Tag: Bbq

Rib King NYC 2024

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Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of the Summer season and what better way to start the session than with a huge BBQ event.

On Saturday, May 25, Food and Jimmy Carbone who have hosted such foodie events as Ciderfeast, Pig Island, Brisket King and Bowl of ‘Zole held their annual Rib King BBQ festival.

The event took place at Industry City, a repurposed warehouse district located at 68 34 Street near the Brooklyn waterfront.

The event brough many BBQ establishments and their pitmasters who served their signature version of BBQ along with a couple of ethnic versions as well.

On hand were cider from Barrika and Romilly and spirits from New Riff, Fort Hamilton and Brooklyn Gin.

It was an afternoon spent in a smoke-filled courtyard sampling some very, very tasty meat.

Some of the producers:

Iron & Oak CateringTaste of Surabaya
Kam Rai ThailandMorgon’s
Smoke Sweets BBQThe Dancing Pig
Empire BBQFire & Smoke
Blue SmokeArchie Moore’s
Dinosaur BBQ

Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Fest NYC 2023

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The Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival is a multi-city food tour of travelling pit masters showing off their signature BBQ offerings. On July 8th, the 13th annual festival arrived in New York City.

The festivals motto is Brew it. Taste it. Sip it. Pork it.

Along with the pitmasters Beer, Bourbon and canned cocktail purveyors were on hand to help wash down all that BBQ.

The event was held at the multi building industrial space at Industry City located on the Brooklyn waterfront at 268 36th Street. Now that the Brooklyn Expo event space has been taken off the market, it seems that this has become the go to event space for these type of events.

It was a hot and sweltering Satuday afternoon, perfect for strolling around the outdoor courtyard surrounded by fire pits of roasting meats.

Unlike the Rib King BBQ event which focused on, well, ribs, this event featured a lot of sliced meat. I spent a lot of time at the cheeseburger stand hosted by Gotham Burger which were delicious with a foray into chicken tacos and sliced lamb with chimichurri.

I did attend a Garisson Brothers Bourbon Old Fashion seminar.

Whiskey I sampled:

LarcenyUncle Nearest
BarrelKoval
Buzzard’s RoostGarrison Bros
Knob CreekBasil Hayden
TaconicFilibuster
Maker’s MarkFour Roses
Short BarrelOak & Eden

Rib King NYC 2023

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The Rib King BBQ festival was held on Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 27.

It was another food event curated by Food Karma and Jimmy Carbone that have also hosted other foodie events such as Pig Island, Brisket King and Bowl of ‘Zole.

The event was held at Industry City at 220 36th Street in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Industry City is a complex of warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront that have been repurpose into retail and commercial spaces.

With many eateries, a brewery, a sake brewery and a distillery, there were many opportunities to have something to eat and drink and on this sunny holiday weekend. The complex was packed with all sorts of people including families milling around and enjoying the day.

There was no way better to spend the unofficial start of Summer than by strolling amongst the pitmasters with the smoke of cooking ribs in the air.

Ribs providers:

Blue Smoke

Kam Rai Thai

Sands Jerk Hut

Taste of Surabaya

Pig Beach

Big Bob Gibson

Smoke Sweats BBQ

Empire BBQ

Bears Smokehouse

Brisket King 2021

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On April 21st I attended the 9th edition of Brisket King NYC. It was another food event presented by Jimmy Carbone and Food Karma Project which are responsible for many fun foodie events including Pig Island, Pozole & Mezcal and CiderFeast.

The event was held at Pig Beach, a BBQ restaurant located at 480 Union Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn with an outdoor patio overlooking the beautiful Gowanus canal.

This BBQ event focused not surprisingly, on Brisket which is one of the least tender cuts of beef. That means low and slow is the way to go.

All the pitmasters had their own proprietary spice rub that they used on their Brisket. A couple of interesting outliers were a “Jewish Style” brisket stew and a brisket sandwich made with donuts instead of bread. Surprisingly it worked well since the sweetness of the donuts paired well with the rich fattiness of the brisket.

On this chilly Spring afternoon, storm clouds looked like they might pour down rain on the outdoor event but the BBQ gods smiled down upon us and the event went on rain free with plenty of people enjoying food, drink and good company.

Participants

Avellino Family BBQCentral City BBQ
Blue SmokeChef Jesse Concepts
Carlitos TacosFriends of Firefighters
Juicy Lucy BBQHill Country BBQ
PulkiesSmokehouse Tailgate Grill

Beer & Cider

Bronx BreweryIndian Ladder Farms
Austin EastcidersRomily

Spirits

Knob CreakJim Beam
LaphroaigOld Overholt
Bowmore

Pig Island 2020

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The 11th annual Pig Island Festival was held on Saturday, September 12th. It was presented by Food Karma which hosts several foodie events throughout the year.

