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Move Over, Texas—N.Y. Is Rustling Up Some Top-Notch Barbecue
The Empire State has been experiencing a boom in restaurants whipping up some creative barbecue fare
By Charles Passy / Wall Street Journal
Updated May 25, 2017
For serious barbecue fans, the meccas of meat are places like Texas, famed for its tender brisket, or North Carolina, where pulled pork is the favorite.
But to hear Matthew Katakis tell it, New York should be considered in the uppermost ranks as well—particularly for a way of cooking barbecue that is as creative and varied as the city itself.
Mr. Katakis is the pitmaster and owner of Butcher Bar, a barbecue spot in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria that recently opened a Manhattan location in the Lower East Side. He prides himself on such fun fare as a “Meat Candy” platter of beef burnt ends and a “Monster” sandwich that combines brisket and pulled pork.
“I call it eclectic,” Mr. Katakis said of his style. He even makes a point of featuring an apple cake, based on his grandmother’s recipe, as a dessert.
These days, Mr. Katakis has plenty of company in taking such an approach. The city is enjoying a barbecue boom, with more than a dozen establishments vying for diners’ attention. The situation is a far cry from a couple of decades ago when, in the words of Serious Eats website founder Ed Levine, “New York was a barbecue wilderness.”
But just as significant may be the fact that New York is creating its own barbecue identity—albeit an identity that doesn’t hew to any particular school or philosophy. Each place is its own thing—or, in some cases, several things.
The approach can be unabashedly traditional. At Hill Country Barbecue Market, the Flatiron District favorite that has expanded to include locations in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., the focus is on classic Texas-style barbecue—with meats, including brisket, of course, ordered at a butcher-style counter and served on butcher paper.
The no-nonsense ideal certainly has its fans: The Flatiron location alone, which is marking its 10th anniversary with a series of events starting Tuesday, has seen its annual sales roughly double, according to Hill Country founder Marc Glosserman. He declined to provide specific sales figures.
In other instances, barbecue restaurants are going full-throttle gourmet. Consider Pig Bleecker in Greenwich Village, which opened at the beginning of this year. The restaurant, an offshoot of the Brooklyn barbecue establishment Pig Beach, features such dishes as brisket ravioli with black truffle butter and a smoked and grilled pork chop with peach habañero jam.
Pig Bleecker executive chef and partner Matt Abdoo doesn’t even refer to his place as a barbecue joint. Instead, he said it is a restaurant devoted to “smoke-centric comfort food.”
Several barbecue restaurants also are blending the influences of other cultures into their menus, saying it makes sense in the melting pot that is New York. At Hometown Bar-B-Que in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, baby-back ribs are prepared Jamaican-style and wings get a Vietnamese kick. And at Big W’s Roadside Bar-B-Q, located outside New York City in Wingdale, N.Y., owner Warren Norstein adds an occasional side dish reflecting his Jewish heritage, from cabbage soup to a knish.
Still, for all the eclecticism and inventiveness some barbecue buffs say New York establishments can come up short, particularly when it comes to getting the right degree of smoky flavor in the meat. “There’s a lot of bad barbecue” in the city, said Mr. Levine, the food website founder.
Another common complaint is the high cost of barbecue in the city. The food often might seem down-home, but the tab easily can top $50 a person when sides and drinks are tallied.
Restaurateurs counter that meat doesn’t come cheap these days; nor does New York real estate.
Barbecue “is a really expensive endeavor,” Hill Country’s Mr. Glosserman noted.
The Empire State has been experiencing a boom in restaurants whipping up some creative barbecue fare
By Charles Passy / Wall Street Journal
Updated May 25, 2017
For serious barbecue fans, the meccas of meat are places like Texas, famed for its tender brisket, or North Carolina, where pulled pork is the favorite.
But to hear Matthew Katakis tell it, New York should be considered in the uppermost ranks as well—particularly for a way of cooking barbecue that is as creative and varied as the city itself.
Mr. Katakis is the pitmaster and owner of Butcher Bar, a barbecue spot in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria that recently opened a Manhattan location in the Lower East Side. He prides himself on such fun fare as a “Meat Candy” platter of beef burnt ends and a “Monster” sandwich that combines brisket and pulled pork.
“I call it eclectic,” Mr. Katakis said of his style. He even makes a point of featuring an apple cake, based on his grandmother’s recipe, as a dessert.
These days, Mr. Katakis has plenty of company in taking such an approach. The city is enjoying a barbecue boom, with more than a dozen establishments vying for diners’ attention. The situation is a far cry from a couple of decades ago when, in the words of Serious Eats website founder Ed Levine, “New York was a barbecue wilderness.”
But just as significant may be the fact that New York is creating its own barbecue identity—albeit an identity that doesn’t hew to any particular school or philosophy. Each place is its own thing—or, in some cases, several things.
The approach can be unabashedly traditional. At Hill Country Barbecue Market, the Flatiron District favorite that has expanded to include locations in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., the focus is on classic Texas-style barbecue—with meats, including brisket, of course, ordered at a butcher-style counter and served on butcher paper.
The no-nonsense ideal certainly has its fans: The Flatiron location alone, which is marking its 10th anniversary with a series of events starting Tuesday, has seen its annual sales roughly double, according to Hill Country founder Marc Glosserman. He declined to provide specific sales figures.
In other instances, barbecue restaurants are going full-throttle gourmet. Consider Pig Bleecker in Greenwich Village, which opened at the beginning of this year. The restaurant, an offshoot of the Brooklyn barbecue establishment Pig Beach, features such dishes as brisket ravioli with black truffle butter and a smoked and grilled pork chop with peach habañero jam.
Pig Bleecker executive chef and partner Matt Abdoo doesn’t even refer to his place as a barbecue joint. Instead, he said it is a restaurant devoted to “smoke-centric comfort food.”
Several barbecue restaurants also are blending the influences of other cultures into their menus, saying it makes sense in the melting pot that is New York. At Hometown Bar-B-Que in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, baby-back ribs are prepared Jamaican-style and wings get a Vietnamese kick. And at Big W’s Roadside Bar-B-Q, located outside New York City in Wingdale, N.Y., owner Warren Norstein adds an occasional side dish reflecting his Jewish heritage, from cabbage soup to a knish.
Still, for all the eclecticism and inventiveness some barbecue buffs say New York establishments can come up short, particularly when it comes to getting the right degree of smoky flavor in the meat. “There’s a lot of bad barbecue” in the city, said Mr. Levine, the food website founder.
Another common complaint is the high cost of barbecue in the city. The food often might seem down-home, but the tab easily can top $50 a person when sides and drinks are tallied.
Restaurateurs counter that meat doesn’t come cheap these days; nor does New York real estate.
Barbecue “is a really expensive endeavor,” Hill Country’s Mr. Glosserman noted.
