Jason Perlow

The day culminated at dinner with friends at their house. We brought some Italian sausage from Pete's and bread from Addeo Bakery, and made some sausage sandwiches.

New Arthur Avenue pics. A spread of some of the seasonal offerings at Pete's Meat. Happy Mike's Deli patrons eat among the holiday baskets. Crown Roast of Pork from Pete's. The Legendary Mike Grecco. My lunch. Stuffed artichoke from Mike's. Some type of special pork roast from Pete's. Chops from Pete's. Rachel's tuna sandwich from Mike's. Addeo Bakery Fish Market More Fish Market Baccalao Inside Teitel Brothers. Counter area at Teitel Brothers. Some stinky dried fish stuff outside Teitel Brothers. The newly opened Arthur Avenue branch of Umberto's Clam House. Rachel standing in the queue outside Teitel Brothers on Arthur Avenue.

Greek Village is an excellent restaurant but its virtually impossible to eat at during the weekends or even on a weeknight as the waits for tables can go long, plus the place closes at 9PM. Their portion sizes are tremendous -- their mousakka or their gyro platters will feed 2 people.

Ummm... actually...

Uh, Owen, I think you should be able to get some decent 'que in NC regardless of whether Dinosaur opens a branch there or not, LOL.

Alan: I'm not sure. I've never eaten AT Blue Smoke, I've only had their ribs at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, where they served KC cut. EDIT: According to the menu they appear to have both: http://www.bluesmoke.com/blue/secondary/menus_dinner.html

Simple dinner tonight: Linguine alla Vongole with Ruby Swiss Chard

I believe we were told that due to current pricing and availability, ONLY hickory was being used right now. ← Yes, John Stage told that to us directly.

I don't agree with that. The honey mustard sauce used for the BBQ chicken, which you can buy bottled, is very good, and the Habanero Hot Sauce laced Wango Tango (pictured below, right) has a major kick in the ass heat quality to it, especially when used as a wing sauce. The basic sauce (middle) is unremarkable but its definitely not cloyingly sweet or even Kraft-like (although, as commercial sauces go, Kraft ain't bad, but not nearly as good as Cattleman's)

Like these? There were a lot more just like them parked out in front earlier in the evening.

For those interested, we've scanned Dinosaur's menu in Adobe Acrobat PDF format: Dinosaur BBQ NYC Menu (Click Here, Adobe Acrobat Reader Needed)

Some new Stickey's shots: Pork and Beef (center) ribs White Cheddar Mac and Cheese, Cole Slaw Ribs and Mashed New Potatoes with Beef Gravy Bread Pudding

Dinosaur BBQ -- what can I say, its been highly anticipated by a lot of folks, and for good reason -- the eatin's is mighty fine. The location, on 131st Street directly across from the Fairway Market parking lot on 12th avenue, was highly sought out by co-owner John Stage (the badass looking biker guy with the beard pictured in the first shot below, at right). Its a perfect venue for a BBQ joint as it used to be a meat packing plant -- the space is HUGE. 3 large J&R carousel style commercial smokers, each with 800 pounds of meat capacity, allow the restaurant to produce up to 2400 pounds of BBQ meat every 8-12 hour smoking session. Thats a lot of BBQ. Those familiar with the upstate NY locations should feel right at home -- the biker/roadhouse feel of the other 2 restaurants is represented very well, especially in a lot of its bar clientele. The style of BBQ itself is probably a fusion of KC and Texas styles, with a little bit of Carolina thrown in for good measure. We sampled a good amount of food, but suffice to say the menu is pretty large so we had to stay with the benchmark stuff. Ribs -- Saint Louis cut, smoked for 5 hours -- smoky, a bit leaner than the KC cut ribs used at the other major BBQ restaurant in NYC, Blue Smoke -- manage to be quite tender as they are smoked at around 190 degrees. Not quite falling off the bone, but very easy to eat. Pulled Pork Shoulder - This is showcase dish of the restaurant. Its smoked for 18 hours, which is well on the extreme side of BBQ smoking. The pork is VERY smoky. Tender yum yum good. Highly recommended. Brisket - Has a nice amount of smoke to it, meat was tender, however we only sampled the flat as that what was sent out. If you want burnt ends or more deckle, be sure you ask for it. Chicken -- we were very surprised by how good the chicken was. At a lot of BBQ restaurants, no matter what area of the country you are in, chicken is largely an afterthought. Not so at Dinosaur. These chickens are brined and smoked with the same care as everything else here -- they come out nice and juicy, not dried out like in other places. We thought that of the two sauces you could chose from, the Honey Mustard was the best complement to this dish. Wings -- excellent, make sure you get the spicy sauce though. Sides -- Baked beans were the best one, salt potatoes came in second. BBQ fried rice grew on me after the first couple of bites. But our favorite side interestingly enough was the greens which came with Rachel's catfish entree, which are not on the menu but you can ask for them. I told John he needs to make sure these are on the menu, for all the carboholics living in NY on pseudo-Atkins diets. Desserts -- all you need to know is you MUST get the Butterscotch pudding. Honest. Its not like any butterscotch pudding you have ever had before. Like all the desserts, its home made. Has lots of pralines in it, its so good, that its like eating the ganache on a really good caramel cake. Our second favorite dessert was the Key Lime Pie, made with real key lime juice. Beverages -- Dinosaur is really big on bevvies, especially beer. Lots and lots of varieties of beer on tap and in bottles, its probably worth a page of discussion on its own. We had a Belgian White, picked out by Brandon. Went really good with the cue as its low in alcohol and had no hoppiness to it at all. Here's the Bevador, Dinosaur's 40-year old beverage cooler. Decor d'toillete -- The bathrooms look like something out of a badass biker roadhouse -- Dino encourages graffiti on the walls, it even supplies permanent markers for people to leave their "Signature". My brother Brandon, who is a 3D CGI animator in California, left a nice Allosaurus exclaiming "Mmmmm MEAT!" above the sinks in the mens room.

