A Good Ribbing: Illinios-bred Mills brings flavorful history to Vegas

Ken Miller

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 | 8:17 a.m.

If you ever want to eat at Mike Mills' 17th Street Bar and Grill in Molina, Ill., it might be a bit tricky to find.

The restaurant is on 17th Street, just as its namesake would imply. It's just that there are no 16th or 18th streets.

That's not the result of a city planning error, but rather a gesture by the city' s mayor and city council to show how much they wanted Mills and his restaurant, which he started on 17th Street in Murphysboro, Ill., in their area.

"The mayor (Robert Butler) had been trying to get me to come there for 10 years," Mills said during a recent interview. "I kept telling him, 'I can't come over there because there isn't a 17th Street.' He finally said, 'If you come over here, there will be a 17th Street.'"

It's not often a man and a restaurant can have such sway over local government, but such visionaries as Mills and his award-winning barbecue don't come around often. Mills, 63, has been in the restaurant business just 11 years, but he's already opened six restaurants, including four Memphis Championship Barbecues in Las Vegas. His awards are too numerous to mention, and many of his accomplishments at barbecue championships remain unbroken.

But accolades and grand gestures from city councils don't mean as much to Mills as serving up a great barbecue, something he's done since childhood.

"I've always enjoyed people," Mills said. "I enjoy being around them. My mother always told me that if you have friends over, you barbecue. That's just what you do."

Mills divides his time between Las Vegas and Murphysboro, which he still calls home, and can often be seen chatting it up with customers at any of his Las Vegas restaurants.

The original eatery at the Nellis Express Village at 4379 Las Vegas Blvd. North has undergone two redesigns since opening in 1994, but still retains its Southern style.

Its red-and-blue exterior is trimmed with corrugated metal, and an American flag is perched on the blue roof. The interior consists of three dining areas, one designed for larger groups. More corrugated metal contrasts with brightly colored wood floors and walls, and 18 booths and more than a dozen tables are lit by low-hanging red- and white-colored lamps.

Pictures of all sorts hang throughout the eatery including those of Little League teams and Elvis. The local feel is enhanced by pictures of Las Vegas residents, including a collection of photos of Roy Pickel, a soldier in World War II who was portrayed in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers." (Pickel was dining in the restaurant at the time of the interview.)

Mills says he is done expanding his restaurants in Las Vegas for the moment, but his passion for barbecue takes on a new dimension this year: In May he'll be releasing a book, written with his daughter, Amy, "Peace, Love and Barbecue: Secrets, Tall Tales and Outright Lies."

But through it all, Mills remains humble.

"I don't know it all," he said. "I've been lucky in a lot of what I do."

Way of life

Mills was born in Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1941, and his family moved to Murphysboro six months later. For Mills and his clan, barbecuing was done more out of necessity than preference.

"I don't want to tell you we were the poorest people, but we didn't have a lot of money," he said. "Barbecuing was very inexpensive."

Mills' father, Leon, died at age 42 when Mike was just 9 years old, but the elder Mills left his son with fond memories of cooking on weekends while surrounded by family and neighbors.

"He was a salesman, so he was gone most of the week, but on the weekends I'd always get up early because I knew I was going to be barbecuing with my dad," Mills said.

Leon's method was simple: He dug a hole in the ground and used a grate.

"He carried that grate everywhere he went," Mills said.

Leon made his own "charcoal" by cooking down pecan and fruitwood into coals and embers, and neighbors brought whatever cheap meat they had for him to cook. The Mills family would supply the barbecue sauce, invented by Mills' great-grandmother, Mary Landess, in the early 1900s.

It's the same sauce Mills uses today.

Mills' mother, Faye, never remarried after Leon died, raising Mills and his four siblings herself. As a result, all the children were expected to get jobs to help out.

Mills did his part by firing furnaces, cleaning a doctor's office on weekends and working for his older brother, Landess, who owned a drugstore supply company.

But most of the time Mills barbecued, sometimes for profit, sometimes not.

"People just asked me, 'Could you do it?' It was a small town, and word got around," Mills said. "I barbecued for class reunions, fraternal organizations, churches."

By the time he graduated high school Mills had a formidable reputation for his barbecuing talents. But he didn't think there was a long-term career in it.

"I wanted to be responsible," he said. "My mother worked as much as she could. She taught me a strong work ethic."

Cutting his teeth

Mills ended up becoming a dental technician, but he said it wasn't his choice.

"My brother, Landess, knew a man in Carbondale, Ill., and he had a dental lab," Mills recalled. "He said it was a pretty good living. My brother said he would pay to send me to dental technician school. I wasn't bright enough to get a scholarship, and I knew I had to learn a trade."

Mills completed his training in two years and went to work at a dental lab in Elgin in 1960. He worked there for a year before going to work in St. Louis.

"I was homesick," Mills said. "But by that time, my aim was to have my own lab, and I knew I could learn how to get my own business started there."

Mills opened his own dental lab in 1962 in Murphysboro, to be closer to home and because there was a need in town.

"A lot of dentists in Murphysboro were sending me their impressions and prescriptions," Mills said, smiling. His lab, Murphysboro Dental Laboratory, is still operating with two full-time staffers he trained.

Mills ran the lab until 1994, and by that time he was known much more for his food than for models of teeth.

Turning point

In 1985, Mills bought a "hole-in-the-wall" eatery -- the 17th Street Bar and Grill. He had no desire to be a restaurant manager; he wanted it mainly because it allowed him to continue barbecuing for others.

