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Big Apple Barbecue Block Party 2003


Fat Guy

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One amazing thing about the event, and I don't think a lot of folks have quite caught on to the significance of it, is that for two days in 2003 the best barbecue in the world was the barbecue being served in New York City. These weren't just the catering rigs; several of the nation's top pitmasters themselves were there personally working the smokers, seasoning and handling the meat, and directly handling or supervising every aspect of it. If you went down to Texas today you couldn't get barbecue better than what we had on 27th Street -- and with the main man Rick Schmidt up here you may not even have been able to do as good. Chris Lilly even did several injected shoulders, which is something he never does in the restaurant setting -- it's a competition-only technique because it's so labor intensive. And the opportunity to see these guys together on panel discussions is very special -- who knows if the four of them will ever be in the same place at the same time again?

I think the sense of the crowd -- and I talked to quite a few people -- was that the ranking went like this:

#1 - Mike Mills' ribs

#2 - Chris Lilly's pulled pork shoulder

#3 - Kreuz's sausage and brisket

#4 - Mitchell's whole hog

I found the reaction of the mostly New-Yorker crowd interesting because it was I think the exact opposite of how I ranked them. I made sure to get a really good, hot, fresh-out-of-the-pit sample of each and I ate them all within about a 45-minute period.

Now, in one sense it's apples and oranges. But in another sense, in thinking about this and talking to a few Southerners who ranked almost the same or exactly the same as I did, I came to the conclusion that it may be a little bit like acquiring the taste for fine wine. Often, when people start drinking wine, they gravitate towards sweeter, simpler, more "approachable" styles. Dry wines are offputting at first. Later, those who keep at it acquire the taste and start to gravitate towards the drier styles.

Looking back at my own immersion in barbecue, I remember always liking sweet, sticky ribs best by default. And what's not to like about pulled pork shoulder with a sweet sauce? The first time I had barbecue brisket in Kansas City, I wasn't into it at all; and I've been very slow to embrace North Carolina barbecue because the first several times I had any it was the consistency of cat food and seemed a complete waste of perfectly good smoked pork. But with repeated visits to these places, and with good guides like Varmint to walk me through North Carolina barbecue and our friends Liz and Jeff in Austin to take us out to Lockhart and explain it all to us, I started to invert my hierarchy of preference.

I think the other issue is that the margin for error is extremely slim when it comes to the Texas and North Carolina styles. Texas barbecue, the Lockhart-German-meat-market style at least, goes at a very high temperature and requires a lot of careful timing or it will be dry, tough, or both. North Carolina style (East or West) really sucks unless it's really good -- it has to be chopped into large enough pieces, the saucing has to be just right, and you need to get it quick or it degrades. Whereas, any idiot can cook a totally acceptable Memphis-style pork shoulder or wet-sweet ribs.

At this event, we were looking at the finest examples of each of the styles, and it really put things in perspective. Whole hog is probably the greatest challenge in barbecue, and therefore the contrast between the best and the rest is the most stark. Texas style is also really tough, and again the differentiation between what we sampled today and what one might get at a second-tier establishment was massive. Whereas, although I though the Mike Mills ribs were superb, they were only marginally better than what I can get every day at Blue Smoke (where Mike was the consultant), and the terrific pork shoulder from Big Bob was similarly in-the-ballpark of what can be had at the B-level.

So, were I to make a pilgrimage to just one place, I'd make it to Mitchell's. Two places, add Kreuz's. And so on in the opposite order of the list above.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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A few Web sites of interest, in connection with the event:

Mitchell's Barbecue

17th Street Bar & Grill

Kreuz Market

Big Bob Gibson's

The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party (details on all the events and participants)

Southern Foodways Alliance (John T. Edge is the director)

Barbecue is a Noun (filmmaker site)

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Hey anything special going on around the weekend of the 7th?

I'll answer that on a new thread.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I've been off line this weekend, but I am glad to see this thread as my Monday morning wake up call! I'll try to post something substantial tonight (as I've got a boat load of work to do today), but it is indeed important to know that some of the best barbecue joints are run by some of the savviest businessmen you'll run across (and I use the masculine term only because so few places are run by women). Ed Mitchell is a man who has worked his tail off over the years, not being recognized because he's still fairly new on the scene, his previous establishment was sort of a dilapidated white and green painted cinder block building, and he hadn't marketed himself aggressively. I tried to take Fat Guy to Mitchell's, but they were closed for construction. Well, Ed now has a nice new building, he's marketing himself like crazy, and he's making a good living. He hasn't changed a thing from a food perspective, so he has a recipe for great success.

As far as NC barbecue being an acquired taste, that is certainly the case. It doesn't knock your socks off the first time you have it. But as you begin to try different restaurants' versions, you recognize how subtle this style of barbecue is. It doesn't knock you over with smoke or sauce or other seasonings. The first flavor you should experience is the pig. If you're lucky, the barbecue will have some outside cracklin's mixed in. It should be lightly sauced in a way that helps to bring out, rather than mask, the flavor. Add more sauce or heat if you'd like, but do that after you've tasted it the way the pitmaster prepared it. If you give the stuff a chance, you'll learn to appreciate what a fine plate of pig we've developed here.

