It's highly appropriate that Hill Country Barbecue Market (30 West 26th St, New York, NY 10010) is the first stop in my journey to review's NYC's best BBQ joints because it's the first one I ever visited when I moved here more than seven years ago. I was invited to eat at an "authentic barbecue restaurant" by a friendly woman I had met on a plane ride between New York and Kansas City. As I loved BBQ and hardly knew anyone in the city, I obliged.
Even back in my early NYC days, Hill Country had the scent of commercial-ness -- the sort of place designed by someone trying to emulate a Texas barbecue restaurant he or she saw in pictures but had never actually visited. The owners wanted to make this feel like Texas, but we're clearly in Manhattan.
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