A taste of the past?

I stumbled onto this video today, posted by Casey Smalley.

The description of the video:

Here you can place an order for a 18 oz. bottle of my family’s barbecue sauce that my grandpa, Ed Smalley, made popular through his days running the Okie Steakhouse, the world famous Rock Cafe [my emphasis — Ed.] along Route 66, and Smalley’s Restaurant. This barbecue sauce is one of a kind and sure to make a great compliment to most anything you eat. Try a bottle at the super low price of $5 bucks! ! ONLY IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S. !

Smalley also has a site for ordering the sauce here.

Sure enough, current Rock Cafe owner Dawn Welch talks about Smalley on her “Dollars to Donuts” site:

Needless to say, a lot of history went down within those four walls before I got involved in the early 1990s (for more historical information about Stroud and the Rock, see page viii). I took over from owner Ed Smalley, who bought the Rock for sentimental reasons—not only did he work at the Rock when he was a boy, but he also left for war from the Cafe and fell in love with and married a Rock Cafe waitress. Ed couldn’t bear to see the Rock torn down or mishandled, so he bought it and sat on it for a decade, opening it up for special occasions and Route 66 events.

And an Internet search turned up a site for the Okie Steakhouse website, which also is hawking the sauce:

The Okie Steak House on Route 66 in downtown Stroud, Oklahoma, was owned and operated by my dad, Ed Smalley, in the early 70’s. Even though the restaurant was called a steakhouse, Dad became well known for his barbecue, especially his ribs. His sauce was also a crowd favorite, and one of his goals was to someday bottle it. Dad died five years ago before his goal was reached. In 2010, my mom and I decided we would bottle the sauce.

If I acquire this sauce, I’ll report back on it. And if anyone else tries this BBQ sauce, let me know how it is.

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