Swadley's

[TheTravellers]

Rudy's makes me sad.

It's a chain, but it's also better than darn near anything else around. Puts anything in town not named Clark Crew to shame.
...

Even Edge Craft? Haven't been there yet, might be a while, don't relish standing in a parking lot in this heat, so I don't have a personal opinion...

[Midtowner]

[QUOTE=TheTravellers;1236144]Even Edge Craft? Haven't been there yet, might be a while, don't relish standing in a parking lot in this heat, so I don't have a personal opinion...[/QUOTE

I can't claim a comprehensive expertise on all charred meats in the metro, though I wish that was the case.

So I won't rule out Edge Craft being good stuff.

But Rudy's, for a chain, is extremely solid.

[Urbanized]

Even Edge Craft? Haven't been there yet, might be a while, don't relish standing in a parking lot in this heat, so I don't have a personal opinion...

I’ve eaten there a couple of dozen times by now and I’ve never had to stand in the parking lot, or even longer than 15 minutes or so in the air conditioning.

[Roger S]

Even Edge Craft? Haven't been there yet, might be a while, don't relish standing in a parking lot in this heat, so I don't have a personal opinion...

No standing in the parking lot required unless you get there before they open.

[TheTravellers]

I’ve eaten there a couple of dozen times by now and I’ve never had to stand in the parking lot, or even longer than 15 minutes or so in the air conditioning.

GTK, thanks, there was talk about long lines in the beginning and I haven't kept up with them much, too many other places. We really need to check out Dead People's Stuff, so once we get a free weekend, we'll move it to the top of our list.

[Urbanized]

Regarding Rudy’s, it’s fine for chain barbecue. But having been to the original in the Texas Hill Country maybe 15 years ago, the stuff they serve at other stores doesn’t compare. The O.G. is pretty great, or at least it was then.

[catch22]

Rudy’s is consistent (at least the one in my neck of the woods). Not great, but not bad either. I’m never disappointed but I have had much better. I’m in a BBQ desert so Rudy’s is about the best I can get.

[gjl]

I'm not a fan of fat on brisket and Rudy's goes a good job on trimming that off their lean sliced brisket. At least they have every time I've gotten it there .We usually get Rudy's when we are needing a lot of BBQ for a party or gathering.

[Bill Robertson]

With all the Rudy's talk I have to bring up something I've wondered about for years. The location in Norman is very busy. Often very, very busy. The location on Memorial never has very many cars in the parking lot even on weekend nights. Why?

[SEMIweather]

With all the Rudy's talk I have to bring up something I've wondered about for years. The location in Norman is very busy. Often very, very busy. The location on Memorial never has very many cars in the parking lot even on weekend nights. Why?

I have two guesses:

1) It's the only restaurant in the area.
2) They've established themselves as somewhat of an OU institution with all of the coaches shows having taken place there for many years.

[catcherinthewry]

Grand jury hearings have begun in the Swadley's scandal.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...y/70614146007/

[Mott]

Grand jury hearings have begun in the Swadley's scandal.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...y/70614146007/

Someone once said a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich, how about a plate of BBQ ��

[Midtowner]

Grand jury hearings have begun in the Swadley's scandal.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...y/70614146007/

It'll be interesting to see what sort of crime was committed. I can't imagine one. I'm mad as hell at the Swadley's owners and personally won't darken their door unless they sell. But the worst I think you can accuse them of is being good negotiators and the state under Winchester and overseen by the former AG could be called horrible negotiators. Completely incompetent. The Swadley's team probably was astounded at the idiotic things the state would agree to, and while I can fault them and not patronize them because I do think they abused the taxpayer, it made good business sense to do it--and it wasn't theft. It was spelled out in a publicly available contract.

But that's the kind of leadership we've elected. We get what we deserve every single time something like this happens.

[DoctorTaco]

It'll be interesting to see what sort of crime was committed. I can't imagine one. I'm mad as hell at the Swadley's owners and personally won't darken their door unless they sell. But the worst I think you can accuse them of is being good negotiators and the state under Winchester and overseen by the former AG could be called horrible negotiators. Completely incompetent. The Swadley's team probably was astounded at the idiotic things the state would agree to, and while I can fault them and not patronize them because I do think they abused the taxpayer, it made good business sense to do it--and it wasn't theft. It was spelled out in a publicly available contract.

But that's the kind of leadership we've elected. We get what we deserve every single time something like this happens.

Presumably the crime is the state not following anti-bid-rigging laws

[catcherinthewry]

It'll be interesting to see what sort of crime was committed.

Fraud for one. I don't want to go back through what has already been rehashed several times on this thread, but the contract was fraudulently rewarded and many of the charges sent to the state were ridiculously overpriced or double billed. Yes, the state gave them a very favorable deal, but in their greed Swadley's still went overboard and defrauded the state. Their own even owner admitted that his business practice was to go beyond the letter of the law.

[ManAboutTown]

[SEMIweather]

Indictments are in.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...y/72515925007/

[catcherinthewry]

I would love to serve on that jury.

[Pete]

Holy cow, looks like a complex fraudulent invoicing scheme; at least alleged.

Grand Jury indictments are very bad for plaintiffs... Over 90% are ultimately convicted.

But as usually happens in these cases, there will likely be tons of back-and-forth and denials for months or years before a plea is struck before trial.


As this plays out, it is going to be devastating to Swadley's BBQ. They still have 8 operating locations around the state and I'm sure their business has already suffered.

[Pete]

BTW, there are still huge questions around Jerry Winchester's role, who resigned as Director of Tourism for the state after all this blew up. He's the one who oversaw the Swadley's contract and ran the department throughout this mess.

Matt Pinnell appointed him and the state auditor said there were deep lack-of-control issues within that department.


Reading between the lines, even if Swadley's did engage in fraudulent invoicing, there are more issues here and more investigations that need to fully play out.

[Midtowner]

You have the Attorney General who was negligent at best here. His job was to review all state contracts. If the AG had done his job, we wouldn't be talking about this right now as it appears to me that Swadley's just took the state to the cleaners because the state didn't even try to take a reasonable shot at caring what they paid out on this deal. And I still think Swadley's and their principles are going to have some criminal liability here because a lot of what was done looks pretty bad.

[FighttheGoodFight]

You have the Attorney General who was negligent at best here. His job was to review all state contracts. If the AG had done his job, we wouldn't be talking about this right now as it appears to me that Swadley's just took the state to the cleaners because the state didn't even try to take a reasonable shot at caring what they paid out on this deal. And I still think Swadley's and their principles are going to have some criminal liability here because a lot of what was done looks pretty bad.

I did read in the article that Swadleys kept an invoice of equipment they paid then sent different ones to the state for reimbursement. If that's true then it is clear to see some fraud.

This is why we have rules about bid contracts. These no-bid contracts need to be looked at even closer.

[Pete]

You have the Attorney General who was negligent at best here. His job was to review all state contracts. If the AG had done his job, we wouldn't be talking about this right now as it appears to me that Swadley's just took the state to the cleaners because the state didn't even try to take a reasonable shot at caring what they paid out on this deal. And I still think Swadley's and their principles are going to have some criminal liability here because a lot of what was done looks pretty bad.

That was the disgraced Mike Hunter at that time.

Good thing he's out otherwise you'd have to worry about another cover-up.

[CatholicSooner]

As this plays out, it is going to be devastating to Swadley's BBQ. They still have 8 operating locations around the state and I'm sure their business has already suffered.

I highly doubt both predictions

[Pete]

I highly doubt both predictions

You think Swadley's hasn't lost business due to these horrible headlines?

Maybe it's a case of "no such thing as bad publicity".