Help me save Ooga Booga

LOCKPORT -- Welcome to Ooga Booga Bar-Ba-Q. "Home of the World's Woorst Samich," boasts the restaurant sign outside.

But it's the worst economy in memory and a terrible location that are killing business at the Lockport eatery.

"I don't have any ribs or corned beef right now," co-owner Pete Vanda told me. "I don't have the money to buy them."

Vanda placed a stack of bills on a countertop and said, "I don't know how much longer I can stay in business. I need help."

And so begins this column's crusade to save Ooga Booga.

The place is located 180 degrees south of upscale. But the food is simply top notch.

Everything's smoked: Spare ribs, baby back ribs, pulled pork, beef brisket and chicken, when they're in stock. Its signature sandwich consists of beef brisket, corned beef and pulled pork piled high on a bun.

I normally hate sauerkraut, but Ooga Booga's has a concoction of cabbage and kraut that is really sweet.

"Brown sugar's the secret," Vanda said.

He spent 30 years as an over-the-road truck driver, scouring the country for the perfect barbecue sauce.

"I ended up with my own invention," he said. "But it's not just the sauce. It's the rub I put on everything, that's the real secret."

His passion, however, isn't eating.

"I would rather watch people eat than watch women dance naked," Vanda chuckled. "That's just me. I'm Ooga. My partner, Bill Mengarelli, is Booga."

What does the name mean?

"I really don't know," Vanda said. "I always said Ooga Booga, ever since I was a little kid."

He said he has never made enough money to take a paycheck home from his restaurant and recently returned to trucking to earn some cash.

He and his partner are 58 and opened their restaurant in Lockport, at 110 MacGregor Road, four years ago.

To get there, you go west on 159th Street to the end of time -- past Orland Park, beyond the Interstate 355 extension, to the point where the east-west street actually turns south toward downtown Lockport.

Just as the turn begins, you get into a right-turn lane, make a right onto Thornton Street, follow the turn in that road and go right into a strip mall. Only a few hundred feet from bustling 159th Street, the place is practically invisible.

"We started this place with $150," Vanda said. "That's all I had. I convinced the landlord to let me in here without giving him any rent up front."

He persuaded Mengarelli, a lifelong pal, to join him.

"Bill didn't know anything about cooking at the time," Vanda said, but he's been working at Ooga Booga's every day since it opened, often sleeping there because he lives in Seneca.

The smoker in his restaurant hardly ever shuts down.

"I smoke the corned beef and beef brisket for 15 hours or more," Vanda said. "The spare ribs take about 3 1/2 hours and the baby backs a little over four."

He caters parties using an old tanker truck, the size of a pickup, that has been converted into a smoker. And there are his annual smokeouts, where the restaurant closes down and Vanda cooks rib-eyes and pork steaks for select customers.

"The key is that I cook everything for myself," he said. "It's all like homemade. I don't even use scales to measure the meat on my sandwiches."

Vanda says he's not going to quit.

"I'm going to stick it out to the end because I know my food is good," he said. "But I don't have the money for advertising or marketing, and people can't find us. If I could get the truckers in here off I-355 (less than 10 minutes away), that would help. "

You can telephone 815-838-7675 to find out if Ooga's has any corned beef or ribs. Or just drop by and order a pulled pork or beef brisket sandwich.

Good food at a fair price. Ooga Booga's is worth saving.