Pig Island is an annual BBQ pork festival which pitted over 20 Chefs, Pitmasters and Vendors in a competition using locally sourced pork to create the best pork dish of the day.  

This year the event change location from it’s long time spot in Red Hook Brooklyn to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center located at 1000 Richmond Terrace Road in Staten Island which is a 10 minute bus ride from the ferry terminal. 

The Snug Harbor Cultural Center is an 83 acre parkland. The home of a 19th century charitable rest home for sailors, it’s been converted to a park open to the public and contains museums, an arts center, an urban farm and several gardens.

It was a “socially distant picnic” where there was more than enough open space at the event to comply with the social distancing mandates with more than enough room to walk around while sampling the food and drink, lay down a blanket and enjoy the beautiful late Summer day. 

For the adults there was beer from Flagship Brewery and Kills Boro Brewing Co., ciders from Austin East Ciders and Romilly Cider and whiskey from Knob Creek and Laphroiag.

 

 

Chefs and Pitmasters:

 

Tank Jackson Matt Fisher
Rodrigo Duarte Cenobio Canalizo
Mario Chape Mike Lape
Jesse James Jase Franklyn
Mike Petrovitch Luis Riviera Jr.
Joe Tacoronte John Fucks
Pete Calascione Vinny Ferrante
Mathew Worgul Leland Avellino

 

 

Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Fest 2020

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The 10th annual Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival was held on Saturday January 18th.  It was a change of venue this year with the event moving from The Tunnel in Manhattan to the Brooklyn Expo Center at 72 Noble Street in Greenpoint.

The motto of the festival was “Brew it. Taste it. Sip it. Pork it”. It was an all afternoon event of “southern fried good time” consisting of whiskey, beer and BBQ. At the event there was a “Beast Cage” serving exotic meats and a “Shrine to Swine” for whole pork worship. Various seminars were held throughout the afternoon. 

Since this is one of the only real BBQ events in the city, the impending snowstorm didn’t stop the barbecue connoisseurs from lining up outside the venue to get in. I was able to sample a wide range of ‘cue including ribs, brisket, pastrami, wings and pulled pork sliders.

It was an all-American whiskey list with most producers pouring a Bourbon and a Rye though I felt not as many as in past events. Craft beers and hard ciders rounded out the beverage list. I was able to attend the Bulleit seminar. My favorite whiskey of the afternoon was Basil Hayden’s Dark Rye, it was bold and smooth. 

 

Producers I sampled from:

Bulleit Maker’s Mark
Elijah Craig Larceny
Four Roses Knob Creek
Basil Hayden’s Koval
George Dickel I.W. Harper
Deadwood Balcones

 

 

Pig Island 2019

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The 10th annual Pig Island BBQ fest was held on September 7th.

The event was held on the waterfront at Erie Basin Park in Red Hook Brooklyn. The neighborhood of Red  Hook is an old industrial waterfront area that in the 1990’s Life magazine called “one of the worst neighborhoods in the United States”. That has changed as the neighborhood has been going to a resurgence. Box stores such as IKEA and Fairway have made their way into the neighborhood and many of the warehouses have been converted to galleries, artists lofts, breweries and distilleries.

The event was produced by the Food Karma Project helmed by Jimmy Carbone who along with Josh Ozersky conceived Meatopia back in 2010. That wanted a farm to table event using pigs from small farmers.

With the cancellation of the Big Apple BBQ block party this year, this event was the premier bbq event of the year in New York and “the last great bbq event of the Summer”.

I attended after a two year hiatus. The park is on the waterway with expansive views of the harbor most of the way around. It was a big outdoor bbq with people and families spreading blankets on the grass while strolling from vendor to vendor.

Since my last visit more spirit vendors were in attendance this time around. Some of the interesting ones was Irish Whiskey from Kilbeggan and Tyrconnell which had a wide range of whiskey styles that I didn’t think Irish whiskey had. There were some nice single malts from Laphroaig, Auchentoshan and Bowmore, a couple of nice rye from Ragtime Rye and Knob Creek was on hand to make a smoked to order Old Fashioned.

When general admission was let in some of the food lines grew long, it seems that there’s a hierarchy of bbq vendors and some of the lines were longer than others.

