Wandering through the super market the other day looking for a BBQ sauce to flavor up my already moist and tasty smoked pork butt, I stumbled across a real treasure in both BBQ sauces and Chicago culture.

I was immediately struck by the bottle, a color saturated photo of Curtis Briggs, no-doubt the bottle’s namesake, smiling back at me. The Captain’s got a red cape thrown over one shoulder and, on the other breast of the cape, the words ‘cooking genious’ are stitched. Turning the bottle over you’re given a quick bio on Curtis and his aptly named ‘Boss Sauces’ and, I guess in case you have any questions, Curtis Brigg’s phone number. Seriously, the 773 prefix and all. I have every intention of calling this number one of these days, most likely at the end of a decent smoke when I can appropriately extrapolate on my enthusiasm for my man Capt. Curtis’ amazing Boss Sauce.

I bought his Hickory flavor and was pleasantly surprised in the richness of the sauce, so much more flavorful than the other 2 store bought brands I picked up (Open Pitt and Sweet Baby Ray’s). The folks over at BBQ Sauce Review agree with my enthusiasm for the sauce, though they seem to be less fond of the packaging than I was.

A quick googling the following day turned me on, not only to the video below, but also to the fact that Curtis has a restaurant on Chicago’s south side, the aptly named Captain Curtis’ Shazaam Restaurant located at 8210 S. Cottage Grove Ave., where his famed BBQ is dished up with live Jazz and R&B until 1am every morning. My trips to the south side are far too infrequent, but every time I head down to our richest source of Chicago history I am fed well and plenty and left rejuvenated having engaged again with so much of my city’s rich historical roots. The Captain’s restaurant is next on my hit list and I promise to offer a full review after my visit.

The name of our site, Outsider’s Almanac, has several important meanings to me not the least of which is the effort to get outside of one’s comfort zones, one’s home and one’s neighborhood. In Chicago it can at times be as hard to find an event outside – like biking or hiking or snowboarding – as it is to find the motivation get outside of your own 4 block confine. Every part of Chicago is so rich with great food, great people and amazing history that it’s often too easy to become rote in well-worn tracks. But, as the Captain now stands testament to in my mind, there are too many riches outside of what I know to stay comfortable or predictable for too long and, so, it’s time once again for me to get down to the south side and try some of Captain Curtis’ Shazaam BBQ.