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 |
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