 

BBQ to be sampled: 

Puerco a lo Cubano Vietnamese Larb
The Foxy Burger Mixiotes de Puerco
Apple Cider Brined Hog Pulled Pork Tacos
Puerco Ahumado Smoked Chorizo
Half Pig Porcetta BBQ Pigtail
Pulled Pork Bacon Cups Roasted Pernil

 

 

Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Fest 2019

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Brew it. Taste it. Sip it. Pork it. That’s the motto of the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival which is a pork-centric, American multi-city tour that began in New York City on January 26th.

The event was held at The Tunnel, a former railroad freight terminal turned nightclub now an event space located at 220 12th avenue at West 28th Street in Manhattan. The festival promised “60+ beer, 40+ Bourbon and lots of BBQ”, though it was an all-American whiskey list that included whiskey other than Bourbon. Beer and hard cider were also served to help wash down all the bbq. Music was spun by DJ Flava.

There were two sessions that day and I attended the “whole hog picking” session in the evening.

 

Seminars:

Bulleit hosted by Adam Geissler

Bourbon, Rye, Barrel Strength, 10yr Bourbon.

Makers Mark hosted by Alexa Amendognine

Bourbon, Makers 46, Private Select.

 

Others I sampled:

Koval (Chicago) Millet, Rye, Bourbon, Four Grain.

Virginia Distillery (Virginia) Port Cask Highland Single Malt Whisky, Chardonnay Cask Single Malt Whisky.

Deadwood (South Carolina) Rye, Straight Bourbon.

Buffalo Trace Distillery (Kentucky) Straight Bourbon, Eagle Rare Straight Bourbon.  

Balcones (Texas) Single Malt, 100°, Brimstone, Baby Blue.

Elijah Craig (Kentucky) Small Batch Bourbon.

Four Roses (Kentucky) Straight Bourbon, Small Batch, Single Barrel.

George Dickel (Tennessee) Rye, Sour Mash.

 

 

 

Bourbon, Brew & BBQ

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Summer is getting into high gear, wine events slack off but there are still food and drink events to attend. This past Saturday I attended the Summer session of Bourbon, Brew & BBQ. The event featured 30+ American beers, 15+ American Rye and Bourbon with BBQ bites to go along with all that.

The event was hosted at Route 66 Smokehouse restaurant at 46 Stone Street in the financial district of lower Manhattan. Stone Street is one of the oldest streets in New York and the first paved street in New Amsterdam. It was also the site of the first commercial brewery in North America. It’s now a historical district with restaurants and outdoor seating on the cobblestone streets. It’s a very popular spot during the warm months with people eating and drinking outside.

At these beer fests I usually like to try the stouts and porters or any of the funky (sour) beers I can find. At this event that had a good selection of American beer but in keeping with the season they were on the light style.

 

Some whiskey I sampled:

Jim Beam Double Oaked Bourbon (My favorite of the day)

Jim Beam Black Extra Aged Bourbon

OYO Michelone  Reserve Bourbon

OYO Single cask Rye

Black Dirt Single Barrel Bourbon (Made in upstate NY with locally sourced ingrediants)

Black Dirt 3 year Bourbon

Redemption High Rye Bourbon

Bulleit Bourbon

Bulleit Rye

Dickel Tennessee Sour Mash 8 year

Dickel Rye

Templeton Rye 4 year

Templeton Rye 6 year

FEW Rye

FEW Bourbon

BBQ Bites

Billy’s pork belly lettuce wraps

Pork on a fork

Sarah’s famous wings

Deviled eggs

Buttery pretzels

 

 

Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Fest 2017

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The 8th annual Beer, Bourbon & BBQ festival kicked off its multi city tour this past Saturday, January 28th in Manhattan. Their motto is, Brew it, Taste it. Sip it. Pork it. It was a day of “down home Southern fried good time” to benefit the Spirit of Hope children foundation. There was plenty of beer, cider, whiskey and bbq for the crowd in addition to a DJ, cigars and beer games.  The event was held this year as in last at The Tunnel event space at 608 West 28th Street on the far West side of Manhattan.

After feasting on ribs, chicken and pork belly it was time to try several ryes, bourbons and ciders. Of the ciders that I tried, Angry Orchard wooden spoon was the most interesting, bone dry with wood notes on the finish.

 

Seminar: High End Whiskeys

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey Single Barrel-Barrel Proof

Booker’s Bourbon Barrel Strength

Wild Turkey Bourbon Master’s Keep 17 Year

Bib & Tucker Bourbon

Jefferson’s Bourbon Ocean Aged

Sagamore Spirit Rye