For those of you who might be venturing down here for my pig pickin' on October 11, if you're here early, we'll try to arrange a barbecue road trip to visit Mitchell's, Pete Jones' Skylight Inn in Ayden, and Wilber's in Goldsboro. That would be about a 5 hour trip, but I'd make sure we take lots of back roads that have good scenery of Eastern North Carolina. We'd have to do this on Thursday, October 9, as I'll be getting everything ready for the pig pickin on the 10th. For more information on the pig pickin', go here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=97&t=21108&

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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Whereas, any idiot can cook a totally acceptable Memphis-style pork shoulder or wet-sweet ribs.

FG,

While I don't disagree with your ranking or the logic behind it, I do disagree with your "any idiot" quote. I've eaten far too much poorly executed shoulder and ribs to believe that "any idiot" can do it right. Your comment leaves the impression that there is little room for variation within these styles, which certainly runs counter to my experience...

Those who do not remember the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

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Okay, it's a little bit of hyperbole. I don't mean any person selected randomly on the street can do it without instruction. I mean anyone with a certain amount of training and competence can reach a certain level of acceptability. Whereas, when it comes to whole hog cooking, it's something that only the pitmasters'-pitmaster can get properly executed in a production environment. For me, if I go to Memphis, I have no trouble enjoying the ribs and pulled pork pretty much everywhere I go -- and in terms of replicating a style, the ribs and pulled pork are pretty much always the best item on any B- or C- or D-level barbecue menu up north. Whereas in North Carolina, even with Varmint leading the way and picking only the best of the best as a first cut, we still wind up disappointed with about half the barbecue we try. But when it's good, it's really good.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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For me, if I go to Memphis, I have no trouble enjoying the ribs and pulled pork pretty much everywhere I go --

My point is that Memphis is an exception to the rule. Try visiting all the barbecue places in the Nashville area (none of which are attempting whole-hog, to my knowledge), for example, and you will quickly discover that disappointment also exists in styles other than whole-hog...

Those who do not remember the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

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you can read about it in the Times on Wednesday, after it's all over, or you can read about it here and still get there for day two

Unless I missed something in today's Dining section, the Times totally dropped the ball on this one. I'm sorry this event wasn't better covered by the New York news media. Though a significant population of New Yorkers comprehended the significance of having several of the greatest pitmasters in the universe together in New York for this pow-wow, it seemed mostly lost on the press.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I wonder if anyone from Kansas City was invited. KC is clearly on the level of the other locales when it comes to the tradition of barbecue as part of the culture. Eating at Arthur Bryant's is still one of my favorite meals.

"These pretzels are making me thirsty." --Kramer

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There wasn't room on 27th Street for anyone else to participate. The rules for a block party of this sort are that you can only use one side of a single block. The other side needs to be kept clear as a fire route. Ed Mitchell's rig alone took up about a quarter of the block!

I don't know the particulars of which pitmasters got invited and why. Mike Mills was an obvious choice because he was Blue Smoke's guru. My guess is that when Danny Meyer and his crew traveled around the barbecue belt during the planning stages of Blue Smoke, they developed a short-list of favorites. Then they probably extended several invitations and some people could make it and others couldn't. Who knows if, for example, Arthur Bryant's even has a mobile rig. Just thinking out loud -- I don't actually know the answer. I can try to find out, though.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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There wasn't room on 27th Street for anyone else to participate. The rules for a block party of this sort are that you can only use one side of a single block. The other side needs to be kept clear as a fire route.

Are you serious? When did that happen? Are there different rules for street fairs? School fairs? 9th Ave, was both sides of the street.

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There are all sorts of permits and such involved (sound permit, merchandise permit, beer and wine permit, stage permit, vendor permits, sanitation deposit), and if you're going to bring a bunch of wood-burning equipment onto a New York City block I think you need the Fire Department to sign off as well. In this case, and I've seen it elsewhere too I think, all the booths had to be set up on one side of the block and the other sidewalk had to be kept clear.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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  • 3 weeks later...

bb43.jpg

The fellow on the far right with the trombone is my friend Clark Gayton. He plays Mondays at Lickwed (113 Ludlow near Delaney) and may drop by Friday's fete with Tuba and friends.

Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love at all seasons: That is all there is to distinguish us from the other Animals.

-Beaumarchais

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you wander by Blue Smoke, you'll see in the front window a big collage of Ellen's photographs from this event.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I'm almost sure I'm going to attend this event in 2004, and I encourage other non-NYers to consider doing same. :smile:

"Save Donald Duck and Fuck Wolfgang Puck."

-- State Senator John Burton, joking about

how the bill to ban production of foie gras in

California was summarized for signing by

Gov. Schwarzenegger.

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  • 2 months later...

At long last, some national press! The September 8th issue of Nation's Restaurant News has a short article, with 6 photos (half from the event, half background). The dates of the Block Party are not mentioned in the piece, I assume because NRN doesn't want readers to know they're using this as filler. :sad:

I couldn't find the article online, so here are a couple of quotes from Danny Meyer:

We've gotten tremendous feedback from all over the city.  People have come up to us and said: "I was at your block party, and it was amazing.  It was intense."
Meyer, who admitted that setting up the event was "like building a train while the train is moving" said he would like to hold the party again next year.  "We are absolutely interested in repeating it," he added.

Admin: the thread for the 2004 edition of the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party may be found here.)

Edited by slkinsey (log)
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