Ellnora’s Kitchen

• 547 Eastern Avenue SE
• Grand Rapids, MI 49503
• Telephone Unknown
• Menu
• No Known Website

I was on my way out the door for dinner tonight heading towards Chipotle.  Not sure why, but out of nowhere, I decided I wanted rib tips.  I have a few places I know do really good rib tips in Grand Rapids (Sandmann’s comes to mind), but me being me, I wanted to try some place new.

Last fall, I noticed a Soul Food place open up on Eastern Avenue just north of Sherman Street on the Southeast side of Grand Rapids where The Black Castle used to be.  The sign in the window said “BBQ” and “Soul Food” so I assumed rib tips were on the menu.

Ellnora’s Kitchen opened up last fall after replacing the dark black paint on the small brick building with a fresh coat of white.  There’s really not a whole lot of information out there on the place.  Nothing on Google.  Nothing on Yelp.  Nothing on Urbanspoon.  Nothing in the Press archives.  It’s like the place almost doesn’t exist for someone like myself who gets pretty much all my information off the Internet.

I walked into the small dining room around 6:30 on a Friday night.  There are a just a few tables and a LCD TV that was tuned to Family Feud.  The order counter is chest high and it looks in to the kitchen. 

The lone employee saw me standing there and stopped the order he was working on to take my order.  The menu is on a six foot tall free standing dry erase board next to the order counter.  I found the rib tips I was hoping to find and put in an order for a 1 lb. Rib Tip basket.

It looked like they only took cash and I assumed that before I ever walked in the door.  I made sure I had enough so I could easily cover the $7 and change that the dinner cost.

The cook was working on several orders when I got there as several people were walking in and out picking up carry-out orders.  It took about ten minutes for him to pack up the rib tips and fries in a styrofoam container for me to take back to work and enjoy.

I started with the fries on my drive back.  They were standard food service out-of-the-bag fries.  Nothing special , but on the plus side, there was a lot of extra BBQ sauce with the tips.  I didn’t really care what kindn of fries they were, I just wanted to dip them in the sauce.

The rib tips were swimming in a pretty thin yet sweet vinegar based sauce.  It was just thick enough to stick to the small chunks of meat but it was really liquidy.  The meat was pretty well split between really tough and really tender.  Every piece was different as far as the tenderness goes.  A few pieces were really overcooked and hard to bite through, but I did anyway.  On the flip side, some pieces were so tender they fell right off the little bones that hold rib tips together.

I think more than anything Ellnora’s Kitchen is a really good value.  I was happy with my rib tips and the sauce was right up my alley.  I don’t know if it’s a home made or something out of a jar, but I was tempted to drink what was left after polishing off the meat.

Rib Tip Basket