I found this place because one of their chefs is also a student at the university and attended the conference where I was speaking. If you conclude that this makes it a queer-friendly restaurant then you would be dead right. Then again, pretty much every restaurant in Brighton has to be queer-friendly, or they’d soon be out of business.

Perhaps more importantly for WFC attendees, this is another opportunity to have American home cooking. Dig in the Ribs styles itself at TexMex in its decor and advertising, and it does serve premium tequilas, which I doubt you’ll find in many other Brighton venues. But it is the ribs that are really important here, and that of course means BBQ.

Thanks to Vanessa kindly phoning ahead and asking her colleague to give me a sample of their fare, I got a platter for starters. The chili poppers and nachos were fine, though I could have taken a spicier salsa. The wings were delicious, and I was glad that I had ordered that half-and-half main course so I’d get more of them. I should note that these were BBQ wings, not hot wings.

I’m not a huge expert on BBQ, and I know that some of my American friends are very serious about it, so I’m not going to attempt to pass judgement on the ribs. All I can say is that there was plenty of meat, and I thought the sauce was delicious.

For dessert I had something called a banchanga, which is a banana and toffee wrapped in a pancake and fried. It comes with ice cream. Some of the other desserts looked yummy too.

Given that these folks are so friendly, I’m planning to have dinner there rather than Smokey’s, but the latter might be a good bet for Sunday brunch if you are not having the banquet (which Kevin and I are not).