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Photos: Midwood Smokehouse’s First Annual July Fourth Rib Eating Challenge

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Kevin (father of Claire) of Claire’s Army
The contestants getting the rules
The food comes out…
Here’s what each contestant has to eat
The competition begins
Brad of Unknown Brewing
The eventual winner
Action shot of Brad
Joe Mencetti, the winner in approx 5 minutes
The aftermath of the winner’s plate
The whole aftermath

This past Fourth of July, I was invited to be a guest judge for Midwood Smokehouse’s First Annual Rib Eating Challenge benefiting Claire’s Army at their Central Avenue location. First off, Claire’s Army is a very wonderful charity that benefits families of kids with cancer. Here is their mission from the website:

Claire’s Army strives to act as God’s hands and feet by providing support for families fighting childhood cancer. Through an established network of resources we will support the families’ daily responsibilities, allowing them to put their time and focus on their child.

So yeah, definitely a worthy cause. I also learned at this event that FS Food Group (the company headed by restaurateur Frank Scibelli behind Midwood Smokehouse, Mama Ricotta’s, and Paco’s Tacos) supports Claire’s Army by donating (I believe) two meals per week for each family that Claire’s Army supports. Very cool. If you are interested in joining Claire’s Army and support that wonderful organization, that link again is here.

As for the challenge itself, each contestant had to eat a full rack of ribs, 10 ounce sides of mac and cheese, collards, and beans, and a half moon of watermelon within 30 minutes. The first to finish would win $1000 in gift cards to Midwood Smokehouse. Little did I know that the eventual winner, a man named Joe Mencetti who drove down from Connecticut specifically for this event, would finish in about 5 minutes destroying the rest of the competition. Brad from Unknown Brewing and another contestant seated beside Joe were not too far behind, but I’d say the rest of the 10 or so contestants were not even close.

Thanks again to Midwood Smokehouse for asking us to participate in a fun event for a great cause. I believe they aim to make this an annual event each July Fourth, and we hope to continue to be invited back to help out in any way we can.

–Monk

Photo Gallery: Crossroads ‘Cue Supper with Robb Walsh at Midwood Smokehouse

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NoDa CAVU to start the supper
Menu
Frito Pie and Campechana
Beef rib, off the bone and on
Barbacoa tacos
Duo of mini pies, sweet potato and lemon meringue
Autographed copy of Barbecue Crossroads by Robb Walsh

This past Wednesday night, I had the good fortune of attending another barbecue dinner at Midwood Smokehouse (who previously hosted Skylight Inn’s Sam Jones in November 2013), this time with special guest James Beard Award-winning author Robb Walsh. Just like last time around NoDa Brewing (and their head brew master Chad) was in the house, pairing each course with one of their beers. And as it turns out, Ed Mitchell happened to be there too! Now, I was planning to go to this event as soon as I got word of the event but then lucky for me, a marketing coordinator for Midwood reached out to the Barbecue Bros and offers a free press pass. Done and done.

The theme of the night was Tex-Mex, a subject of which Robb Walsh certainly is no stranger – his books include The Tex-Mex Grill and
Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook, The Tex-Mex Cookbook, Nuevo Tex-Mex, and…well, you get the idea. And as I would come to find out over the course of the night, Walsh is no stranger to owner Frank Scibelli – he has consulted on both Midwood Smokehouse as well as his Tex-Mex concept Paco’s Taco’s & Tequila. Seeing as how I have yet to make it back out to Texas in several years (a fact which Speedy and Rudy like to hold over my head), the prospect of a Tex-Mex style barbecue menu intrigued me.

The first course paired tortilla chips with three salsas (one of which was a revelation, unfortunately I can’t recall exactly which one), Frito Pie (a delight which I hadn’t yet experienced in all my years), and campechana (basically, a Tex-Mex shrimp cocktail) with NoDa’s CAVU blonde ale. I must say, if there weren’t two more courses coming, I could have eaten just Frito Pie all night long. Damn, it was that good.

Beef rib and barbacoa served with tortillas highlighted the second course with NoDa’s Black IPA, Midnight Madness. The beef rib was served both on and off the bone, and I came dangerously close to taking the entire bone for myself before realizing that oops, I should actually be sharing with the table instead of being a greedy freaking gus. But man, that thing was smoked to perfection and I’d be curious to see whether Midwood would ever offer it as a special – Frank Scibelli seemed to be taking an informal poll as to whether folks would ever buy it or not, so we shall see.

