LITTLE ROCK — Ron Blasingame's life seemed to prepare him for the day he would open and run the Whole Hog Cafe and Catering Co.
At night and on weekends, Blasingame worked on finding the perfect smoker to make the perfect barbecue ribs. By day, Blasingame first worked as a salesman and then, with his wife, ran his own small business providing financing for office systems.
The prize-winning recipes perfected at night blended together with the business acumen developed during the day to form the successful Riverdale restaurant Blasingame helped run for the past nine years and which has spawned at least another dozen locations from Memphis to Sante Fe, N.M.
His wife, Kathy, recalled him getting dressed in jeans and a T-shirt to go one morning to a barbecue competition in Memphis and comparing it with his days as a sales and business executive when he had to put on a coat and tie.
"This is like the best job in the whole world," Kathy recalled her husband saying that morning.
She agreed. "It was the ultimate dream job for him."
Ron Blasingame died Monday of multiple system organ failure while awaiting a liver transplant, his wife said. He was 60.
Blasingame was a native of North Little Rock, graduating from North Little Rock High School in 1967 and going on to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps before embarking on a business career.
At the same time he was forging a career in business, Blasingame tested meat smokers and recipes in his backyard before joining friends to compete on the barbecue circuit, first as a member of "Southern Gentlemen" and later as a part of "The Southern Gentlemen's Culinary Society."
His proudest moment was winning first place for whole hog and second place for ribs at the 2002Memphis in May World Barbecue Championship.
Steve Lucchi, a Little Rock businessman, participated with Blasingame in the early competitions and was one of the founders of Whole Hog. He and Blasingame go back 30 years.
Blasingame was about "living life big," Lucchi recalled fondly. "Whether it was boating, vacationing, working, competition barbecue, it was in a big way, a fun way, an exciting way. He had to put an exclamation point on everything he did."
Blasingame was modest about the success of his restaurant. "I tell everyone the cafe is really a hobby that got out of hand," he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2006.
But others could tell it was more than a hobby.
Rich Cosgrove was like Blasingame, competing in championship barbecue competitions for 30 years. Until the day he sat down and tried the fare at Whole Hog Cafe.
"When I went in there the first time and tasted the ribs, had an 'ah ah' moment," Cosgrove recalled. "They had the best ribs I ever tasted."
They were so good that when Cosgrove had friends over, he purchased Whole Hog ribs and used his smoker to keep them warm. He never would claim them as his own, of course. "I hoped no one would ask."
Cosgrove eventually became a licensee of Whole Hog, opening a restaurant under the same name in 2007 in North Little Rock.This after Blasingame had once said he would never allow anyone else to operate the restaurant in Pulaski County. But Cosgrove and his partners had done a lot of due diligence, with designs on opening one in Conway, when others put down the money to open one before they could get together their financing.
Blasingame felt bad about what happened, Cosgrove said.
"Ron Blasingame was the kind of guy who would do the right thing no matter what it cost him," Cosgrove said. "He was a man of integrity."
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 09/23/2009