George “Monty” Montague with a Tops jumbo barbecue sandwich.
Tops Bar-B-Q was around long before the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest began 42 years ago.
The late J.W. Lawson started the chain, says George Crawford “Monty” Montague, who worked for the company for 45 years. “He called it ‘Tops’ because he wanted it to be the tops,” says Montague. “Our motto is ‘Memphis’ best since 1952.’ And that’s not just a brag, it’s a fact.”
Tops, he says, “as much as anybody, was responsible for putting Memphis on the map as the barbecue capital of the world.”
Montague, who says he’s eaten enough Tops barbecue sandwiches to “sink a battleship,” was a longtime Tops’ general manager. Now he serves as a consultant for the company, which was recently sold to an investment group that includes Tiger Bryant, who is behind Young Avenue Deli and Soul Fish.
Montague, who is still the face of Tops, originally owned a snack bar on North Main, then opened the first Tops in a shopping center on Macon Road. He branched out into other locations. The late George Messick, who eventually became owner of the chain, added even more restaurants. Tops now has 15 locations, including two in North Mississippi.
So, what makes Tops tops? “We still use the same recipe,” says Montague. “We still use the good old-fashioned way of cooking,” such as brick barbecue pits. “We have to have a real good cook maintaining the pit temperature. It takes big shoulders eight to sometimes 11 or 12 hours to get done.”
People can’t pass by a Tops without smelling the barbecue cooking. They create that smell “on purpose,” Montague says. When they turn over the shoulders during the cooking process, the grease starts dripping onto the coals and wood. “You’ll be driving down the street two football fields away and you’ll start smelling that barbecue.”
Except for a brief stint when Messick changed the sauce to a more commercial sweet and spicy flavor, Tops has used the same recipe. Messick brought back the original sauce after customers complained. “Tangy mild or tangy hot is our sauce,”but they still have that sweet and spicy for those who want it, Montague says.
Tops offers more than just barbecue sandwiches. They’ve always sold hamburgers and cheeseburgers, which get rave reviews from customers, but they only added ribs to the menu about 15 years ago, Montague says. “It takes us five-and-a-half hours to cook our ribs — St. Louis cut. They’re delicious. They’re the best ribs in Memphis. We use apple wood.”
They also began carrying beef brisket, which is cooked with pecan wood, when they began selling the ribs. “It’s so succulent,” says Montague. “I had a brisket sandwich out in Millington two or three days ago and I’m still thinking about it.”
Tops Bar-B-Q has locations all over town, including two in Mississipppi, so check your favorite map app to find the location nearest you.