Finally, we ended the night with a duo of mini pies and Jam Session Pale Ale. Thankfully, the pies were indeed mini and I didn’t have to stuff myself with a big dessert (plus another beer) after the big meal. All in all, the food in each course was new and interesting and fantastic.

For the Sam Jones dinner, I recall them having four courses and I felt like we were constantly rushing to finish the food in each course and chugging beer. This time around, the three courses provided a nice balance between eating and drinking and actually being able to breathe between courses, converse with our table neighbors, and finish beers. So, whether done on purpose or just happenstance, well done by Midwood on the change.

After dinner, I was able to speak briefly with Ed Mitchell and his son/business partner Ryan. I mentioned how much I loved his barbecue and was looking forward to what they would do next. After a period of time they will be making an announcement on what they’ll be doing next, but in the meantime it sounds like he might be doing some things with Frank at Midwood. Logistically, they would have to figure out how Midwood’s Texas-manufactured offset smoker would jive with Mitchell’s brand of eastern NC whole hog barbecue cooked over direct coals, but the prospect of Ed Mitchell smoking barbecue in Charlotte is just too exciting for me to handle.

I also got a chance to briefly speak with Midwood’s Pitmaster Matt Berry and relayed to him and Frank the nice post from our meetup with Marie, Let’s Eat! posted earlier this week. Really nice guys, those two. I gotta say, I love these barbecue dinners (which benefit the Southern Foodways Alliance) and hope Midwood continues to have them when the right occasion presents itself. As long as they keep doing them you will find me there, press pass or not.

–Monk

Recap: 2015 Super Bowl Smoke

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If you are a longtime reader of our blog (do those exist?) then you will recall that for the past two Super Bowls, Speedy and I have taken the opportunity to step out from behind our blogger notepads and laptops for the Monk family annual Super Bowl party. Two years ago, Speedy and I competed head to head in a smoke off of pork butts and wings (in which I edged him out just slightly). Last year, we tackled our first brisket. This year, turns out Speedy was going to be out of town for the Super Bowl so I would have to go my own way (go my own way).

I started the night before by rubbing the meat with the “Luv Rub” that I picked up from Boone’s Bar-B-Que Kitchen. In year’s past I had mixed my own rub but decided to go the easy way this year. Besides the ease of simply sprinkling from the bottle, the rub itself enhanced the meat nicely.

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In terms of prep, that was basically it until my alarm woke me up at 5am to start the fire. In the smoke off two years ago, I didn’t get the fire going and get the meat on until close to 9am and felt like the pork butt could have used another hour or two so I wasn’t going to make that mistake this year. By 5:45 I had the meat indirectly set over the coals and had a pretty good smoke going. This time I decided to smoke it fat side up just to see if I noticed a difference.

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Outside of a brief nap around 6:30am, I stayed up and checked the temperature every 20-30 minutes for the next 11 or so hours. At around 4:30 the meat temperature had reached 190 degrees and it had a good bark, so I pulled the meat off the grill and let it sit for about an hour before chopping.

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After I chopped the butt I added some homemade Lexington dip to the pan and served to the party. I was really happy with how it came out and thought the rub from Boone’s worked out really well. I’m not sure that I noticed a huge difference smoking the butt with the fat side up, but it didn’t screw anything up so I would do it that way again. I also got some really good feedback from the crowd at the party.

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Once again, I was really happy with how it turned out and besides that, it was a lot of fun to smoke it on my own. I can’t wait until the next opportunity to try it again.

–Monk

Photos: Meeting the Marie, Let’s Eat! Crew at Midwood Smokehouse

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Last weekend, Speedy and I were fortunate enough to meet up with Grant of Marie, Let’s Eat! (plus the rest of his crew) at Barbecue Bros favorite Midwood Smokehouse. You see, he was kind enough to reach out to us a few months back since they were planning to do one of their crazily awesome day trips to the Carolinas (I don’t want to spoil it too much, but in addition to Midwood they also stopped by Mac’s, two seafood restaurants in Fort Mill, as well as a barbecue restaurant and ice cream place in Gastonia – those chapters should be posting on this blog in the coming weeks), and we were more than happy to meet him at our favorite barbecue restaurant in Charlotte.

In addition to eating barbecue (for the record: Grant – pork; Speedy – burnt ends; Monk – brisket; with some sharing of course), we talked barbecue road trips, discussed Atlanta and Charlotte, got a brief pit tour by an associate manager, and stopped by Lunchbox Records after we finished up. All in all, a pretty great way to spend a couple of hours with some new friends. I’m not sure when I’ll be in Atlanta next, but whenever that is I hope to share another barbecue meal with Grant.

–Monk