Earlier this summer, as I was revisiting restaurants for Southern Living's soon-to-be-released 2019 list of the Top 50 BBQ Joints in the South, my travels took me through central Alabama, a region that I like to call "Rib Country."

The rib game is strong in these parts—so strong, in fact, that it's made me reluctant to order ribs anywhere else in the South. We're not talking stubby little baby backs or neatly-t