All Hail to the New Brisket King

Last night, a new king was crowned at Brisket King 2017. That new king is Sruli Eidelman (aka Izzy) of Izzy's Brooklyn Smokehouse, a deserving champion who has been making outstanding kosher BBQ for several years.

Izzy and his team served up some wonderful pastrami brisket and regular brisket, both of which had a lot of flavor and an intense rub of pepper, salt, and likely other spices. If you've never made it out to Izzy's, you should. It's worth the trek to Crown Heights to see how Izzy has been inventive with BBQ even while being limited by keeping kosher. (This also means he's never been able to eat at most of the BBQ places he has been inspired by, because they aren't serving kosher meat.)

The runners up also had an excellent showing. Second place went to Mighty Quinn's, which served juicy pastrami that has become a popular "special" at some of the Mighty Quinn's restaurants around NYC. Third place went to Blue Smoke, which served brisket, beef jerky, and some amazing Cajun-style boudin sausage.

Judges for the event were top notch and included Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin and Daniel Vaughn, the barbecue editor for Texas Monthly. So you know the standard was high for the winners.

Brisket King was held in downtown Brooklyn this year and it was full of beef, beer, bourbon, and extremely full bellies. Most of the other competitors that were serving up brisket or variations on it were from in or around New York City, including Hill Country, Kimchi Smoke, Morgan's Barbecue, Dinosaur BBQ, and Butcher Bar. One competitor was even international, Toronto's own Cherry Street BBQ.

Take a look at lots of other photos from the event, including the other winners and many shots of delicious brisket, below: