By CLAYTON PARK

A funny thing happened on the way to my interview with Reid Schadt of Reid's Pit Bar-B-Q in Lake City.

As I was about to turn into the restaurant's parking lot, the fire truck that had been ahead of me as I drove down Lake City Way also came to a stop in front of Reid's. A crew of fire fighters proceeded to file into the restaurant.

A fire? True, there was smoke coming out of the building's chimney, but then again, there's ALWAYS smoke coming out of that chimney. It is, after all a BBQ joint.

Upon entering the restaurant, I quickly learned the answer. I found the fire fighters eagerly placing their orders ... for lunch.

It appears that Reid and his wife Sherry have received a warm welcome from the locals in Lake City since opening their restaurant in June.

For good reason, it turns out. After all, BBQ aficionados in Lake City had been without a BBQ joint to call their own for several months since Cave Man Kitchens closed its doors last year.

The Schadts didn't just fill the void in the neighborhood that was created when Cave Man Kitchens departed, they even wound up occupying the very same building, at 11700 Lake City Way NE.

Talk about happy coincidences. Reid says he and his wife had hired a consultant to survey the city for available restaurant sites. "He looked at population and income levels and Lake City was one of the areas that came up pretty high on the charts," recalls Reid. He and his wife also like the fact that the former Cave Man Kitchens building was located along Lake City Way, which he says is "the third busiest street in Seattle," attracting approximately 40,000 cars a day. "It's also in the middle of pretty good neighborhoods."

Nevertheless, the fact that Reid's happens to be located in the same building that used to house Cave Man Kitchens is really where the similarities between the two BBQ joints ends.

While Cave Man Kitchens apparently used a gas-fired metal cooker to smoke its meats, Reid built his BBQ pit out of brick, using specifications he drew up based on researching BBQ masters in Memphis, Tenn., where he grew up. He also fires up his BBQ pit with hickory wood and mesquite charcoal.

Reid, who serves authentic Memphis-style BBQ, describes it as "very tender meat that's moist and very hickory smoke tasting."

The flavor found in Memphis-style BBQ comes more from the cooking process than the sauce, adds Reid, which may come as a surprise to locals here. "A lot of people in Seattle think of BBQ as the sauce, but when you make it right you actually don't need any sauce," he says.

"The real key is to use the right kind of fuel," says Reid, "and to maintain a fairly low heat. For example, I cook pork shoulders for over 10 hours."

Reid's desire to find an authentic BBQ in Seattle he could like was what prompted him to open Reid's Pit Bar-B-Q, his first-ever restaurant.

He moved to Seattle in the early '70s to attend the University of Washington where he earned a master's degree in forest resource economics. It was during that time that he met his future wife, Sherry, who took one of the rooms in a house that he and several of his friends were renting. "We met in September and by December we were married!" he recalls.

Upon graduating from the UW, Reid worked a couple of seasons for the Forest Service before switching careers to work in the insurance industry. In 1994, he joined the staff of state Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn, for whom he worked as a financial analyst.

When he left that job in 1997, Reid decided it was time to make another career switch by pursuing his longtime dream of opening his own BBQ restaurant. "I'd been playing around with this idea since the mid-'80s," he said, explaining that "I'd been a backyard BBQer for a long, long time. I couldn't find any BBQ in Seattle that I liked, that was authentic."

At Reid's Pit Bar-B-Q, customers can discover for themselves what Reid means about when he talks about "authentic BBQ."

"Our signature dish, if you will, is our pork sandwich, especially with cole slaw on the sandwich," says Reid, who adds, "It's really, really good that way. If you look at grilled foods from around the world, cabbage has been served with BBQ stuff in a lot of different places. I guess it goes well together."

Naturally, the cole slaw served at Reid's is also homemade, with a "special cole slaw dressing" that he developed himself.

Reid's also serves BBQ beef and smoked breast of chicken sandwiches, as well as plates of BBQ pork back ribs, pork spare ribs, beef ribs, pork shoulder, beef brisket and smoked chicken breast.

For the truly adventurous, the restaurant offers the "Pitmaster Combo": three pork back ribs, three pork spare ribs, a beef rib, pork shoulder and beef brisket, along with bread and two large side orders - your choice of barbecue beans, cole slaw, greens, red beans, rice, cornbread, corn or baked potato.

For those who are not acquainted with Southern cooking, "greens" isn't to be confused with tossed salad, as one customer who was standing in line in front of me quickly discovered. "Greens," explained Reid, "can be mustard greens, collard greens or turnip greens that are simmered for about an hour, with a little big of olive oil and a pinch of salt. It's another one of those things where the cooking process is the key."

Reid may have supplied the vision for the restaurant, but his wife Sherry plays an equally important role in running the business. She is generally the person who arrives first thing in the morning to get the BBQ pit going and helping to prepare the food that will be served later in the day and, like Reid, also spends time manning the cash register, greeting customers and taking their orders. She was also responsible for planting and maintaining the flower beds that adorned the restaurant's exterior this past summer.

Reid estimates that he and his wife each put in at least 45-50 hours a week running the business, and that's just the time they spend on site. "That's not counting the time we spend telephoning, doing paperwork and paying bills," he adds.

Fortunately for Reid, running a restaurant is "a lot more fun than sitting at a desk and doing financial analysis," he says, adding that he doesn't regret trading in his suit-and-tie job for an apron.

But then again, Reid loves BBQing so much, he has even found time to fire up his backyard BBQ grill at home during his days off. "I want to bring good BBQ to Seattle," he says. "If I can do that, I'll be very happy."