May 6--Owensboro. You can't spell it without a Q. 

As in "bar-b-q." 

"I travel extensively across Kentucky," said state Sen. David Boswell, D-Sorgho, who's been in state politics for more than two decades. "And the number one association people have with Owensboro is barbecue. We just have a real reputation for it." 

Last year, when President Clinton visited Owensboro he made two stops -- a school and a barbecue restaurant. 

"Barbecue is one of the anchors of Owensboro tourism," said Burley Phelan, executive director of the Owensboro-Daviess County Tourist Commission. "It's one of the biggest draws we have." 

Exact figures are hard to come by. But barbecue means millions of dollars each year for the city that calls itself "The Barbecued Mutton Capital of the World." Or sometimes just "Barbecue Capital of the World." 

The International Bar-B-Q Festival alone pumps about $3 million into the local economy each May, the state estimates. 

Next weekend, the 23rd annual version of the festival is expected to draw upwards of 85,000 people downtown to devour 10 tons of mutton, 5,000 chickens and 1,500 gallons of burgoo. 

Those numbers always impress out-of-towners. But that's just an average week's worth of sales at the city's five barbecue restaurants. 

They put an average of 20,000 pounds -- 10 tons -- of mutton and an equal amount of pork on the pits every week. 

That's more than 1 million pounds of mutton and another 1 million pounds of pork a year. And then, there's the chicken, beef and ribs. 

"The charities probably cook an average of 1,500 pounds of chicken to sell every weekend," said Ken Bosley, whose family owns Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, the city's largest barbecue restaurant. 

"Ribs have really come on in the last couple of years," Bosley said. "That's what the city slickers think of as barbecue. Most of the chain restaurants in town have some type of ribs on the menu." 

For many people, visiting Owensboro without eating barbecue is like going to New Orleans and not visiting the French Quarter. 

"I think a lot of people come into Owensboro now with the idea that they have to eat barbecue while they're here," Bosley said. "The festival has helped create that impression." 

Boswell, director of sales at the Executive Inn Rivermont, said Owensboro barbecue is a big draw for conventions. 

"We have some fine barbecue establishments," he said. "And people attending conventions like to get out and eat barbecue while they're here." 

"There are a lot of motor coaches that make day trips to Owensboro," Phelan said. "The main reason for the trips is to eat at one of the barbecue restaurants. But while they're in town, they go to one of the museums or go shopping. It helps the entire economy." 

"We get a lot of requests for information about the barbecue festival from across the country and from other countries," said Michele Wright, former festival co-chairman and current spokeswoman. "A group from Mexico is interested in coming to watch the cooking teams this year. And last year, our sister city in the Czech Republic sent 18 people here to see how a city our size handles an event that brings in more people than the population of the city." 

Owensboro's barbecue tradition dates back to at least 1834 with community picnics. By 1877, St. Martin Parish in Rome was using barbecue picnics as a fund-raiser. 

A century later, 13 Catholic parishes in the area estimated that they were cooking an average of 40 tons of mutton, 8,000 chickens and 3,100 pounds of pork along with 8,000 gallons of burgoo each summer for their parish picnics. 

"The church picnics are still very popular," said Boswell, who tries to visit each of them. 

In 1979, the Owensboro-Daviess County Chamber of Commerce created the barbecue festival to highlight the heritage of the parish picnic tradition. 

And in the past two decades, it has drawn people from virtually every state along with such countries as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Moldavia and the Philippines. 

"The barbecue festival came about because we were trying to find a tourism draw," said Bosley, a member of the original committee. "The national recognition it has received through television and magazines brings people into Owensboro all year." 

He said, "The influx of people into Owensboro just to eat barbecue is much greater now than it was 20 years ago. People say they saw something on TV about Owensboro barbecue or they read something about Owensboro barbecue. And they were in the area, so they came in for barbecue. We have them from all over the United States." 

There was concern in 1979 that the festival would hurt sales in restaurants. But today, barbecue restaurants see some of their biggest crowds during the festival. 

"A world of people don't eat down there," Bosley said. "They spend the day down at the festival, but they come to one of the restaurants to eat. It's a very busy time for us." 

It's also a very busy time for the cooking teams at the festival. Most of the food is gone within a hour of the time it comes off the pits. 

"The Discovery Channel still occasionally shows the video it shot at the barbecue festival a couple of years ago," Phelan said. " 'Inside Edition' is coming this year. 'Southern Living' has written about the festival. The Delta Queen is stopping this year for the third time. It all adds up." 

Seventeen of the 18 Democrats in the state Senate will be in Owensboro for a retreat Friday -- the opening day of the barbecue festival. The timing, Boswell said, was a coincidence, "but I'm sure my colleagues will be partaking of the food." 

Concierge.com, a food Web site, said: "Barbecue joints in western Kentucky routinely feature a menu item you won't find anywhere else in America: Barbecued mutton, which happens to be exceptionally good." 

Why mutton, people always ask? 

Barbecued mutton is big in Mongolia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Wales. But Owensboro has America's only barbecued mutton festival. 

The community's appetite for mutton apparently began because sheep were plentiful in the area in the 19th century. State agricultural records for 1867 list 1.18 million sheep in Kentucky. 

Today, the American Lamb Council said the state produces about 17,000 sheep a year -- which amounts to about a six-week supply for Owensboro barbecue pits. 

Barbecue restaurants in Owensboro trace their roots to an black man named Harry Green, who began selling barbecue from a pit in his yard at Ninth and Hall streets in 1890. 

But he offered only carry-out service. 

During the next 40 years, several commercial barbecue establishments opened. But they also catered to the carry-out trade. 

County histories say Lawrence Bader Jr. opened the Akin Inn, the city's first indoor barbecue restaurant, in 1934 at Second and Woodford streets. He specialized in mutton. 

Bader is also credited with introducing western sheep to Owensboro -- because they shrank less in cooking than local sheep. And he is credited with inventing chopped mutton when he began shredding meat from unsold ribs to cut down on waste. 

Legend, however, said that what Bader was actually selling was goat meat, not mutton. 

Today, several restaurants from New York City to Memphis feature a dish called "Owensboro Lamb" and "Owensboro-style" mutton on their menus. 

Virgil's, a two-story restaurant near the MTV studios in Times Square, said it sells hundreds of "Owensboro Lamb" platters and sandwiches each week. 

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(c) 2001, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.