Would You Like Tyra Banks With That?

Everett & Jones, a barbecue restaurant in Oakland's Jack London Square area, is, deservedly, one of the most popular places to eat in the East Bay. It's always busy and bustling. On Friday and Saturday evenings, patrons often have to line up to get a table. It's easy to understand why. The meat falls off the bone, $4 will buy you a chilled, sweet beer in a glass as big as a pitcher, the greens are tender and the BBQ sauce is almost like spicy, liquid chocolatey in texture and taste -- it's not unlike Mexican mole in some ways. The food is served by friendly staff and the atmosphere is casual and family-oriented. In a part of the country where barbecue restaurants, despite the Bay Area's grand culinary claims, are few and far between and good barbecue is even more scarce, Everett & Jones is a destination spot for many lovers of ribs, yams and beans.

But if there's one thing that puzzles me about Everett & Jones, it's Tyra Banks. For some reason, the supermodel and TV host's face is all over the joint. She's there on the front door and preserved under the plastic cover of each copy of the menu.

Celebrity endorsement strikes me as a curiously old fashioned thing. Yet even today it's everywhere. But what is it about celebrities putting their names and faces to products that makes us want to spend our money on those products? Is it simply the power of recognition? In the case of Everett & Jones' affiliation with Tyra Banks , the endorsement is absurd, almost comical.

Everett & Jones doesn't need Tyra. The ads in the restaurant claim that she loves Everett & Jones and eats there all the time, but I doubt it somehow. If she did, she certainly wouldn't be a size zero.

I don't suppose Tyra's face brings anyone through the door who wasn't already pining for a plate or ribs. At the end of the day, the best advertisement for the restaurant is actually the smell of sweet BBQ sauce and roasting chickens which makes you drool as you walk past.