Burt1961

Will be visiting Charleston in bout 3 weeks. Anybody care to update the thread. Am looking for the two restaurants you would most want to have a meal in and why. Thanks

Since when do you have a chef at BBQ restaurant, I thought they were Pit Masters???

Oh please... I'm sure John Stage and Kenny Callaghan are nice enough guys, but you cannot put them in the same league with Paul Kirk as far as Pit Masters goes. If you are inviting world-class Pit Masters, and you have one in your own back yard, why do you leave him off the invite list when they have invited back the same Pit Masters as last year and even added new ones. If you don't have him cook, why isn't he on a panel. I think Paul did Danny Meyers a big favor by participating in last years event. I wonder if Danny Meyers even knew that Paul was planning on opening a restaurant when he invited him last year. PS - I didn't mention fear, you did. I just think Danny Meyers doesn't like his reign as the king of NYC BBQ threatened.

You are correct - It's Danny Meyer's bat and ball, and he gets to pick who he wants to play with. As far as Ed Mitchell goes, he adds color to the event that most of these other guys just don't have. Having spent a little bit of time with him at the last event you would be hard pressed to find someone with as much personality. He was also one of the few guys, who like Paul Kirk, completely cooked their barbecue at the event.

I'm guessing that Blue Smoke will not participate next year so that they can make room for Daisy May's or Ranger Texas Barbecue. Clearly, Blue Smoke doesn't fit into the mix with name recognition of their Pit Master. I'm sure Kenny Callaghan is one of the first names that pop into people's head when they think world class barbecue. It boarders on farce to say that the organizers have collected the best Pit Masters in the country and have not invited Paul Kirk. I stand by my previous statement that Danny Meyers doesn't like the idea that Kirk is stealing some of his thunder in the NYC BBQ scene.

I've put in a call to the event organizers. How about you pick up the phone and call RUB? First person to get information posts it here. I called RUB and spoke to Andrew. He said no invite.

A quick call to RUB by you should answer the question. I find it hard to fathom that the owner of a new restaurant would turn down the exposure an event like this offers.

i think you shouldn't believe anything you read, or at least take it with a pound of salt. ← Why the skepticism about the improvement @ RUB? Have you eaten their recently, or are you generally a pessimistic person? Clearly, The NY Press newspaper must think differently, they rated them "Best BBQ" in their Best of Summer Guide. http://www.nypress.com/18/21/summerguide/BOS.cfm

I had dinner at RUB on Sunday and am happy to say that the food and service were great. Having eaten there a couple of times since they have opened, I can bare witness to their steady improvement. I wanted them to be opened at least a couple of months before I commented on them. I would definitely fall into the category of a Paul Kirk fan after having met him at the BBQ Block Party, and then waiting patiently for the restaurant to open. The place was busy, but didn't wait more than 10 minutes for a table. The front/back of the house seems to have worked their kinks out. From the time we sat down and ordered to our food being delivered was just over 10 minutes. We spent that time trying their Brooklyn Blond which I had never had before and thought was very good. We ordered a taste of the baron with Brisket, Pastrami, pulled pork, and added a 1/2 rack of loin back's and the long end of a rack of spare ribs. It was a lot of food for three people, but we wanted to taste as much as we could. For sides we ordered the baked beans and the coleslaw (vinegar base). The pastrami was very good, almost purple in color, with a rich flavor of pepper and coriander. It was tender, but not so tender that it fell apart or lost its texture. Not chewy or rubbery at all. I liked it a lot, and its smoky flavor made it stand out from your typical hi-end deli pastrami. It was warm and moist, but without that steam-table wetness. The brisket had a great smoke ring and a noticeably smoky flavor . It also had a great crust and rub that went great with the flavor of the meat and the smoke. The serving was a mix of flat and a little bit/bite of deckle, with the flat being thinly sliced and sufficiently tender that you could cut it with a fork. It was warm and moist and definitely not Texas style. The deckle was amazing; bite-size squares of meat and fat that were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I am not a burnt ends expert but these sure did taste good. When they said burnt, they really meant it. They were served lightly coated with sauce. They were both crunchy on the outside, and tender on the inside. I'd like to have they while sitting at a bar watching a ballgame and drinking a beer. Having spent a lot of time in the Carolinas, I know my pork, and this was good pork. It was truly pulled, with no chopped pork mixed in (I still have my teeth, so the chopped pork is wasted on me). It had bits of the crust in it, which helped make the flavor and texture delicious. The vinegar sauce was flavorful, but balanced sufficiently that it didn't mask the flavor of the meat. As with the brisket and the pastrami, the pork was tender and moist. The ribs were flat out great. I like mine with a little bit of sauce, but it certainly didn't need the sauce for moisture. Both racks were crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside., but not so tender (read - overcooked) that the meat fell off the bone. I like my ribs to have a little bit of tooth when you bite in to them and these certainly did. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ribs were some of the best I've had. OK - The space is a bit lacking in decor, and it can get noisy, but I'm not going to RUB for the ambiance, I'm going to RUB because the kitchen is hitting on all cylinders, and they are serving up some great barbecue, possibly as good as you would get at any of the well know BBQ joints around the country, but I don't think you should compare RUB to those restaurants the same as you wouldn't compare a place in Lockhart to one in Kansas City. RUB is making their own style of BBQ and they should be judged on their own merits. I can't wait to go back and try the duck (unfortunately when we were there they didn't have any).

I remember reading that the small glass bottles can be filled to a higher pressure, which results in increased carbonation and and a different taste from the larger bottles and cans.

If last summer's BBQ Block Party was any indication, RUB BBQ will be the home of the best brisket in town.

Any idea what the hours are? I'm just down the street where I work, and I'd definitely like to be one of the first in there to beat the crowd. :) ← I was told they are opening for lunch. I'm going to get there around 11:00.

Walked by RUB this morning and was told they will be open for business April 1st. I know where I'm going for lunch. They had one of the smokers fired-up, and did it smell good.

You seem to like Blue Smoke - I guess it doesn't matter to you that they use a gas fired smoker to which they add some wood for smoke, because they "know how to use it." Is it better to say that the smoke source is important, but there are other ways to get "good smoke" than simply having a stack of burning logs? Do you think Blue Smoke is as good as what you have had at E & J?

Walked by RUB today and peeked inside. Must have had 20 guys banging away, with Paul Kirk supervising. I had met him at the Big Apple Block Party and since then have become a big fan of him and his books. space looked well on its way to being built-out. Said hello and found out that they should be open in April. Didn't ask for a tour because they seemed pretty busy. From what I could tell, the space seemed pretty straight forward, with nothing indicating that they were going for any kind of honky-tonk theme. Told Paul that it had been too long a wait to have his BBQ since the Block Party, and he said the wait would be worth it.