The NYC BBQ Cookoff 2017, which took place Saturday in Staten Island, drew an estimated 4,500 barbecue fans from New York, New Jersey, and other nearby states. It also featured 43 competition teams that were vying for cash prizes and the chance to attend the largest U.S. BBQ competitions.

The overall winner of the BBQ competition was The Bearded One, a competition team led by pitmaster Chris D'Addario located in Jersey City, NJ. D'Addario's team also won first place overall in brisket, third place overall in pork ribs, and fourth place overall in pork shoulder. Second place overall went to Paddy McQ's from Danvers, MA. (See the full winners list at the bottom of this post.)

The People's Choice honors were tallied via attendees sending text messages for their favorite vendor. Several local teams won honors this year, with perennial favorite Richmond County Pit Brothers taking the top prize, while Top Gun BBQ and Big Dogz BBQ earned the runner-up spots. I tried all three of their pork offerings and was glad to see these three win.

I hung out for seven hours at the event and had a blast. I spent part of the day shadowing the extremely talented Handsome Devil team and part of the day with other top pitmasters. This event is actually the only traditional BBQ competition held each year in the NYC city limits, with judging handled by the massive Kansas City Barbecue Society. Personally, I'd like to see another event like this pop up (perhaps in the fall) in Brooklyn or Queens, where it could be accessible via public transit.

As for other BBQ events coming up in NYC, the top can't-miss events are Brisket King NYC on April 19th and the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party on June 10th and 11th. I'll be at both.

If you want to talk about what cool projects your competition team is up to or any BBQ events that are coming up, please get in touch at newyorkcitybbq@gmail.com. Here are some additional photos from NYC BBQ Cookoff 2017: