[franktex]

Ma, I can smell the smoke all the way down here in Texas! Oh wait...that's my smoker out back! All this talk about barbeque, so I just couldn't resist! Thanks for the up-to-date coverage & pics, guys!

[SobaAddict70]

*drool*

I have to go to the gym later today. Not sure when I'll be able to make it to MS park.

Most likely tomorrow though.

Soba

[Laura B]

Just back from three hours at Madison Square Park! We had some pulled pork from Mitchell's BBQ in NC (we are from NC, so we had to have a taste of home), and then we tried Elgin's brisket and sausage plate. We loved both. Mitchell's was very good - I had never eaten his BBQ before, and I must say it was the best of the NC-style pulled pork I've ever had. To finish up, we had some custard from the shack and headed home. By the way, the shack had a custard and drinks only line today which was MUCH shorter than the regular line. I forgot to ask when I got to the front whether that was just for this weekend or there to stay.

We might go back tomorrow to try some of the Memphis BBQ and maybe get some more from Mitchell's. We are not inclined to stand in line for the NY vendors since we can just go to their restaurants if we want to try them.

Next year, we will definitely buy the fast pass! The lines are killer.

[sir loin]

I got there today for the opening bell at noon, and by 3:15 or so had only been able to get to 3 pits. The lines were no better than last year, but because the event was on Madison ave. this year at least there was a little elbow room . After waiting on the first line for the Saltlick,I decided the Fastpass seemed to be the way to go. I tried to buy a pass, only to be told that the card readers were not working so they would not sell anymore. This happened early on, and they said even people who had purchased the pass in advance would have to stand on the regular cash lines. Hopefully this will be fixed by tomorrow. I will have to try the pass next year, tomorrow I'm off to the seafood festival in Belmar

[slkinsey]

Unfortunately, the word is that they are sold out of the Bubba Fast Pass for this year.


Much more later when I awaken from my meat-induced coma.


One perplexing question: if this is supposed to feature some of the best Q from around the country, why no McRib?

[Jason Perlow]

Here is the link to our updated photo album. I'm going to post these on the thread as well, with descriptions if I can remember half the stuff we ate.


Big Apple Barbecue Block Party 05 (ImageGullet Album)

Click (HERE) to view as slide show

[Jason Perlow]

Things are just starting to heat up.



The calm before the storm.



Ed Mitchell Whole Hog Sandwiches with cracklin'.





"I'm Ed Mitchell and you're not."



Mitchell Pork Sandwich Closeup



Michell Pork Sandwich, Unsauced.



Southside Market & BBQ











Pitmaster Bryan Brycewell, Southside Market & BBQ (Elgin, TX)



Southside Market Pit

[bergerka]

I would just like to state that after a 2.5 hour odyssey from 231st and Broadway to the park, complete with a fire on the downtown 1 track, a walk in the heat from 231st to the A train at 207th, a wait of nearly 1/2 hour at 145th for the downtown D (the A was, of course! running local), and finally giving up on the N/R/W and walking from Herald Square to the park - just in time to get soaked by a downpour , Mitchell's completely delicious barbeque and his side of the only coleslaw I have ever liked were the only things that kept me from committing mass murder and mayhem today.

The lives of everyone in this city were saved by pork.


K, significantly less bitchy now that I'm full of bbq and sitting in my air-conditioned living room eating frozen grapes.

[Jason Perlow]

Mike Mills ribs



Mike Mills BBQ beans

[Jason Perlow]

Pitmaster Mike "Sarge" Davis of Whole Hog Cafe



These guys were filming some video for some stupid website.







Pitmaster Garry Roark, Ubon's "Championship Choice" BBQ

[Jason Perlow]

Pitmaster Otis Walker and the The Smoki O's crew from St. Louis.



Snoots.















A pair of cupcakes.



Pitmaster Don McLemore from Big Bob Gibson BBQ



Big Bob Gibson Pulled Pork



Blue Smoke Ribs





Blue Smoke Ribs getting their final sear



Salt Lick Plate



Salt Lick Sausage Closeup



Salt Lick Brisket Closeup



Salt Lick Pit Closeup

[johnnyd]

Holy Hannah, Ah'm droolin' heyah...

[Fat Guy]

sir loin, on Jun 11 2005, 05:14 PM, said:

I tried to buy a pass, only to be told that the  card readers were not working so they would not sell anymore. This happened early on, and they said even people who had purchased the pass in advance would have to stand on the regular cash lines.

People who purchased the Bubba Fast Pass in advance were allowed onto the Fast Pass lines and were served all their food free of charge while the computer system was down. My mother had one, as did my brother-in-law, and they had no problem going through the Fast Pass line and getting all the food they wanted, quickly and efficiently. With a Bubba Fast Pass, it was possible to sample the food of all ten pitmasters in about two hours. At the end of the day, the passes seemed to be working, so we had to have $14 deducted from one of our cards for a bunch of desserts, but we're loaded for bear tomorrow with almost all our credit still remaining.

[mickeymonkey]

was the salt lick plate that big? or was it just for display? god, i hope it was that big! the sausage looks incredible!!! must go tomorrow.

[kurl]

Today I tried Ed Mitchell's -- the first time I'd ever tried that style of barbecue -- and found it quite good, though not at all what I expected. It was more like chicken salad than any pork barbecue I'd had. I'd love to go take a trip and sample lots more of that style, though.

I also tried the Elgin's sausage and brisket, both of which I found superb -- I didn't have the opportunity to compare with Salt Lick, but I can recommmend Elgin wholeheartedly.

Tomorrow I guess I'll go for some ribs and shoulder. The question is: whose shoulder and whose ribs are the superlative ones?

I eagerly await a reply.

[Jason Perlow]

mickeymonkey, on Jun 11 2005, 07:35 PM, said:

was the salt lick plate that big? or was it just for display? god, i hope it was that big! the sausage looks incredible!!! must go tomorrow.

That was a sample plate they made up nice for us and Gothamist.com.

[mickeymonkey]

Quote

That was a sample plate they made up nice for us and Gothamist.com.

wow, were you lucky! which sausage and brisket did you like better, Salt Lick's or Elgin's? why? have to decide which line is worth the time. thanks!

[Jason Perlow]

mickeymonkey, on Jun 11 2005, 08:05 PM, said:

Quote

That was a sample plate they made up nice for us and Gothamist.com.

wow, were you lucky! which sausage and brisket did you like better, Salt Lick's or Elgin's? why? have to decide which line is worth the time. thanks!

I liked them both for different reasons. Salt Lick was more heavily seasoned than Elgin. Both were excellent.

[banquo]

Thank God for the Bubba Fast Pass. Basically no lines and, for all of time I was there(12-2; 5-6), no paying either. Card is fully loaded, minus the cost of 2 beers. Of the places I tried, Salt Lick was best. Their brisket was very good. I was disappointed by their sausage as well as by the sausage at Elgin's (Elgin's brisket, at least the plate I got, was not good--oversmoked and bone dry). For the sausage, perhaps I was just expecting something else (think Black's in Lockhart or even our very own RUB).

My favorite last year was Mitchell's and so of course I got a sandwich from them. This was a service inconsistency, but none of the sandwiches we got, three of them, had chopped/minced pork in it or any cracklins (the pictures above bear little resemblance to what we got). For tomorrow, I'll definitely wait/ask for the sandwiches as they are pictured above. The ribs at 17th St BBQ were also inconsistent, I thought. Our first order was pretty dried out and unpleasant; my second order, almost at the end of the day, was very good. Their beans were top notch both times.

Does anyone have opinions on the other vendors I didn't mention? How did the folks from Mississippi and Arkansas do? I'll have to try their stuff out tomorrow. The folks from Dinosaur were pulling out a bunch of brisket as I was about to leave for the day. Even after having eaten 5 plates of food, they looked damn good.

[ned]

slkinsey, on Jun 11 2005, 03:11 PM, said:

Unfortunately, the word is that they are sold out of the Bubba Fast Pass for this year.

Anybody else have anything on this? Is this the regular pass that anybody (who wants to drop a c-note) can buy or the one that you have to have an AMEX gold card for?

I've been looking forward to tomorrow. Please don't tell me have to wait in line with the riff raff.

