Profile: Roadfood.com's Mayor Al Bowen

[BBQandBourbon.com]

Notice to Southern Indiana, we’re claiming Mayor Al as one of ours. I’m not sorry, since he spends so much time eating our barbeque, I figure we’re entitled.

Mayor Al is Al Bowen, one of the moderators at a fantastic forum for foodies hosted at Roadfood.com. It’s impossible to describe Roadfood.com except that if you consider yourself a Roadfoodie, you probably already know about the site. If you don’t, then prepare yourself for spending hours wandering around gleaning little morsels of roadfood tidbits.

I remember exactly how I found Roadfood.com, OK, not exactly, but darn close. I heard a TeeVee program raving about Roadfood.com. Since we were heading on a road trip, I went there immediately and have been lurking for about six years.

Passions run high at RoadFood.com, and one of the people that keeps things to a low roar is Mayor Al.

Mayor Al is a huge BBQ fan in exactly the same way I am a huge BBQ fan.

Mayor Al is retired, but his connection to Roadfood started in 1982 when he found the original book, Roadfood by Jane and Michael Sterns. Mayor Al says,

I was fascinated by the description of the places they visited. Within a few months I had tested their reviews at several places…mainly BBQ stands. The two that stand out in my memory from that first book was the Moonlite BBQ in Owensboro, KY and Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City. Those two restaurants are the foundation for my love of BBQ cooking and eating. Over the next couple of years I tried other places listed in that first edition, with success at every stop. In 1986 I found a new edition of the book…and again in 1990.

Mayor Al was a teacher and took extended roadtrips from SoCal to Louisville. Hi summer sojurns usually lasted five or six weeks and he has covered 48 states. He says the Stern’s books were never far from his reach.

He retired and relocated to Southern Indiana, just across the river from Louisville and found the online version of Roadfood. He started posting and after a short time was asked by Stephen Rushmore, one of the founders of Roadfood.com to become a moderator. Mayor Al is one of five moderators.

The time I spend on the site is usually involved with interaction with members who have a problem, or in policing the forums for inappropriate posting and Spam Posts.

I asked Mayor Al to focus on Kentucky Barbeque for BBQandBourbon.com

Part 2: Mayor Al Talks Kentucky BBQ