It wasn't just the ribs, almost inappropriately tender and juicy, that made Eli's Bar-B-Que in Dunedin. It was Eli Crawford himself, a shepherd of meat to the promised land of barbecue. It was almost as if the racks of ribs knew they were in the right hands when they reached Crawford, and they submitted to his barbecue will every time. Crawford, 71, died on March 14, after a battle with leukemia. Barbecue apprentice and Crawford’s “son,” Eric Davis, continues the tradition today.
