Barbeque with New York service

[Jonathan Day]

First, many thanks for participating in this Q&A.

I live in London and therefore haven't dined at Blue Smoke (though after eGullet discussion it is on my list for a future visit to New York). But I have relatives in Lockhart, Texas and have been to several of their 'que restaurants e.g. Kreuz Market. The food is great but the service is primitive -- dishes delivered on brown paper, or in the places where there are plates, "cafeteria" rather than table service.

Somehow this seems right for the kind of food on offer. It means that it's OK for adults and children to go to the restaurant in the most casual clothes and to eat in a messy, undignified sort of way.

I can't imagine this going on at a fine restaurant in Manhattan.

How do you reconcile the service and ambience you have created at Blue Smoke with the simple food? Was this a difficult match in designing the restaurant's fundamental concept?

[Danny Meyer]

In the process of doing research once we decided to do Blue Smoke, my team and I logged nearly 65,000 miles, tasting BBQ in at least 100 different spots across Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas. The places varied in quality, but most were ideosyncratic, and often in ways that would not appeal to New Yorkers. (Big jars of pickles and rolls of paper towels on the tables, no silverware, etc.) You're absolutely right about the brown paper as plates at Kreuz Market. It works there, but wouldn't here. But we DID consider that, and everything we saw. (By the way, we loved Kreuz and even use their hot links at Blue Smoke -- the only restaurant you can get it outside Lockhart, I think).

This dichotomy of "What is a real BBQ joint" vs. "What is a real New York restaurant" became a central question for us to answer. I have zero interest in opening something that's not real, and yet to date, BBQ hasn't been real in NYC. But that's no reason New Yorkers shouldn't get to enjoy the flavors.

I refused to consider creating the typical Disney-esque barbecue joint decor of piggies and bowling trophies. So we asked ourselves what the essence was of a barbecue joint in REAL barbecue land, and also, what is the essence of a real joint in NYC. And we came up with Blue Smoke. Some things that work in BBQ land work in New York. Like our huge beverage sign above the bar. Or the iced down bottles of beer in tubs. It's designed to be a place that's about eating, not dining. And it's designed to let you know that you can roll up your sleeves and just be with who you're with and hang.

That said, every restaurant I've ever done has struggled to re-contextualize things from other places. They've all been a process of taking something I love from somewhere else, and then expressing that something through a New York perspective. That's what makes them challenging for me and for sometimes for our guests -- particularly at the outset. Union Square Cafe did that with the Italian Trattoria. Gramercy Tavern with a countryside 2-star restaurant from Italy or France. Tabla the typical Indian Restaurant, and Eleven Madison Park the French Brasserie. I've never been interested in doing "a real French Brasserie" or an "Indian restaurant" or, a barbecue restaurant", per se. I love taking the essence of what I love about something, and then asking, how would this feel most real in New York. And brown paper as plates would not feel real in New York. Neither would a wrapped stack of saltines -- which would be very much at home in Lockhart, Texas.