"It was mainly a bar that had been there since 1910," he said. "It served hamburgers, sandwiches and potato chips, but that was it. But it was a good party spot for big barbecue feeds."

Mills remembers entire summers spent cooking outdoors on 17th Street. Word began again to spread about his talent and the quality of the barbecue sauce.

In 1988, Mills learned of Memphis in May, the organization that holds a world championship barbecue contest, as well as smaller contests all over the country.

"I went with a friend, Pat Burke, and checked one of the contests out," Mills said. "I'd heard of a bass tournament and chili cook-off, but not one for barbecue."

He was instantly hooked.

"All the camaraderie, the smell ... I asked (Memphis in May officials) to start my own contest," Mills said. "We put together the Murphysboro Barbecue Championships in September 1988, and it's still being held to this date."

In its first year the Murphys- boro competition had 23 teams, making it the third-largest in the country at that time, Mills said.

"We decided we wanted to entice more teams to come compete in our championships, so we formed our own team, the Apple City Barbecue Team, in 1989 and cooked at three competitions," Mills said.

But along the way, Mills realized the trip was less about recruiting other teams and more about getting the word out on his own product.

"In Carruthersville, Mo., we got a trophy. Nothing like beginner's luck," he said. "In Kennett, Mo., we didn't trophy, but in Delmopolis, Ala., we won two first-places, a second place and grand champion."

What that all meant was that Mills' team had won the right to cook at Memphis in May, a fact that overwhelmed him at first.

"We knew it was out of our league," he said. "But after a beer or two, we decided it wouldn't be bad to go there and compete. We figured if we placed 50th, at least we'd tried."

With more than 280 teams competing from around the world, Mills remembers feeling extremely fortunate when his team made the finals, "Which means we couldn't get worse than third. It was unbelievable."

While at the competition, Mills met Joe Phelps, who published the Barbecue News and had competed in Memphis in May many times. Eager for advice, Mills asked Phelps for a hint. Phelps gave him a coin he had made from the silver in his newspaper's developing tanks.

"He said, 'At least you won't walk away without winning something,' " Mills remembers.

Mills' team ended up taking grand champion honors.

"Our legs were just shaking," he remembers. "We came from nowhere to win everything. I can still feel that cold shiver remembering it."

He now wears Phelps' coin on a chain around his neck.

"I say I'm not superstitious, but I'm not taking this off," he said. "I'm not taking any chances."

It worked. Over the next several years Mills and his team won four world championships and three world grand championships. "We're the winningest team in the history of the competition."

Going out on top

With so much success coming his way, Mills was approached again and again about opening his own restaurant, but he continually resisted.

"I thought it would look too self-serving," he said. "We didn't even offer the barbecue at 17th Street. It was only prepared for competition."

But the grueling competition schedule began to take its toll, and in 1994 the Apple City Barbecue Team was disbanded.

"We wanted to go out while we were on top," Mills said.

He was now free to sell his barbecue to the public, and immediately expanded the menu at 17th Street.

It didn't take long for word to spread throughout the community and even the country.

"A fella originally from Memphis was living out in Las Vegas but not enjoying it. He said there wasn't any quality barbecue out here," Mills said. "He asked a friend in Memphis to help him find someone who could help him open a place."

Mills got the call. Initially, he didn't want to leave.

"I was born and raised here, but I came out anyway to check it out," he said. "I was in awe. It was like a fairy tale land."

He moved to the desert primarily to avoid being a hypocrite.

"I told my kids, 'I want you to see the world so you know where you want to live,' " he said. "I'd never done that myself, and I saw this as a chance to make my mark."

Within a year of opening the first Memphis Championship Barbecue, the owner abandoned the business. "He thought the food business would be easier, that you just open the doors and people come in."

Mills quickly found another financial backer and let his barbecue sell itself. The second restaurant was opened in 1998 at 2250 E. Warm Springs Road; the third at the Santa Fe in 2002; and the fourth at Rainbow and Charleston boulevards in 2004.

The menu is packed with recipes from Mills' childhood. Included are Southern catfish, smoked barbecue chicken, "The King" (chopped barbecue pork topped with Memphis-style slaw, sauce and Mills' "Magic Dust") and Southern fried dill pickles (fried in batter).

Mills started out with just one employee, and now has more than 200 in Las Vegas and more than 160 in Illinois.

Mills said his years as a dental technician have served him well in his current profession.

"I always used to say I can make you a set of teeth that you can eat my ribs with," he said. "Then I had to come up with a way of making them tender enough that that was true."

Family first

Mills has done so much traveling and tasted so much barbecue that he now can tell what region it's from just by tasting it.

"I can tell you whether it's Kansas-style, Carolina-style or Southern-style," Mills said. "As long as you don't try to pull a fast one on me, I can tell every time."

He described his family's sauce as a mixture of everything.

"We have ingredients that all parts of the country use," he said.

Mills is the only one in his family carrying on the legacy. His brother, Landess, and older sister, Jeanette, still live in Murphysboro, and his younger sister, Mary Pat, lives in Oahu. His mother, Faye, died two years ago at the age of 98.

His children Amy, 38, and Chris, 36, are pursuing their own careers (Amy owns an etiquette business in Boston and Chris is a flight attendant in San Francisco), and Mills couldn't be happier.

"I always encouraged them in that regard," he said.

No matter who carries on his family's tradition, Mills is appreciative for what barbecue has brought into his life.

"The thing I've enjoyed most is the people I've met, associated with, that have become friends," he said.

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