Reflecting on 13 Years of Brisket King NYC
This feature comes from food writer Andrea Strong, author of The Strong Buzz on Substack. If you want to write for this newsletter, please get in touch. -Sean
Thirteen years ago, Jimmy Carbone, who started his career ushering small craft brewers to the forefront at Jimmy’s No 43 in the East Village, brought a bunch of barbecue nerds together at a downtown Manhattan club for an off-hours brisket feast before the DJs started at 10 p.m.
What started as a small gathering of badass brisket talent in a club evolved over the past decade to become Brisket King NYC, a stage for the elite of both traditional and global BBQ, with over two dozen chefs from across the country showing off their smokehouse talents.
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, the inimitable founder of Food Karma Projects, brings Brisket King back again, this time to Pig Beach BBQ in Queens for a one-of-a-kind night of tasting the country’s best brisket.
Jimmy has ushered in some of the city’s most notable culinary tasting events – not only Brisket King but also Rib King, Pig Island, CiderFeast, and Bowl of ‘Zole, working to shine a light on heritage American culinary traditions and unsung local spirits along the way. Under his care, Brisket King has blown the lid off traditional barbecue norms, serving the best traditional barbecue from Texas, St. Louis, and North Carolina, but also featuring Thai, West Indian, Dominican, Hungarian, Korean, Mexican, and Puerto Rican styles of barbecue.
Indeed, every culture has its way of barbecuing, and the only way to see them all under one roof is Brisket King. Aside from more classic Texas and North Carolina style barbecue, the roster includes Chef Oak of KamRai Thai in Astoria, Queens; Korean Texas barbecue from Robert Austin Cho of Kimchi Smoke BBQ, with locations in Ridgewood and Westwood, New Jersey; West Indian from chef Darlene Lawrence of Sands Jerk Hut in Canarsie, Brooklyn; Carlitos Tacos, a Mexican barbecue joint from New Jersey; Puerto Rico’s Kevin Roth of the famed La Estacion; and Hungarian influences from chef Anthony Scerri of Smoke Sweats.
Jimmy has also worked to expand access to barbecue beyond the more traditional male competitors. Indeed, The Brisket King can be a Queen. Take Chef Darlene Lawrence of Sands Jerk Hut, for instance. Lawrence, whose family is from Jamaica, runs Sands Jerk Hut in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and she’s back for the fourth year in a row. Chef Darlene has won sauce-related awards not once, but twice — at both Rib King and Brisket King. She’s an impressive black female entrepreneur, known for her Pineapple Jerk Wings and Jerk Shrimp Mac. “This event allows me to be creative with my BBQ and share that love with people,” she said. Will she take home the King crown this year and become the Briket King’s first Queen? We’ll find out on April 23.
From the start, Jimmy has curated the best names in barbecue, beginning with Hometown Barbecue’s Billy Durney and team, who took home the crown in 2015 and set the bar for Texas-style smoked brisket in New York City.
Durney has created his own Brisket King legacy. Two years later, in 2017, Durney coached a fellow competitor, Sruli Edelman, who had opened Izzy's Brooklyn BBQ, a kosher spot in Crown Heights, and Edelman won. The following year, another Durney disciple — pitmaster Lawrence La Pianta, who trained with and prepped for the event at Hometown – took the crown for his Cherry Street BBQ of Toronto.
Most recently, in 2023, Wildwoods BBQ took home the top award with a team led by Aussie Dave Gill, who had been a pitman at Hometown for several years before he and partner Joel Romano opened their own spot. They brought an all-star team of past Hometown BBQ alumni, including Chef Allison Plumer, now at Misi and Fini Pizza.
John Stage, founder of Dinosaur Barbecue and a legend among barbecue aficionados, first competed at Brisket King in 2018, and the current Dinosaur BBQ NYC team cooked in 2024 and will be back this year to test their mettle against Dinosaur’s former chef, Leland Avellino, who won Brisket King last year. This year’s competition also includes Avellino’s pal Darius Burke of Los Angeles’ Takeover Barbecue, who worked at Dinosaur BBQ, creating yet another Brisket King family legacy.
Burke, who grew up on the Lower East Side and started working in restaurants when he was 16. Brisket King marks his return to NYC, with a lineage of barbecue royalty. “I decided to come back to NYC for Brisket King because of my love for brisket, and because NYC is my hometown, and it’s where I started my BBQ journey,” he said.
Avellino says Brisket King gives him a rare chance to connect with other pitmasters and to expand the audience for his fledgling Connecticut business. “I love Brisket King because it brings together so many talented pit bosses and members of the NYC barbecue community,” he said. “I look forward to it every year. Our little family business values this event so much and considers its organizers and supporters as part of our family.”
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Brisket King NYC
Pig Beach BBQ Queens
35-37 36th St. Ground Floor, Astoria, NY 11106
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Tickets are on sale now. Ages 21+.
VIP Admission: $85 + fee:All-access admission to brisket and drinks, 5:00 PM entry for a headstart on the evening to rub shoulders with the chefs, Anova Culinary Swag Bag, and an exclusive Brisket King NYC t-shirt.
VIP Tables: $750:Perfect for groups and parties without any booking fee, secure 10 discounted VIP tickets with reserved seating, early access, Anova Culinary Swag Bags, and Brisket King NYC t-shirts for all.
General Admission: $65 + fee: All access admission from 6:00 PM at a great value.
Brisket King NYC is a rain or shine event at an indoor/outdoor venue. The lineup and offerings for Brisket King NYC are subject to change.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Known for her pioneering food blog, The Strong Buzz (now on Substack), Andrea covers restaurants, chefs, trends, and big picture stories about the intersection of food, business, policy and the law for publications such as Fast Company, Eater, The New York Times, Food & Wine, New York Magazine, and more. A past judge for Brisket King, and a huge fan of the event, she lives in Brooklyn, where she can be found wondering where she left her phone and where all the matching socks went.