Reo Varnado, the Founder of Portland’s Reo’s Ribs, Has Died - Eater Portland
"In 1999, Varnado, known as 'Uncle Reo,' opened the original Reo's Ribs in Aloha with business partner Myra Girod. The restaurant focused on Mississippi-style barbecue and soul food: saucy baby-back ribs and barbecue chicken, as well as chitlins and oxtails. The restaurant moved fairly frequently around greater Portland, opening on SW Macadam and then eventually on NE Sandy, where it sits today. Fires damaged Reo's Ribs twice — once in 2017 and again in 2020. Still, the restaurant reopened again and again, and was preparing to open again in the spring of 2021." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden
