NYC Barbecue Restaurants -- Master List

[Fat Guy]

In connection with the upcoming Big Apple Barbecue Block Party and a panel I'm moderating called "New York City Barbecue - Fantasy or Fantastic?" but also as an independent project that would be of value to the eGullet Society community, Danny Meyer and I thought it would be a fun idea to create a list of all New York City barbecue restaurants and hand it out at the Big Apple Barbecue. Of course names, addresses and phone numbers are most important, but ideally it would list:

Name of restaurant

Address

Phone

Web site if any

Year it opened (I would really like to list them chronologically)

Owner(s)/Chef(s)

Fuel source

Specialties

So, who wants to start? I'm sure if we can get a good list together in the next few days we can get it out there as a little eGullet Society promotion this weekend.

[Fat Guy]

Actually I can get this going, with many thanks to the research of Paul Lukas of the New York Sun, who did a very good, comprehensive piece on (edited to add: new) New York City barbecue places last month (May 18). I started with his list and I've been fleshing it out with additional information (and could use help!):

The Ranger Texas Barbecue

Legends Sports Bar

7104 35th Ave.

Jackson Heights, Queens

718-779-6948

Owner: Canobio Canalizo (formerly owned by Robert Pearson)

Specialties: Pork and beef ribs, pulled pork sandwich on Portuguese roll

R.U.B.

208 W. 23rd St.

212-524-4300

Owner: Paul Kirk

Specialties: Brisket, burnt ends, pastrami, duck

Bone Lick Park

75 Greenwich Ave.

212-647-9600

Owner: Nick Accardi

Specialties: Beef and pork ribs

Pig'n Out

60 Henry St.

Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

718-522-5547

Spanky's BBQ

127 W. 43rd St.

212-575-5848

www.spankysnyc.com

Smoked

103 Second Ave.

212-388-0388

www.smokednyc.com

Chef: Kenneth Collins

Bar BQ

689 Sixth Ave.

Park Slope, Brooklyn

718-499-4872

(edited to add: I have to double check, but I believe all of these places opened in 2005 except for The Ranger, and I believe all use at least some wood except for Bar BQ.)

[Jason Perlow]

Blue Smoke

Dinosaur

Pearsons

Brother's

[Note, editing in progress]

[emmapeel]

FG,

Do you mean BBQ that originates in New York? If so I'm not sure that I know any, but here are two that didn't make your list. Daisy May's history may make it a contender. (It's on their website.)

Philly's Smoke House BBQ

American/Barbecue

5-16 51st Ave (Long Island City, Queens)

718-707-0600

Discussion

Philly's BBQ, LIC Texas BBQ http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=32424

Daisy May's BBQ USA

American/Barbecue

623 Eleventh Ave. at 46th St. (Midtown/Times Square )

212-977-1500

http://www.daisymaysbbq.com

Owners: Co-Owners Chef Adam Perry Lang and Richard Gans

Opened: 2003

Reviews and Discussion

Daisy May's BBQ USA http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=26511

Virgil's Real BBQ

152 West 44th Street,

212 921-9494

http://www.virgilsbbq.com

Owners: ?

Opened: 1997

Earl's

560 Third Ave. at 37th St.

212-949-5400

http://www.earlsnyc.com

Edited June 7, 2005 by emmapeel (log)

[Fat Guy]

Emma: Sorry to be unclear. That list I started with is only brand-new places that opened in 2005. And I was thinking the overall list would be all restaurants located in New York City that serve arguably legitimate barbecue. In other words, I would draw the line at "barbecue" places that serve baked ribs and rotisserie chicken but would include any place that smokes with wood or tries to emulate that style using other technology.

[Fat Guy]

Also, great idea to include the relevant eG Forums discussion links. Let's add that as a desired field.

[emmapeel]

Great! I think I've got it.

Edited to say: If 2005 is the year, it seems you've got them all.

Edited June 7, 2005 by emmapeel (log)

[Fat Guy]

Again, sorry if I'm being unclear: I started by offering all the places that have opened in 2005. But the goal is to generate a list of all places regardless of when they opened. 2005 was my contribution, to get the ball rolling -- not the full extent of the desired list, which needs to be a collaborative effort.

[afn33282]

FatGuy,

Could I be so bold as to suggest some sort of rating/general impression of quality be added to each listing, or are people in fact only encouraged to submit restaurants that have merit?

Thanks,

Chris

[Fat Guy]

I'd suggest taking this in two phases: 1) Assemble a comprehensive list of all places in New York that arguably serve barbecue so that we can print it and hand it out this weekend. 2) Maintain a list going forward that includes links to eG Forums discussions and perhaps some impressions or quotes from those discussions.

[johnder]

I have been to Bar B-Q twice, and it has been pretty good, but I think they still are getting in the groove. They have some pretty good smoked chicken wings for an app. Their brisket and pulled pork are definately better than the ribs, which I think has a lot to do with their cooking method. They don't have wood as you mentioned, so I assume it is oven based bbq. I will stop by tomorrow or Wednesday and try to get more info, since they are right down the block from me.

[Fat Guy]

According to the Lukas article I mentioned above, Bar BQ uses some sort of contraption that was devised for restaurants like Chili's, that is supposed to give some of the effect of barbecue but without wood. That's all I know. I haven't been there and hadn't heard of it before I read Lukas.

[Daniel]

I saw the contraption used by chili's and other places on the food network a few years ago.. I dont really remember.. I think it did use either woodchips or liquid smoke.. Either way it looked really wierd and cooked it really quickly, using like pressure cooker principles.. Anyone have any info on the device.

[Mister_Cutlets]

I did a big bbq roundup in Newsday myself recently, and an even longer definitive one for the New York Law Journal Magazine. I'd be happy to post it as a word document somewhere here if you guys want it. I doubt everybody here would agree with my rankings, and even I have felt the urge to mix it up.

Anyway, no list of NY bbqs would be complete without the inclusion of Poppa Rick's Fine Foods in Woodbury, NY on the Jericho Turnpike. Among Manhattan's barbecues, Dinosaur, Blue Smoke, and RUB are all in a class by themselves. Somewhere in the middle, but capable of making amazing Q from time to time, is the Waterfront Ale House, both at its Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. The likes of Bone Lick Park and Spanky's are just above the Tony Roma level. On the other hand, it took Blue Smoke at least two years to get to a very high level, so there is hope.

If I can answer anybody's bbq questions, please let me know. And if are interested in my article in the NYLJ (a forum which I was given by the generosity of Steven, by the way) please let me know that too.

Josh

p.s. I suspect the barbecue engine you guys are talking about is the Cook-Shack oven, a cheap, electric-assisted contraption that "smokes" with only a handful of wood chips and requires no chimney, drafting, or even skill. A lot of places, such as Mo's in Queens, use it, and to ill effect. If you want to find out if a bbq is serious, ask what they are using: it should be a big cooker manufactured by one of the top firms like J&R, Southern Pride, Klose, or Oklahoma Joe's. Of course, Poppa Rick is just using a beat-up old offset smoker -- but he could never get away with that in the 212.

[Fat Guy]

This fine piece of urban barbecue journalism was written by Mister Cutlets aka Josh Ozersky for the New York Law Journal. It was published in May 2005 and is reprinted here with the permission of the copyright holder. Here you go:

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SMOKE

by Josh Ozersky for the New York Law Journal

The scent of smoke wafts heavenwards; and on the way, it bathes New York.  A city where the cloying fumes of sticky riblets at Applebee’s, and the drowning gasps of briskets boiled in onion soup mix, fill the air.  A city where hickory doesn’t grow.  A city, that is, without barbecue.

TWO YEARS ago, I wrote a survey of New York’s bbq choices, and while the picture was a sunny enough one, it was one of hope rather than celebration.  Despite its immense population of southern transplants, Caribbean immigrants, and an urban culture which habitually genuflected to anything “old school,” the greatest restaurant city in the world had less good barbecue in it than the Cincinnati airport.  It was amazing.  The only one making genuine slow-smoked southern barbecue was an English hairdresser, Robert Pearson.  And Pearson, though he produced a viable form of barbecue in his Queens restaurants and then at his Upper East Side one, was a crank who went around telling people that you didn’t need smoke to make barbecue.  (A schismatic, Pearson maintains, apart from all barbecue orthodoxy, that wood fumes and their transformative magic exist apart from smoke.  “I don’t want smoke in my barbecue,” he says, and stands by it.)

By the time of my essay, two big, well-financed, and ambitious restaurants had bet millions on barbecue in New York.  Virgil’s, a sister operation to Ollie’s and Carmine’s, produced convincing simulcra of real barbecue from different regions of the country.  Mentored in the smoky arts by Kansas City’s “Baron of Barbecue,” Paul Kirk, their ribs, pork and brisket were properly pink around the edge, indicating a more-than-temporary exposure to wood fumes.  That was more than you could say for Blue Smoke, Danny Meyers’ opulent and much-publicized venture.  Due to what we later found out to be a mechanical flaw in the restaurant’s smoke-ventilation system, the meat had no intimate acquaintance with smoke.  (It would be more accurate to say that they were on congenial but distant terms.)  A year or so later, Blue Smoke was on its way to implementing the lessons of its own mentor, Memphis in May pork champion Mike Mills.  Both restaurants were coming from different places.  Blue Smoke went for a kindler, gentler applewood taste, befitting Mills’ crowd-pleasing competition style; and Virgil’s seasoned their meats much more aggressively, following the advice of Kirk, a spice guru with a gift for dry rubs. 

Since then, almost a dozen restaurants have opened, and many more are on the way.  What follows is a guide to the best, in ranked order.  But first, we must ask ourselves:

What is Barbecue?

I turn to no less an authority than the United States Department of Agriculture, whose dutiful agents have taken the trouble to define barbecue in terms of almost poetic specificity.  Let us, in fact, put this decree in strophic form.  Barbecue, says the USDA, must be

cooked by

the direct action

of dry heat

resulting from the burning of hard wood

or hot coals thereof

for a sufficient period of time

to assume the usual characteristics of a barbecued article,

which includes

the formation of

a brown crust on the surface

and the rendering of surface fat.

The weight of the cooked meat shall not exceed

70% of the weight of the fresh, uncooked meat.

70%!  A stringent standard indeed.  Sadly, Bush-era deregulation has allowed a lobbyist’s pen to strike out this longstanding, normative decree.  But it still stands as the best definition of what BBQ is all about:  not rubs, nor spices, nor whimsically-named hot sauces, nor obstreperous chutneys and tapenades, but the elemental and unchanging effect of smoke on meat.  The plump and pale exterior, white and lifeless, changes to a an appetizing umber and mahogany sheen, and its flabby tissue melts away in rivulets of waste.  As it breaks down, its inner self emerges, a porky or beefy or lamby essence elevated and glorified.  In great barbecue, the fat (which carries all the meat’s flavor) takes on a smokiness that enhances and clarifies the flavor behind it; for that reason, fatty meats (like brisket and pork shoulder) make the best barbecue.  It’s nice if there’s something tasty on the outside, like a sweet glaze or a relatively neutral spice bouquet; but these are mere epiphenomena.  They matter as little in the final accounting as a miser’s penny in the poorbox, or the forgotten gown worn once by a buried beauty.  What matters about barbecue is the smoke.  That’s the way I approach it, and that’s what I rank the Qs the way I do.

1.Dinosaur BBQ  646 131st St. Manhattan, 212-694-1777

For someone who looks for smoke and its salutary effects on pork, Dinosaur has to be the top barbecue in New York.  John Stage’s Syracuse operation was already an institution when he made the decision to come to New York; as a result, he has an established barbecue method that has been tested for years – albeit on an uninformed and parochial clientele.  The point is that Stage knew what he was doing:  and as a result, his three immense J&R cookers constantly produce smoky, relatively fresh barbecue of a very high caliber.  The brisket lacks the lushness of the best brisket, but you can order from the deckl, the fatty “point cut” or “second cut” which contains the richest, tenderest, and most flavorful meat.  The chicken is competent. The pulled pork is some of the city’s best, chunked more than pulled, not overly sauced, and with a fair amount of “Mr. Brown,” the blackened bark from the meat’s surface.  But the real draw here are the pork ribs, which on all my visits have been smoked to the last moment – all the collagen is gone, the muscle fibers have begun to separate, the remaining fat is caramelized, and the slightest tug is sufficient to pull it all off a shiny clean bone.  For many “q-neisseurs” this is past the point of  no return; they subscribe to the theory, propounded by KCBS judging guru Ed Roit, that a mouth-shaped indentation should remain, and that the meat should retain enough firmness to hew to the rib where it isn’t bitten away.  It’s a matter of taste, I guess.  Like the late Leonard Parker, founder of the Carnegie Deli, I believe that “if you have to chew it, you might as well eat gum”

2.Blue Smoke 116 E. 27th St.,  212-447-7733

Blue Smoke does a lot of different kinds of barbecue well.  That is their main claim to fame.  Their restaurant is beautiful and tasteful, the non-barbecue items are superb, the service is impeccable.  It’s the best restaurant among this list by a country mile.  But the use of applewood, rather than hickory, has a cost, as does the practice (used by nearly all commercial barbecues) of keeping barbecue warm in saran wrap before reheating on a grill or oven.  Still, Blue Smoke’s Callaghan masterfully essays pork ribs from three different perspectives – a “St. Louis” sparerib, dry, soft, and “marbled”; a carefully glazed “Kansas City” spare, and perfectly cooked “Memphis” baby backs, as uniformly pink as a litter of piglets.  This is bbq at its most deliciously didactic – but there isn’t any hickory there, so I have to head to Harlem.

3.Paul Kirk’s R.U.B.

At the time of writing, it’s only been open a few days.  I’m fairly confident that it will be the city’s best sooner rather than later, but for now I will give it a placeholder ranking based just on what I’ve tasted:  transcendent rib tips, the deliciously fibrous sparerib “knuckles” served in the deep south, and Kirk’s award-winning brisket, an item as established, in certain circles, as Daniel Boulud’s potato-wrapped sea bass.  This brisket has to be eaten to be believed; it’s not that far from Kirk’s competition product, which has helped him to seven world champions (although none lately.)  The brisket

burnt ends, pastrami, and rib tips have no competition in New York.  As far as the rest?

“Bring it on,” says Andrew Fischel, the brash young entrepreneur behind Paul Kirk’s R.U.B.  “We know New Yorkers are critical.  Good!  I’m bringing the greatest BBQ chef in America to New York.  We’re using Richfield Farms’ certified, dry-aged Hereford beef, Vann spices, the best of everything.  It will all be smoked fresh every day, and carved in front of the customers, just the way they do it at Katz’s.  Go ahead – judge us by any standards.  We’ll come out on top.”  Kirk himself evinces a sleepy, bulldog confidence.  “I’m not too worried about barbecue,” the Baron says.  “If I like it, so will other people.”

4.Papa Rick’s Fine Foods, Woodbury 1130 Jericho Turnpike (county line), Woodbury (no phone)

You drive along Jericho Turnpike for a while before you notice the rude, unfenced expanse of mud and stumps upon which Papa Rick’s little shack is built.  A lot of barbecue places coyly call themselves a “shack” or “hut,” but Papa Rick’s really is one.  The last time I was there some guy without a shirt was digging a hole out back; the time before that no one was around, but the shack was open, and there was still a piece of meat left in the unlocked smoker.  This primitive place, as you might suspect, produces some of the best barbecue in the Northeast. Crude, simple, and magnificent – these smoky monsters fairly burst with pork-fat flavor.  Some says his ribs are too big.  I say – too big for what?  Papa Rick’s also happens to make the best cornbread on earth.

5.Waterfront Ale House – Pearson’s Texas BBQ (tie) 155 Atlantic Avenue (Between Henry & Clinton), Brooklyn, and  (718) 522-3794 540; 2nd Avenue (Corner of 30th St), Manhattan, (212) 696-4104; 170 East 81st Street New York City  (212) 288-2700

I pair these two together because they’re both about on the same high level of barbecue mastery, but they really excel in very different directions.  “English Bob” Pearson does rigidly orthodox ribs, brisket, and pulled pork.  To some it may be a little stark; and it has even been whispered that the barbecue world has passed him by.  But his high standards and devotion to the smoky arts require that Pearson be in the pantheon.  Just make sure that you ask for “second cut” when your order brisket there.

The Waterfront Ale House, on the other hand, is creative, eclectic, fearless, experimental:  they’re the outer edge of progressive barbecue in New York.  Ralph Yedinak and Sam Barbieri will try anything in their huge Southern Pride smoker – a better barbecue engine, incidentally, that that used by most of the name barbecue restaurants in New York.  I’ve had life-changing boar ribs, “Denver cut” lamb riblets, buffalo, venison, and half a dozen other one-of-a-kind smoked meats and fishes here, not to mention an amazing pulled-pork chili.  The only reason the Waterfront, in both its Brooklyn and Kips Bay locations, isn’t ranked higher, is the relatively pedestrian quality of their pork ribs and brisket. 

Thus between the two, Pearson and the Waterfront make up a perfect barbecue.  Which, at the end of the day, is all I’ve ever asked for.

Honorable Mention: Daisy May USA BBQ, the brainchild of the gifted Adam Perry Lang, turns out some very good product, and Lang is as knowledgable and passionate as any BBQ man you are likely to meet.  But he doesn’t love smoke the way I do, and so his complexly-seasoned Q doesn’t make my panetheon.  Jake’s, in Brooklyn, purports to serve “Kansas City Barbecue,” but the presence of Paul Kirk, Kansas City’s preeminent pitman, makes their claim somewhat gratuitious.  Jake’s is still a pretty good barbecue, though.  Biscuit, also in Brooklyn, tries hard.  As does Mo’s in Jamaica, Queens; Turtle Crossing, in East Hampton; Smokin’ Al, in Bay Shore; and of course Virgil’s, still doing boffo business in Times Square, even if their Q has fallen off in recent years.

[David McDuff]

2.Blue Smoke 116 E. 27th St.,  212-447-7733

Blue Smoke does a lot of different kinds of barbecue well.  That is their main claim to fame.  Their restaurant is beautiful and tasteful, the non-barbecue items are superb, the service is impeccable.  It’s the best restaurant among this list by a country mile.  But the use of applewood, rather than hickory, has a cost, as does the practice (used by nearly all commercial barbecues) of keeping barbecue warm in saran wrap before reheating on a grill or oven.  Still, Blue Smoke’s Callaghan masterfully essays pork ribs from three different perspectives – a “St. Louis” sparerib, dry, soft, and “marbled”; a carefully glazed “Kansas City” spare, and perfectly cooked “Memphis” baby backs, as uniformly pink as a litter of piglets.  This is bbq at its most deliciously didactic – but there isn’t any hickory there, so I have to head to Harlem.

If you like mixing good tunes with your BBQ, Blue Smoke has the added advantage of being directly upstairs from one of the best small jazz clubs in the city: Jazz Standard. The full dinner and drink menu from Blue Smoke is available downstairs as well.

[juuceman]

This place gets almost no attention, yet has been around longer than (almost??) anyone else..

Tennessee Mountain

143 Spring Street (at Wooster)

212-431-3993

http://www.tnmountain.com/

1982

Hickory

Ribs

[Fat Guy]

Okay, folks. Thanks to all who posted here, and to several people who contacted me via e-mail and personal messenger, here is the list as it currently stands. I'm going to be out of town today, so could somebody (or more than one person) volunteer to push the ball uphill a bit more by filling in some of the blanks? We're missing opening dates, owners and specialties on a lot of places. This could all be fixed with about ten phone calls and/or some googling, I'm sure. And of course if there are any places missing from the list below, please add. Just to summarize, the criteria for inclusion are: 1) must be in the 5 boroughs of New York City, and 2) must serve something in the style of American regional barbecue, as opposed to grilled food or rotisserie chichen and baked ribs. I wasn't able to make the fuel source category work -- too many apples-and-oranges answers -- but a really ambitious researcher might be able to pull it off. The list couls also stand to be alphabetized or maybe sorted by date. I'll check back late tonight. Thanks.

The Ranger Texas Barbecue

Legends Sports Bar

7104 35th Ave.

Jackson Heights, Queens

718-779-6948

Opened: 2005

Owner: Canobio Canalizo (formerly owned by Robert Pearson)

Specialties: Pork and beef ribs, pulled pork sandwich on Portuguese roll

R.U.B. (Righteous Urban Barbecue)

208 W. 23rd St.

212-524-4300

Opened: 2005

Owner: Paul Kirk

Specialties: Brisket, burnt ends, pastrami, duck

Bone Lick Park

75 Greenwich Ave.

212-647-9600

Opened: 2005

Owner: Nick Accardi

Specialties: Beef and pork ribs

Pig'n Out

60 Henry St.

Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

718-522-5547

Opened: 2005

Owner:

Specialties:

Spanky's BBQ

127 W. 43rd St.

212-575-5848

Opened: 2005

Owner: Heartland Brewery

Specialties: St. Louis ribs, pulled pork sandwich

www.spankysnyc.com

Smoked

103 Second Ave.

212-388-0388

www.smokednyc.com

Opened: 2005

Owner: Keith Bullock (Tennessee Titans Linebacker)

Chef: Kenneth Collins (of Ida Mae's)

Specialties: Brisket, duck confit

Bar BQ

689 Sixth Ave.

Park Slope, Brooklyn

718-499-4872

Blue Smoke

116 E. 27th St.

212-447-7733

Opened: 2002

Owner: Danny Meyer/Union Square Hospitality Group

Chef: Kenny Callaghan

Specialties: St. Louis, Memphis, and Kansas City Ribs; Texas-Style Brisket; bourbon

www.bluesmoke.com

Pearson's Texas BBQ (formerly Stick to Your Ribs)

170 East 81st Street

(212) 288-2700

Owners: Robert Pearson and Ken Aretsky

Opened: Robert Pearson opened the original Stick to Your Ribs in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1983. He opened in Long Island City, Queens, in 1988, and later changed the name to Pearson's Texas BBQ. He sold his interest in the restaurant in 1998 and consulted for barbecue restaurants across the country. In 2003 he opened Pearson's Texas BBQ on East 81st Street in Manhattan.

