St. Louis Style Ribs: What the Cut Means and How We Slow-Smoke Them
October 10, 2026 – Haywood Smokehouse
St. Louis is not a sauce. It is a cut, trimmed by hand from a spare rib. And at Haywood Smokehouse, St. Louis ribs are on the menu at all three of our locations every day we are open.
Joe Beasley built this place on a simple idea: take what each barbecue region does best and do it right, all under one roof. Texas gets the brisket. The Carolinas get the pork. And when Joe names the regions we borrowed from, Kansas City and St. Louis style ribs are right there next to the brisket. You can read the whole story in The Greatest Hits of American Barbecue.
What are St. Louis style ribs?
St. Louis ribs start as spare ribs. Then the trimming starts.
As Joe explains it, you take a spare rib and square it up so it is more symmetrical. The brisket bone comes off, and so does some of the side meat. What is left is an even, rectangular slab, and that is a St. Louis rib.
The name refers to the cut, not to how the ribs are cooked or sauced. Over the years, it has become the go-to slab in barbecue.
How are St. Louis ribs different from baby back ribs?
They are two different ribs from two different parts of the hog. Baby backs come from more of the back, and Joe describes them as a little more meaty and not quite as fatty. St. Louis ribs are trimmed from the spare rib.
We love them both, and we serve them both. Baby back ribs are on the menu every Saturday at Dillsboro and Franklin, and from time to time they show up at Waynesville as a Pitmaster's Special.
Where do dry-rubbed ribs come from?
Ask Joe where dry-rubbed ribs come from, and he'll point you to Memphis. That's the tradition our ribs come from: a dry rub, no sauce, and the meat good enough to stand on its own.
Ours are St. Louis cut, rubbed with our pork rub, and slow-smoked over real hickory. The pork rub is our own recipe, with brown sugar in it, and it is the same rub that goes on our chopped pork.
How do you cook your ribs?
Low and slow, over real hickory, at all three of our locations.
Gas lights the wood and holds the temperature steady, and the hickory does the rest. Every cooker has hot spots and cool spots, so two racks that went on together will not finish together.
That is why every one of our slow-smoked meats, ribs included, gets probed by hand throughout the cook, not just at the end. The ribs come off when they are ready, not when a clock says so, the same way it works with our award-winning Texas brisket.
Temperature is what rules.
Do you sauce the ribs?
Not our St. Louis ribs. They get the dry rub and come off the pit unsauced, the same as nearly everything else we cook.
Joe's reasoning is simple: if meat is cooked right, it does not need sauce to hide anything. Taste it first, the way it came off the pit.
Our baby back ribs can go either way. Some are served sauced with honey barbecue, added only after they come off the pit, and some come dry rubbed, just like our St. Louis ribs.
And if you want sauce on your St. Louis ribs, we have plenty of it: our sweet red and hot red, our East Carolina, and the mustard sauces, Sweet Carolina and Georgia Fire.
What are Fried Ribs?
Our Fried Ribs are St. Louis ribs, served with honey barbecue. They are on the menu every day we are open at Waynesville and Dillsboro.
Do you ever have beef ribs?
Every now and then, RJ cooks up beef ribs, and they are a huge hit. Everything else in this story is pork, but when the beef ribs are on, folks notice.
Can I get your ribs shipped?
Yes, starting in November. Racks of our St. Louis ribs are part of our nationwide shipping, to all 50 states plus Canada and the United Kingdom. Our pork rub ships too.
Come get some ribs
Order ahead online for pickup, or come sit down with us.
Feeding a crowd? Our catering menu covers all three locations.
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