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Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque – New York, NY

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Name: Mighty Quinn’s
Date: 2/15/14
Address: 103 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
Order: 1 lb pulled pork, single serving brisket, single serving sausage, single serving spare ribs, slaw, sweet potato casserole, burnt end baked beans, and a growler of Lagunitas Pilsner (link to menu)
Price: ~$94 (for four)

In the middle of NYC’s East Village, there lies an honest-to-goodness barbecue joint that cooks over wood – breathe in the glorious smoke when you enter and check the stack on the shelves as you wait to order – and on a snowy winter night after (several) drinks with friends, Mighty Quinn’s was the perfect suggestion. I first heard of Mighty Quinn’s when it was named one of Steven Raichlen’s 10 Best BBQ & Grill Restaurants of 2013 (fun fact from that article: it is co-run by a former Wallflowers drummer), so naturally when my wife booked us a trip to NYC for my birthday I knew I wanted to get there..

Mighty Quinn’s has a fast casual set up and after entering the restaurant, patrons line up at the end of the narrow-ish 65 seat room. From there you work your way down the cafeteria-style line, ordering meat first before sides and finally beer (being able to order growlers is a stroke of genius). There are plenty of meat options to choose from and in addition to what we ordered you also have the choice of burnt ends, a brontosaurus rib (at nearly 2 lbs, it is recommended for two), wings, or a half chicken.

The pork has a nice bark and is pulled freshly in front of you as you order but is then unfortunately automatically doused with their house sauce which is vinegar-based but is sweeter than nearly any sauce you’d find in North Carolina. I liked the pork a lot but would definitely order it with sauce on the side next time.

The brisket is sliced to order as well, and as you would expect you can get lean, fatty, or both. An order of both was a little more fatty than I would expect but the brisket had a good tug to it and a nice peppery bark.

The sausage was spicy, had a nice snap, and was really good. The spare ribs were tender, didn’t fall away too easily from the bone, and had good flavor. All of the meat was really well smoked and moist and I would recommend any of what we had. Each meat order includes your choice of a picked add-on of either cucumber, celery, red onions, or chiles.

The sides generally kept pace with the meat. While not traditional barbecue sides, the sweet potato casserole with maple and pecans was outstanding and the broccoli slaw was actually quite good. The baked beans were solid and you may even get to see the carvers adding burnt ends to the beans after slicing brisket orders. Apparently the edamame and pea salad is really good, but we didn’t choose that one (seriously, they don’t really do traditional barbecue sides here).

I had a great experience at Mighty Quinn’s. While it bills itself a “Texalina” joint combining the barbecue traditions of both Texas and North Carolina, after visiting I really consider it to be more of a Texas-style joint (as most NYC barbecue restaurants seem to be). Nevertheless, I can’t recommend it enough if you are looking for proper barbecue in the city without having to make the trek out to the Brooklyn joints.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Brisket – 4 hogs
Sausage – 4 hogs
Ribs – 4 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 4 Hogs

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Mighty Quinn's Barbeque on Urbanspoon

Richard’s Bar-B-Que – Salisbury, NC

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Name: Richard’s Bar-B-Que
Date: 2/14/14
Address: 522 N Main St, Salisbury NC 28144
Order: Chopped barbecue plate with hush puppies, slaw, macaroni and cheese, and Cheerwine (link to menu)
Price: ~$8

While not exactly known for being a barbecue town, Salisbury is home to not one but two barbecue joints on the NC Historical Barbecue Trail (as well as M&K Barbecue in nearby Granite Quarry). It is also the original home to the finest (non-alcoholic) beverage to enjoy with barbecue, Cheerwine (sorry, sweet tea).

Richard’s is in an unassuming building tucked on Main Street in downtown Salisbury. Inside, Richard’s smallish interior nearly smacks you in the face with its southern country decor while old school country music plays in the background (well, before the switch to the 70’s station for the lunch hour, anyways).

The pork was a nice mix of bark and shoulder that was slightly coarsely chopped (apparently due to being hand chopped). My serving had good tenderness and moistness with a fair amount of smoke. The table sauce was more of a spicy thin sauce than you would expect to find in the Piedmont but complemented the barbecue just about perfectly.

The hush puppies were some of the largest ones I’ve seen at a NC joint but also some of the best. Several of them had visible onions when you bit into them which might have normally turned me off a little bit except for the fact that they were an almost perfect mix of savory and sweet. The slaw had visible diced tomatoes, a first that I’ve noticed, but otherwise was a classic red slaw. The less said about the mac and cheese the better.

