Bon Appétit deputy editor Andrew Knowlton spends 24 hours at Franklin Barbecue starting out at 6:00 am and meeting fans of the restaurant who have been waiting since 4:00 am to be the first in line. He spends the rest of the day learning how they barbecue meat so delicious the brisket has sold out every day since Franklin’s opened.
bbq
Linkdown: 12/28/16
– A pretty extensive rundown of the BBQ Year in Review, courtesy of Robert F. Moss
Up next: @mossr‘s BBQ Year in Review— the biggest barbecue trends and stories of 2016 https://t.co/uqp1dqzoTj
— BBQ Hub (@thebbqhub) December 28, 2016
– Much like Cleveland before it, New Orleans is searching for a barbecue style of its own
“The history of barbecue in New Orleans sort of parallels the relationship between New Orleans and the South,” says author Lolis Eric Elie. “We are Southern, geographically, but in terms of culture, our Southernness is rightly questioned.” In 1994, when he and photographer Frank Stewart were conducting research for their book Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country, neither his hometown of New Orleans nor anywhere else in Louisiana was included.
– South Carolina pitmaster/engineer Howard Conyers is doing a South Carolina whole hog at an event near Shreveport, Louisiana on January 29
– TMBBQ ranks all of the Texas barbecue sides, and they like a vinegar cole slaw as much as folks in Western North Carolina do with our barbecue slaw
– Speaking of Texas sides
For anyone who’s ever wondered why pickles, onions, and white bread are barbecue staples. https://t.co/3or6gHCdf9 pic.twitter.com/8gqdTV5YgX
— Texas Monthly (@TexasMonthly) December 22, 2016
Linkdown: 12/21/16
– Daniel Vaughn on “big city barbecue” (don’t call it “craft barbecue”)
The foundation of big city barbecue is a focus on premium quality meats, such as prime grade beef from boutique brands like Creekstone and 44 Farms. There’s a reverence toward slices of fatty brisket served without sauce. A big city meat cutter might cringe at the idea of chopping their beautiful briskets, looking down on the staple of Texas barbecue that is the chopped beef sandwich. The ribs and pulled pork (and trust me, there will be pulled pork) will likely be identified by breeds like Duroc or Berkshire. Its hard to make a decent profit, even when charging $20 per pound for that prime—or in some cases Akaushi (also known as Texas Wagyu)—brisket, so the menus are diversified with cheaper items like pork shoulder and turkey breast. You won’t find big city barbecue joint that’s a single meat specialist.
– A Pakistani website has the NC Historic Barbecue Trail on its list of best trips for foodies around the world
– A review of D.G. Martin’s book released earlier this year, North Carolina’s Roadside Eateries
– Includes brisket from Franklin Barbecue at #1
The 10 best things @dannychau ate in 2016 https://t.co/UytphTyItx
— The Ringer (@ringer) December 20, 2016
– Grant and Marie give Hillbilly Willy’s Bar-B-Que in Chattanooga another try, a place that uses Memphis-style dry rub on their ribs
– Mighty Quinn’s opens its latest outpost in…Manilla, Philippines?
– BBQ Hub has a list of whole hog barbecue restaurants across the southeast and even in Brooklyn
– The more you know
Who invented Brunswick stew? Many states claim it but history is on the side of Virginia as the true originator https://t.co/MOtGRrYkQf
— BBQ Hub (@thebbqhub) December 14, 2016
Hometown Bar-B-Que – Brooklyn, NY
Name: Hometown Bar-B-Que
Date: 12/2/16
Address: 454 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Order: ½ pound pulled pork. ½ pound brisket, ½ pound lamb belly, beef rib, medium queso mac and cheese, medium collards (link to menu)
Price: ~$90 (for 3)
Speedy: NO SLEEP TIL BROOKLYN. That’s right, Monk and I took a trip to the big city to play hipster for the weekend, so what’s the first thing on our agenda? Barbecue, of course!
Monk: And not just any barbecue, but artisanal wood smoked barbecue in Red Hook! Friend of the blog Johnny Fugitt actually ranked Hometown Bar-B-Que #2 in his book, The 100 Best Barbecue Restaurants in America. I wanted to check it out last fall when we spent 8 nights in New York but it just didn’t pan out. Mostly because we realized that Red Hook is just not so convenient to get to whether by Uber (much less on fixies, another approved transportation method), whether you are in Manhattan or even in a different part of Brooklyn (as we hipsters found out staying in Williamsburg that weekend).
Speedy: So we rolled up to Hometown, a standalone building near the Upper Bay. The atmosphere is supercool for a couple hipsters like us. It definitely reminded me of a Texas joint, with a cafeteria-style line, a separate bar, and a second dining room complete with a band setup (so hipster!). Monk and I immediately went to work and ordered a little bit of most things on the menu. The meat was cut and weighed right in front of us and we were good to go.
Monk: Well, good to go in the sense that they charged us a buttload of money just to get a decent amount of barbecue. But I guess that’s kind of touristy of us to complain about high prices in New York, so nevermind, back to hipster mode…
Speedy: The first thing to discuss is definitely the beef rib. It was definitely quite the piece of meat. It was seasoned well, providing some bark on the outside, and was cooked to perfection – tender but not overly so. Overall, this was a great start!
Monk: This was my first real beef rib and I agree that it was pretty great, though of course I don’t have the frame of reference that Rudy or even Speedy have. As for the pulled pork, it was fine minus the small pool of grease it was sitting in. This got more and more unappetizing as our lunch went on. I would rank it last of the meats we tried but it was still above average.
Speedy: The brisket definitely exceeded expectations. Monk and I got a cut off a fresh brisket, complete with extra outside.
Monk: Real recognize real…
Speedy: …It was oh-so-peppery and delicious. Not overly seasoned at all – just a really good brisket. The only drawback is that it was a little on the fatty side (we weren’t asked fatty or lean), but I’m nitpicking. This is one thing I’ll be ordering again if I ever find myself in Red Hook again.
Monk: Why would you find yourself in Red Hook again? Pre-gaming for a Bon Iver show or something?
The most interesting meat we ordered was the lamb belly, which was served pulled similar to the pork. In fact, if you weren’t paying attention it was hard to tell the difference between the two just by looking – just a slight variation in brown. It was very, very good albeit again I had nothing to compare it to. The texture varied slightly from the pulled pork and it was more succulent maybe? This being my first time, I’m not doing a good job describing it but I would order it again even if it did have the same pool of grease issue as the pork.
Speedy: I thought the lamb belly was excellent. I was expecting it to look/taste more like pork belly (the only belly with which I’m familiar), but it ended up being quite different. There was definitely a lot of flavor, some vinegar tang, and a little sweetness. I think it tied the brisket for me for my favorite meat of the day (something I try to pick out at the end of every day).
Monk: For a couple of wannabe hipsters like us, Hometown Bar-B-Que was worth the trip from Williamsburg and is now my favorite barbecue joint in New York over Arrogant Swine, Mighty Quinn’s, and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (still so mad about The Smoke Joint, which came up again during this trip).
Speedy: Totally agree, Monk. Overall, I haven’t been uber impressed with NYC ‘cue, but you could drop Hometown in the middle of Lockhart and it would pass just fine.
Ratings:
Atmosphere – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Brisket – 4.5 hogs
Beef Rib – 4 hogs
Lamb belly – 4.5 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs
