They’re going to miss Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who is now in his last few months in the House of Representatives. But not so much because of his folksy conservatism that drove liberals and centrist GOP leaders nuts for 17 years.
No, it’s “Chef Louie” and his universally loved barbecued ribs grilled outside his Rayburn House Office Building office that will have Washingtonians in tears.
“It’s amazing how friendly people get when you’re just breaking bread,” Gohmert told Secrets of his passion for smoking ribs and dishing them up on occasion for House members and even presidents.
“I don’t have any ulterior motive other than just doing something that leaves a nice taste in people’s mouth. And many have told me the ribs are the only time I leave a nice taste in their mouths,” he said with a laugh.
The lawmaker and former judge from East Texas has been cooking ribs since he helped his father at the home grill. “I watched him and learned his techniques,” said Gohmert.
Then, as an elected judge in Smith County, Texas, a local bondsman and BBQ wizard, Ruby Dean, offered him a smoked tenderloin that nearly changed his life. Before Dean died, he shared his cooking secrets with Gohmert, who prefers kettle grills, indirect heat, Kingsford charcoal, and a touch of lemon peel in his rub concoction.
You know COVID is over when you can smell ribs in Rayburn. Honored to make Texas ribs on Fly-In Day for my colleagues in D.C. one last time. #RibDay pic.twitter.com/4a5KZmFPXl
— Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) July 18, 2022
When he arrived in Washington, he was assigned an office on the fifth floor of the Cannon Building, a horrible place ringed by a 2-foot-wide “gutter ledge” to catch rain. One day, he saw staffers crawling out windows to catch a smoke on the “balcony” and decided he’d set up his kettle grills there for quarterly cookouts.
He ran into a fire code hazard and had to stop for a while but started up again when he moved offices to Rayburn, which has a bigger outside balcony. By then, he had become famous for his ribs.
Former President George W. Bush once pleaded for some. “Hey, I keep hearing all these people talking about how good your ribs are. How come I’ve never had any?” the fellow Texan told Gohmert.
The next time he cooked, Gohmert filled two pans and personally carried them to the White House, where he was met by Bush’s chef, chief of staff, and national security adviser. “I felt a little weird,” he said, “showing up with two aluminum pans of meat.”
But, he added, “the next time I saw Bush, he said, ‘Those ribs are incredible.'”
How incredible? Well, former New York Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter once took some home, and her vegetarian husband ate them, confessing, “Oh, I can eat those.”
After COVID-19 sidelined his cookouts, Gohmert this week delivered what may have been his last batch of ribs to applause in the House Republican and Democratic cloakrooms right off the House floor.
Not surprisingly, a few friends urged him to open a BBQ shop after his final term is up and seize on Washington’s huge catering business. Some even offered to fund a “Louie’s BBQ.”
“I had a couple of people say, ‘We want to be your first customers,’” said the 68-year-old Gohmert, who recently lost out in the election for Texas attorney general.
But it sounds like he’s going to stick to cooking for friends — and frenemies. “There’s still nothing in it for me other than the pleasure of making people happy.”