I previously stated that despite doing things the right way, fellow Salisbury joint Wink’s was not quite worth pulling off 85 and you should continue onto Lexington if you have a hankering for real barbecue. While Richard’s Bar-B-Que certainly doesn’t match Lexington, I would be more inclined to stop over there than I would Wink’s. They both cook barbecue over wood, but Richard’s has the red slaw and the slightly spicy thin sauce, giving it the edge in my mind if you want barbecue in Salisbury.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3.5 Hogs

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Richard's Bar-b-que on Urbanspoon

Blue Ox Barbecue – Austin, TX

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Name: Blue Ox Barbecue
Date: 11/1/13
Address: 1505 Town Creek Dr., Austin, TX 78741
Order: ½ pound of pulled pork (link to menu)
Price: $7.65

Rudy: I’ve been putting off writing this review for a while, because I didn’t think it would be fair, but after my last review of Live Oak, I think I am ready. Blue Ox Barbecue is a new food truck that is located in the enclosed back yard of Buzz Mill Coffee off East Riverside in Austin. There have been lots of these barbecue food trucks popping up that are opening to great reviews. I’ve been trying to get to more of them, but the cold weather hasn’t made visiting a food truck a high priority (not sure the 100 degree summer will be any more appealing).  

The enclosed yard that Blue Ox is located in has a small stage where live music can be played as well as plenty of picnic benches for seating and even what looked like a homemade skeeball game. Lots of personality, a fun atmosphere, and pet friendly.  

Unfortunately when I went to order, they had already sold out of everything but the pulled pork. This seems to be a recent theme that I have run into lately, where I’m arriving after most everything is gone. I’ll freely admit that I have purposely avoided ordering pulled pork in Texas because I’m afraid it is not going to be NC barbecue. But since I was already there, and I had no other options, I figured I would give it a go. And in a word, it was…fantastic!  

Monk: Pulled pork? In Texas? Oh, this should be good…

Rudy: Well, they never tried to make it NC pulled pork. No, this was pulled pork Texas-style. The main staple of Texas barbecue is black pepper, and heavy doses of it. The outside of the meat has a bark that is built up and provides a tremendous amount of flavor in each bite. So, think NC pulled pork with a brisket bark, that’s what we were dealing with. They served it with a thicker tomato-based sauce which complimented it well, but wasn’t really needed because of the flavor of the seasoning.

I’m not quite ready to say it, mainly because it could be blasphemy, but this pulled pork could be the best I’ve had…  

Monk: Alright, alright, alright…I’ve let this go on long enough. While the idea of pulled pork with a brisket-y bark sounds intriguing, let’s not get carried away here. It may be good, but it can’t compare to Lexington Barbecue (aka the gold standard) can it?

Rudy: I have hesitancy with saying it, so I know you don’t want to hear it. Maybe being away from NC for a while has made me forget some of the gloriousness that is Lexington Barbecue. I definitely need to have it again before I could think of saying that, which leads me to my ratings. I have to give Blue Ox an incomplete, because I only had the pulled pork and wasn’t able to try everything (or at least as much as I wanted). But it was a very fortunate occurrence, because if they hadn’t been sold out of everything else, I never would have tried the pulled pork. Unlike Live Oak, where I felt confident giving it a rating, because I was also confident that I didn’t want to go back, I am giving Blue Ox an incomplete until I can return, which I hope to do shortly.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 3 Hogs
Pulled Pork – 4.5 Hogs
Overall – Incomplete (for now)

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Blue Ox Barbecue on Urbanspoon

R&R Bar-B-Que – Concord, NC

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Name: R&R Bar-B-Que
Date: 1/31/14
Address: 755 Pitts School Rd NW, Concord, NC 28027
Order: Engineer’s BBQ Plate with red slaw, onion rings, hush puppies, Cheerwine and a Peppermint Patty (link to menu)
Price: $11

Yet again, we have another barbecue restaurant cooking eastern-style barbecue in Lexington country (in addition to Bill Spoon’s and Bubba’s). This time it’s R&R Bar-B-Que, a railroad themed barbecue restaurant in Concord.

And boy, do they keep with the railroad theme. The wood paneled interior is filled with railroad memorabilia, photos, paintings, and even a couple of tracks with electric trains hooked to the ceiling (a la the old Ham’s in High Point). A little kitschy, but endearing enough.

On this particular Friday, I arrived smack in the middle of the lunch rush and the restaurant was packed to the gills. It took a little bit for the waitress to finally come and take my order (though she was very nice and apologized for the wait) and to me, it looked like they could have stood to have another waitress or two working during lunch.

It also took a little while to get the food once I placed my order, again likely due to the lunch rush. The plate finally arrived and though the pork was tender enough it lacked smoke and bark on the pork, likely due to the use of a gas or electric smoker. The hush puppies came in a coffee filter and were more savory than sweet, but were well cooked. Curiously, both white and red slaw are available on the menu, so of course I opted for the red slaw, which was finely chopped and surprisingly good for a so-called eastern-style restaurant. The onion rings were pretty standard.

R&R Bar-B-Que has a sign off I-85 which I must have passed hundreds of times and noticed but paid little attention to it. I can’t recommend visiting during lunch unless you don’t have to get to anything pressing, as the meal took about an hour total from seating to paying the check. The staff was friendly, the food was decent, but if you are passing by the Poplar Tent Rd exit on I-85 looking for true barbecue feel free to keep on driving.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 2.5 Hogs 

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R & R Bar-B-Que on Urbanspoon

RandR Bar-B-Que on Foodio54