And the winner of the Ground Zero Capital City Ribfest Best of Show 2007 is … Howling Coyote Southwestern BBQ.

For tallying the highest number of points from our five-judge panel, Chicago’s Ed Latkowski and his Howling Coyote crew will receive $1,000, a glass trophy and a Ground Zero Best of Show banner to hang from their booth.

For second place, Rib-bins BBQ of Chambersburg, Pa., will receive $500.

The cash prizes and trophy for the Ground Zero voting is a change for Ribfest. The Peoples Choice award, which had carried the cash and hardware, is not being held this year.

“We’re shaking things up a little,” said Pershing Center’s Derek Andersen, noting that after 10 years, the same vendors tended to repeatedly take the top three spots in the Peoples Choice award.

In that sense, the change was successful. This is the first time that Howling Coyote has won any Ribfest award.

The judging panel was made up of Ground Zero writers Jeff Korbelik, Liz Stinson and I, JournalStar.com producer Anthony Roberts and Roxanne Talbott, who won the Ground Zero Ribfest contest.

“We took it pretty seriously,” said Talbott, an avid home barbecuer. “When the first ribs got to the table, everybody was silent.”

Judging in the contest was blind, that is, we didn’t know which vendor ribs came from until the voting was tallied. Andersen brought us three-bone “samplers” from each vendor, marking each paper tray with a number that corresponded to a voting sheet. Ribs were rated on a one-to-five scale in four categories – taste, sauce, texture and appearance – by each voter. Andersen then tallied the ballots.

Howling Coyote received 87 of 100 possible points. Rib-bins got 83 points. Desperados BBQ & Rib Co. of Cleveland placed third with 79 points.

Talbott said she generally agreed with the outcome of the voting. But the relative closeness in the voting for all eight vendors was evidence that all the ribs were pretty good, she said.

“Nobody got a 1,” she said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be here.”

A postal worker, Talbott said she has attended Ribfest off and on over the years. She’d stop in for lunch when she worked as a relief clerk at the Statehouse post office.

“I had to make sure I didn’t get any sauce on my uniform,” she said.

When she comes to Ribfest with family and friends, she says they make sure they get a good sampling of what is offered.

“Everybody gets something different and it’d be a smorgasbord on the table,” Talbott said. “Some places, we get ribs, some chicken, some pork. It’s a good way to sample the style of cooking and sauce.”

Talbott and her family have a smoker at home and have recently dined on grilled deer and elk brats.

“We enjoy this style of cooking, especially in the summer,” she said.

Lincolnites clearly enjoy Ribfest.

Despite the 90 degree plus temperature at midday Thursday, Ribfest drew a solid lunch crowd, Andersen said. All the shaded seating was full during the noon to 1:30 p.m peak, and downtown workers could be seen carrying styrofoam boxes filled with BBQ off the grounds to eat where it was cool.

Ribfest now draws about 30,000 people to N street and Centennial Mall over four days each summer. Ribfest continues Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.