The 2017 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is happening soon. Here's all the food you can try this year!
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The 2017 edition of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is coming up soon. Here are the prices, location, pitmasters, and more.
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Last night, a new Brisket King was crowned in NYC. Read more about the new king and the rest of the night's winners.
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The NYC BBQ Cookoff 2017 was a smashing success with 4,500 attendees and 43 competition teams cooking up brisket, chicken, pork ribs, and pork shoulder.
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The 2017 NYC BBQ Cookoff, the only BBQ competition in NYC sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, takes place April 8 on Staten Island. Teams from all around New York and the surrounding area will be competing to make the best brisket, pork ribs, and more.
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Sunday March 5th was BrisketTown's last day of operations in Williamsburg. Here are notes from my visit on the last day and what the future holds for Delaney Barbecue.
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Brisket King 2017, a celebration of beef and booze, is coming up soon. It's going to be a blast, so don't miss your chance to get a less expensive ticket early.
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Pig Bleecker, from chef/pitmaster Matt Abdoo, opens today and offers a fine-dining touches and inventive menu items like brisket ravioli and duck confit lasagna.
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While barbecue lovers in NYC have lots of great options for eating BBQ, we don't often get the chance to watch entire films about it. Thankfully that changes next Tuesday with the screening of For the Love of Meat, a new documentary about Central Texas BBQ from filmmakers Jeff Jones, Matthew Johnson, Matt Wallis, and Brandon Gonzales.
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This week, I wrote a story for Gothamist on a very cool Smorgasburg vendor that serves vegan BBQ. I know, I know. Vegan BBQ? It sounds like a punchline to a joke. But it's not!
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The 2016 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party returned to form, with famed pitmaster Ed Mitchell returning and amazing BBQ from all over the country being represented. Some of the best bites included brisket from Hutchins BBQ, chopped whole hog from Skylight Inn, and pulled pork from Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q.
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The 2016 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in Madison Square Park is coming up soon. Here's everything you need to know.
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NYC BBQ has a new byline in the popular NYC publication Gothamist, talking about the best regional BBQ styles you can find in NYC. Check it out!
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Fette Sau used to be the most celebrated BBQ restaurant in New York City. While it's still good, it's not quite the joint it used to be and four other players have overtaken it.
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The New York Daily News took a stab at rounding up some of the best BBQ joints in New York City in today's issue. The authors interviewed several NYC pitmasters and chefs to help show off all the barbecue styles you can find in the city, from Texas to Kansas City to Carolina.
Unfortunately, three key restaurants that have helped defined NYC's barbecue culture are missing from the piece.
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This past Saturday, I attended the thirteenth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in Madison Square Park. As I sat in the VIP section (which cost me a not-cheap $275), I was able to eat an enormous amount of BBQ and drink a lot of William Wolf Bourbon. On Sunday morning, I could hardly get out of bed, but it was worth it.
I tried every Block Party item, which were served by 17 different pitmasters from around the U.S. Pitmasters included local heroes like Hometown BBQ's Billy Durney and Dinosaur BBQ's John Stage and national mainstays such as Mike Mills and Scott Roberts. Sometimes I would go for seconds. Sometimes I would just take a few bites.
Here are seven standout items I tried at the Block Party and that I can't wait to try again down the road.
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Even if you haven't been paying close attention, you probably know Brooklyn has a food scene that rivals and often surpasses Manhattan. Barbecue is no exception and, in fact, most of the top BBQ restaurants in NYC are now sprinkled all over Brooklyn.
Arrogant Swine (173 Morgan Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11237), a relatively new addition to Brooklyn BBQ, is not one of the those top restaurants. But it's quite good for a newcomer and with a little refinement, it could be in a higher tier in a year's time.
The restaurant opened in October 2014 with pitmaster and blogger Tyson Ho at the helm. Ho comes from Queens, New York but is obsessed with North-Carolina-style BBQ and so, Arrogant Swine was born. Ho likes to call his restaurant the "church of pork."
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My journey to document the best of New York City's BBQ restaurants and culture might just be getting started, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to go big at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, an annual celebration of barbecue from around the country this weekend in Madison Square Park. This is the thirteenth year for the event, which raises cash for the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
This Saturday, I will be attending the Block Party, and I'm ready to chow down on some of the finest BBQ this country has to offer. Pitmasters from New York, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and more will be serving up all kinds grub. I can't wait to dig into everything I can, especially NYC's Hometown BBQ, Driftwood/Austin's Salt Lick Bar-B-Que, and St. Louis' Pappy's Smokehouse. I'll be documenting the best of what I find on Instagram, Facebook, and in a postmortem blog post on this site.
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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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New York City is a wondrous place. When I moved here from Missouri seven years ago, I quickly realized there was so much to see that I’d never be able to do it all. Even though I’ve accepted that fact, I’ve been visiting new restaurants, bars, museums, concert halls, performance spaces, parks, and more as often as I can. I enjoy breathing in the city and letting it elevate me.
One thing I brought with me from Missouri was a love of American barbecue. Smoked and seasoned meats of all kinds, sweet and spicy sauces, and tasty sides are things I love with a passion. And so it’s been fascinating to watch a true barbecue renaissance emerge in the city that I’ve settled. It’s been a wild and delicious ride to visit many of these barbecue restaurants and see what some of America’s best pitmasters can cook up.
New York City’s barbecue brilliance comes from chefs from all over the United States (hell, the world) and sharing their food styles with us. Because we have enough people to support diversity and many of us have adventurous palates, we've attracted most American barbecue styles. Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Texas, and North Carolina styles are all currently represented in NYC. And who knows what else is to come?
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