Valley of the Grills

If this is summer, it’s time for takeout, right? Who wants to spend time in the kitchen when it’s so easy to find someone else to cook something for you?

Take, for example, ribs. Every neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley has a rib joint, it seems. And when summer comes, nothing tastes better than ribs eaten outside on the deck with beans and cole slaw and, of course, a cold beer.

People who live near the western end of the Valley stand in line to get their ribs at the Rib Ranch in Woodland Hills, for 26 years a fixture on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Bernie and Lennie Kahn ran the place for two decades. Mike Ignelzi, who owns it now, worked for them while going to high school and then college.

“I met my wife, Jeri, here,” Ignelzi recalls. “She was the first waitress hired when Bernie and Lennie opened up in Woodland Hills. We now have three daughters who help out--Michelle, who’s 13, Nicole, who just turned 10, and Rachel, who’s 8.

“It’s really quite a family business here.”

Ignelzi earned a degree in accounting and finance at CSUN, and after graduation practiced those professions. He also kept in touch with Bernie and Lennie, and when they decided to retire after 20 years, he took over.

“They handed me a basting brush and a pair of tongs and said, ‘Here you go. Have fun,’ ” he says with a laugh.

The Woodland Hills place, once a small residence, has seating inside and a patio outside. Last September, Ignelzi opened a second, larger location in Thousand Oaks. There, Ignelzi serves fish and steak in addition to his signature ribs.

The big sellers:

* Half a barbecued chicken, for $9.95;

* Eastern baby-back pork ribs, for $14.95 ($10.95 for a half rack);

* Tri-tip roast smoked and then grilled, for $11.95.

Ignelzi also offers a popular salmon special, grilled or blackened and served over penne pasta, for $13.95. The item will appear as a regular entree on his new menu later this month.

Rib Ranch is at 4923 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Woodland Hills, (818) 884-7776, and 1712 Avenida de los Arboles in Thousand Oaks, (805) 493-5522.

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You can’t talk about ribs in the Valley without mentioning another place established long ago--Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas B-B-Q, so named because the original owner used to cook for Lyndon Baines Johnson when the big Texan occupied the White House.

The deal here is that the meat is seasoned with secret ingredients and smoked slowly for eight or nine hours over oak, hickory and cherry, and then finished off with a barbecue sauce that also can be purchased for $6.30 a quart.

On weekend nights people stand in line an hour here, so the smart thing to do is to phone in for takeout, since the place seats only 49.

The popular items: half a pound of sliced beef brisket, for $9, and half a slab of pork spareribs, for $9.95. Chef Abel Olmos serves everything a la carte; fries, beans, coleslaw, macaroni or potato salad each costs $1.55.

You can order combo dishes, of course--brisket, pork and ham or hot links for $15.95; brisket, links and spareribs or chicken for $16.95; beef ribs, spareribs and sliced beef or chicken for $18.95.

These come with home-baked bread, sauce and your choice of two--beans, slaw, macaroni salad or potato salad.

Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas B-B-Q is at 8136 Sepulveda Blvd., in Van Nuys, (818) 782-2480.

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If you live farther north in the Valley, you already know about the Bear Pit Bar-B-Que Restaurant in Mission Hills, which opened 44 years ago.

This place draws people for the garlic toast, the big portions and the cartoons of bears and pigs on the walls drawn years ago by artists from the Disney studio.

Andrew Schatz, whose family has run the Bear Pit for the last 25 years, lists the Bear Pit sandwich special as a big seller. Made with beef or ham and served with beans, cole slaw or fries, it comes on garlic toast or a bun, for $7.95.

People also like the baby-back ribs--a full rack of 14 ribs, not the usual 10, for $15.50, a half-rack for $9.95--and the family dinner with beef, pork, ham, chicken or turkey plus beans, coleslaw, tater tots and garlic toast for $24.95.

Schatz also serves hamburgers, soups and salads, and knackwurst.

The Bear Pit Bar-B-Que Restaurant is at 10825 Sepulveda Blvd. in Mission Hills, (818) 365-2500.

* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at jhovey@gte.net.