JHlurie, Rachel, my brother Brandon and myself went to Dinosaur this evening and had some mighty good 'cue. Since we are all stuffed and are about ready to pass out, here's the link to the album with all the pics: Dinosaur BBQ Photos (Click Here) Here's a few to get you started. My apologies for the washed out look, I had to use flash inside there for most of the photos, and for the ones I didnt use flash on, the light was so low that we ended up having to overexpose the shots, so they came out slightly blurred. Heavy report tomorrow. Now, sleep.

I'd probably have to say The Frog and the Peach or Nicholas, if you don't want to schlep all the way into Manhattan. Rosie is quite fond of Rat's, but thats really only for good weather.

Thats a great peice, Jamie. Thanks for writing it and being part of our community!

Stoner central in Greenwich Village, totally. Maybe Berkeley. EDIT: Apparently, they opened one at Arizona State University first: http://www.cereality.com Chicago is next.

Well, I thought the all rice pudding restaurant in NYC, Rice To Riches was pretty stupid too, but that one is still in business. There's also a Peanut Butter sandwich joint in NYC as well - Peanut Butter & Co. EDIT: The cereal joint is in Philly? They're toast.

I was fairly anti-Martha back during the trial stage and was eagerly awaiting the penalty stage, hoping that she would go to jail. Now, after seeing what some of the Martha-come-lately's have been doing on television, like Sandra Lee, I WANT MY MARTHA BACK! I'll take her in any form over some of these talentless souls -- reality show, cooking show, in any way possible. Just get the idiots off my screen, and make room for the Original queen of domesticity.

I agree. I think we took her for granted, and now I am glad she is coming back. You can try to imitate her, but there's only one Martha.

Colameco's Food Show on PBS had an episode over the last weekend about Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Its really quite amazing what they are doing over there, especially with the 25,000 square foot greenhouse they built for growing vegetables.

You know, I always wonder where seltzer fits into this spectrum. One one hand it is a form of soda. On the other hand, all it contains is water and CO2 and nothing else. ← I drink 2 or 3 16oz bottles of carbonated Poland Spring every day, and a can or two of Soda/Coke/whatever. Been doing it for years. Never gotten any symptoms of GERD. Belches? Farting? Sure. GERD, no.

I'm totally a Brussels fiend. That and orange or mint milanos.

This is all alarmist crap. Jews have been drinking seltzer since time immemoriam, and I've never heard of there being a disproportionate amount of espohogeal cancer and GERD in that group.

I think its an extension of the doctrine of shatnes. ← Shaatnez is about mixing wool and linen, which are fabrics from the animal and plant world. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, etc. are all vegetables. ← Actually, I happen to like potato latkes with a small amount of matzo meal in them. I think the matzo meal sucks up some of the "gooeyness" and adds some needed texture to the latke. This is particularly necessary I think with the large "deli" style latkes like they serve at places like the Carnegie, The Stage, Sarge's and Katz's in NYC, where matzo meal IS used, and they have a more cakey texture, similar to a potato kugel. Definitely a different animal of latke though, although I like them both. I like all latkes, really.