13. I loved Big Shoes Bar-b-q grew up eating it. Nothing will campare to it,

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  14. I lived in Terre Haute from 1979 to 1981. I never tired of listening to Big Shoe's stories of running with the Scatman in Terre Haute back in the day. The food was great, too.

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