This post has been edited by ned: 11 June 2005 - 06:46 PM

[Rachel Perlow]

banquo, on Jun 11 2005, 08:28 PM, said:

My favorite last year was Mitchell's and so of course I got  a sandwich from them.  This was a service inconsistency, but none of the sandwiches we got, three of them, had chopped/minced pork in it or any cracklins (the pictures above bear little resemblance to what we got).  For tomorrow, I'll definitely wait/ask for the sandwiches as they are pictured above.

This picture is a special order Ed Mitchel personally prepared for Jason to photograph. Obviously, he added some big hunks of unchopped pork to the plate:




This is a tray of plates ready to go out on the line, exactly as they were going to the people, at just after noon today:


The crackling was served on the side instead of chopped into the meat, which I appreciate (if you have a tooth issue, you don't want to bite into crackling unprepared). What time did you get your plate? Perhaps they weren't so pristine a few hours into the day.

[juuceman]

ned, on Jun 11 2005, 09:45 PM, said:

slkinsey, on Jun 11 2005, 03:11 PM, said:

Unfortunately, the word is that they are sold out of the Bubba Fast Pass for this year.

Anybody else have anything on this? Is this the regular pass that anybody (who wants to drop a c-note) can buy or the one that you have to have an AMEX gold card for?

I've been looking forward to tomorrow. Please don't tell me have to wait in line with the riff raff.

i don't know that there was a card you could purchase with a regular Amex card- it was offered as a gold card event type thing, and the Bubba Fast Pass indicates that its a Gold Card Event.. i was worried that they would oversell these, but the setup for it was extremely smooth.. i spent most of the day wandering through the park on both sides of the line and in the park itself, which was packed until it started raining and the fastpass area was never more than a five minute wait at any stand- throughout the morning and early afternoon when the cards weren't useful, a lot of the stands had several portions available to grab and go.. when the computer system began to work, the whole thing slowed down a bit, since rather than having a terminal at each stand, you had to decide how many portions you wanted in total before going in so they could debit you.. if there had been more folks with cards at that point, it would've been more similar to the cash lines..

[Rachel Perlow]

After they debited you, did they give you a ticket or something to hand over to each vendor?

[Fat Guy]

ned, on Jun 11 2005, 09:45 PM, said:

slkinsey, on Jun 11 2005, 03:11 PM, said:

Unfortunately, the word is that they are sold out of the Bubba Fast Pass for this year.

Anybody else have anything on this? Is this the regular pass that anybody (who wants to drop a c-note) can buy or the one that you have to have an AMEX gold card for?

I've been looking forward to tomorrow. Please don't tell me have to wait in line with the riff raff.

The Bubba Fast Pass has nothing to do with the AmEx gold/platinum cardmember party that they held on Friday night. The Fast Pass was available to anybody. I was told by several of the higher-ups at Union Square Hospitality Group that all the Bubba Fast Passes were sold out in advance of the event. At the same time, I got different information from a number of people who were working the event, and there does indeed seem to be a whole booth set up for the sale of Bubba Fast Passes -- I'm not exactly sure why they'd have such a booth if they had sold out in advance.

A few observations about the Bubba Fast Pass: 1) I told you so; anybody who didn't buy one should have listened when I told you to, 2) A single Bubba Fast Pass gets two people into the VIP area behind the pits, so you can share one with someone else, 3) A Bubba Fast Pass gets you and a guest into the VIP area even if there's no money on it (you can top it off or pay cash or, as happened today, just get stuff for free), 4) The difference between what happens on the public lines and what happens in the VIP area is amazing; it's two different events.

On another subject, in terms of the way they make up the barbecue plates, you need to fight for your rights. These places are serving thousands of portions in just a few hours and they're relying on staff that don't necessarily work in barbecue restaurants. But you absolutely can ask for brisket from the deckle or extra cracklin's or pieces of pulled rib meat in your chopped pork. You just have to be insistent and a little patient.

Brisket and sausage: I found that everybody I spoke to liked both the sausage and brisket from Salt Lick better than the sausage and brisket from Elgin. I felt exactly the opposite. So I don't know what's going on there. I must be losing it.

[Jason Perlow]

Quote

I felt exactly the opposite. So I don't know what's going on there. I must be losing it.

Maybe the zillion percent humidity and over 90 degree weather had something to do with it. I'm really hoping it cools down tomorrow.