Philly's Smoke House BBQ

American/Barbecue

5-16 51st Ave (Long Island City, Queens)

718-707-0600

Daisy May's BBQ USA

American/Barbecue

623 Eleventh Ave. at 46th St. (Midtown/Times Square )

212-977-1500

Opened: 2003

Owners: Co-Owners Chef Adam Perry Lang and Richard Gans

www.daisymaysbbq.com

Virgil's Real BBQ

152 West 44th Street,

212 921-9494

Opened: 1997

Owners: ?

http://www.virgilsbbq.com

Earl's

560 Third Ave. at 37th St.

212-949-5400

http://www.earlsnyc.com

Dinosaur BBQ

646 131st St.

212-694-1777

Opened: 2004

Owner: John Stage

www.dinosaurbarbque.com

Waterfront Ale House

155 Atlantic Ave., between Henry and Clinton Sts., Brooklyn

(718) 522-3794.

Owner: Sam Barbieri

Opened: 1989

Jake's Bar-B-Que

189 Columbia St., at Degraw St., Brooklyn

(718) 522-3981.

Biscuit

367 Flatbush Ave., at Sterling Place, Brooklyn

(718) 398-2227.

Poppa Rick's Fine Foods

1130 Jericho Turnpike, Woodbury, L.I.

(631) 692-6928.

Specialties: Texas-style ribs, pulled pork, brisket and gumbo

Tennessee Mountain

143 Spring Street (at Wooster)

212-431-3993

http://www.tnmountain.com/

Opened: 1982

Specialties: Ribs

[Fat Guy]

Per Jason's post above, we should also add the http://brotherjimmys.com/ places.

[Brooklyn]

Pig'n Out

60 Henry St.

Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

718-522-5547

←

This place is so bad.. even thier hot dogs are terrible. Another loser in Brooklyn Heights- no surprise.

[Jason Perlow]

Steven, do you think that Stickey's in Teaneck (which now includes Fink as an employee as he runs their catering side) qualifies for inclusion on this list? Its closer to Manhattan than some of the Brooklyn and Queens places are.

[jhlurie]

Emma: Sorry to be unclear. That list I started with is only brand-new places that opened in 2005. And I was thinking the overall list would be all restaurants located in New York City that serve arguably legitimate barbecue. In other words, I would draw the line at "barbecue" places that serve baked ribs and rotisserie chicken but would include any place that smokes with wood or tries to emulate that style using other technology.

←

Wouldn't those conditions eliminate Virgil's? Unless they are doing something I'm not aware of. I think it all depends on how generous you are with the term "emulate".

[TongoRad]

Philly's Smokehouse in LIC closed last December, and should probably be taken off the list ( unless another BBQ place took over the space.)

[Fat Guy]

Emma: Sorry to be unclear. That list I started with is only brand-new places that opened in 2005. And I was thinking the overall list would be all restaurants located in New York City that serve arguably legitimate barbecue. In other words, I would draw the line at "barbecue" places that serve baked ribs and rotisserie chicken but would include any place that smokes with wood or tries to emulate that style using other technology.

←

Wouldn't those conditions eliminate Virgil's? Unless they are doing something I'm not aware of. I think it all depends on how generous you are with the term "emulate".

←

Virgil's uses Southern Pride smokers, so I can't think of a reason to disqualify the place.

[Fat Guy]

Steven, do you think that Stickey's in Teaneck (which now includes Fink as an employee as he runs their catering side) qualifies for inclusion on this list? Its closer to Manhattan than some of the Brooklyn and Queens places are.

←

Stickey's is also BETTER than a lot of the New York places! Still, I'd be reluctant to include Stickey's without also including whatever other barbecue places exist in Northern New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island and Southern Connecticut. But later on we should definitely do a pan-regional list. One thing I'm going to try to do is put a link on the printed list handout so that people can go online and look for updates.