NYC Wine and Food Festival 2013: Barbecue & The Blues
The New York City Wine and Food Festival, presented by Food Network and Food & Wine, is one of the biggest gastronomic events to hit New York every year. 2013’s weekend (October 17-20) was packed with events galore ranging from intimate dinners to full-blown fêtes.
I had the pleasure of attending Barbecue and the Blues, a celebration of meaty and musical goodness at Good Units at the Hudson Hotel. Food Network’s Robert Irvine and men’s lifestyle publication Thrillist hosted the barbecue party. New York’s top culinary masterminds crafted bites made from Creekstone Farms and Sysco ingredients. No barbecue would be complete without libations (beer, Gnarly Head Wines, and Larceny and Henry McKenna whiskey) or tunes (blues maestros Sunnyside Social Club crooned from the balconies of the subterranean club).
Host Robert Irvine mingled with the crowds and feasted on the various barbecue bites offered.
Mighty Quinn’s came out full force with its beef brisket. The heartiness of the slow-smoked beef was offset by the pert flavor of pickled cucumbers and Fresno chiles. The restaurant’s burnt end baked beans is a fan favorite (and mine as well). When there’s more meat than beans, it has to be a winner.
Fatty ‘Cue also whipped out beef brisket sliders, the slices of unctuous meat complemented by pickled onions and cilantro atop plush buns.
The offal smoky sloppy joes at Duck’s Eatery elevated awful school cafeteria food to much tastier levels; it amazed me how much flavor Will Horowitz and his team were able to extract from the beef hearts, lungs, and tongues. I was a particular fan of the team’s party mix of “Deez Nuts” (Benton’s bacon, Bing cherries, Cocoa Rice Krispies, and cashews): It had just the right touches of savory, hickory smoky, and sweet.
Chef Simon Glenn launched Tchoup Shop as a pop-up restaurant in 2009, offering New Yorkers an authentic New Orleans backyard BBQ experience. The menu of classic and reinterpreted New Orleans’ cuisine thrilled ex-pat Louisianans and New Yorkers alike, and the team operates 7 days a week at Heavy Woods Bar in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. We had the pleasure of grubbing on BBQ pork belly and spicy jumbo lump crab sliders (served with brisket and duck liver boudin), as well as beef brisket and duck liver boudin balls with handmade Creole mustard.
I first ripped my teeth into Dinosaur Bar-B-Que’s brisket at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party a couple summers ago. The sandwiches at this event were just as satisfying now as it was then. You know it’s legit: founder and owner John Stage began his barbeque career in 1983 when he sawed a 55 gallon drum in half and sold barbeque on the road at biker meets, fairs, and festivals. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que now has locations throughout New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Joe and MissesDoe dished up beef short ribs marinated in a smoky chili-garlic sauce. A helping of pickled vegetable slaw cut through the richness of the dish.
Robert Irvine prepared a unique twist on an Italian classic with his BBQ cannelloni. The pasta shell was stuffed with beef brisket, braised beef cheek, charred oxtail, and ricotta; smoked tomato chutney and super-seasoned chicharones finished the dish.
Philadelphia sweetheart Percy Street Barbecue showed up for the party, too! Chef and partner Erin O’Shea highlighted her Texan barbecue expertise with moist brisket and pickled green tomato sliders.
No goose here: Rogue & Canon’s “Duck, Duck, Pig” featured smoked duck sausage, pork rinds, duck egg gribiche, and beer BBQ sauce on a potato roll with potato salad. The dish was an excellent contender for any picnic.
Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue crafted a Brooklyn Dip for festival-goers: a sliced tri-tip sandwich with smoked beef au jus. What really hit it out of the park was the house-cured mushroom salad; I could have gobbled up a bowl of that alone.
The most thrilling event happened at the end of the evening. With the king of making the impossible possible in the room, the team at Thrillist proposed a challenge to Irvine.
Irvine’s task? Make enough barbecue sauce on the spot for every person at the event tonight.
Irvine took it in stride, immediately getting into “Dinner: Impossible” mode and soliciting six volunteers from the audience to help him collect ingredients.
Cans of tomato sauce, bottles of bourbon, canisters of paprika, and the like were dropped into the gargantuan graduated cylinder. This was perhaps the most memorable and messy activity I have ever experienced.
We did indeed bring barbecue sauce home. Barbecue and the Blues was an incredible showcase of New York’s finest and I hope to join in on the fun next year!
— Nicole Woon