It was so freaking hot and humid that the synthetic rubberized grip on my digital camera actually PEELED OFF when I was holding it. Like the industrial adhesive turned into freaking goo.

We were there for several hours, we arrived at approximately noon and I think we left at like 4, and I must have drank at least 10 liters of water in that 4 hour period -- every pit I stopped at I grabbed a bottle of Fiji and chugged it. I didn't need to go to the bathroom once and didn't until we got home. Thats how freaking hot it was.

[Jammin]

Fat Guy, on Jun 11 2005, 07:28 PM, said:

The Bubba Fast Pass has nothing to do with the AmEx gold/platinum cardmember party that they held on Friday night. The Fast Pass was available to anybody. I was told by several of the higher-ups at Union Square Hospitality Group that all the Bubba Fast Passes were sold out in advance of the event.

If anything, Amex GCE might have sold the Bubba Passes before they were made available to the general public, par for the course when it comes to Gold Card Events. (Can anyone confirm?) They might even be able to procure one for you (post-sellout) if you are a very high value customer, but you didn't hear that from me.

This post has been edited by Jammin: 11 June 2005 - 10:31 PM

[rozrapp]

Jammin, on Jun 12 2005, 01:30 AM, said:

Fat Guy, on Jun 11 2005, 07:28 PM, said:

The Bubba Fast Pass has nothing to do with the AmEx gold/platinum cardmember party that they held on Friday night. The Fast Pass was available to anybody. I was told by several of the higher-ups at Union Square Hospitality Group that all the Bubba Fast Passes were sold out in advance of the event.

If anything, Amex GCE might have sold the Bubba Passes before they were made available to the general public, par for the course when it comes to Gold Card Events. (Can anyone confirm?) They might even be able to procure one for you (post-sellout) if you are a very high value customer, but you didn't hear that from me.

Jammin, You are correct about the Bubba Pass being available to Gold Card holders prior to the event. Gold Card holders were advised by e-mail in May, and it was on the events list on the AmEx website, but has now been removed.

[johnder]

Just a tip, if anyone if going today and want to buy a fast pass my advice: Go Early.

They stopped selling them yesterday at the Bubba Tent when they reached a certain quota. Lickily I already had mine. The line on the front side was easily 100 - 125 people, the line behind (fast pass) was at most 1 person ahead of me at most stands.

Although when 3 of the stands already sold out, so the lines got consildated onto the remaining stands, making the public lines that much longer.

I am heading back earlier today to try and snag a snout before they are gone. Hopefully the will not as humid today. :-)

[ned]

Fat Guy, on Jun 11 2005, 07:28 PM, said:

A few observations about the Bubba Fast Pass: 1) I told you so; anybody who didn't buy one should have listened when I told you to, 2) A single Bubba Fast Pass gets two people into the VIP area behind the pits, so you can share one with someone else, 3) A Bubba Fast Pass gets you and a guest into the VIP area even if there's no money on it (you can top it off or pay cash or, as happened today, just get stuff for free), 4) The difference between what happens on the public lines and what happens in the VIP area is amazing; it's two different events.

Mr. Shaw's I told you so notwithstanding, I was at Madison Park early this morning for the little boy's first play session of the day, did a little interrogating and found that the worst case does appear to have come to pass. No more fast passes. Cash it is. I daresay next year we should each buy ten fast passes and scalp them for twice the original price.

Early arrival it is then.

[SobaAddict70]

I had errands to do all day, but managed to make room for an hour or so this afternoon. Just got back a few minutes ago -- have laundry to do in a few minutes.

Impressions:

1. A Bubba Fast Pass is crucial. There were people who waited on the regular lines for upwards of half an hour only to find out that what they wanted was close to gone. Imagine a line twice as long as the length of a regular New York City block and you'll see why a BFP is practically mandatory.

2. I didn't get to sample everything but I was disappointed by Mitchell's (a bit too fatty to my liking though the crackling made up for it); Dinosaur's baked beans are amazing and the pork sandwich was no slouch either, and Elgin's.....O Elgin's, well let's just say that if I my evening was free I'd still be there.

Kudos especially to Mr. Meyer for making this brainchild come true.

Soba