At Long Last, Real Barbecue Makes a Stand in Manhattan

NYTimes ^ | Forever | Julia Moskin

[paulklenk]

Just posting this for the knee-jerk reaction: "No, it isn't!"

[dighton]

This could get ugly.

[paulklenk]

"Those girls would take me from cow palace to cow palace all night long," he recalled.

Ah, yes, those were the days...!

[paulklenk]

LOL!

[rdb3]

Barbecue sauce, while it has a place at the table, does not make barbecue barbecue.

Amen! Again I say, amen.

If your BBQ needs sauce, that means your BBQ is no dang good. My late uncle (St. Clair Slim's dad) is laying in his grave in Arkansas, yet he's smiling at that comment.

[WackyKat]

A real barbecue place is Dreamland in Tuscaloosa.

The menu choices? Wet ribs or dry ribs

Side dishes? White bread

You want vegetables? Go to a health food store!

[paulklenk]

That's one of my tests of whether I like someone's ribs: If they're great with no sauce, they get a higher score.

There's a guy in Harlem who barbecues ribs in a pit on the sidewalk at 138th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. After my voice lesson each week, I walk on by and get a slab of ribs for $7. Some days they're better than others, and when he's in top form, the meat just falls off the bones.

I like Virgil's (mentioned in the story) but I'm ready to start exploring all the other barbecue places in the city.

The Hog Pit on 13th Street is also a lot of fun.

[paulklenk]

Let's ping the heck out of this story, folks -- FR could use a friendly barbecue war...

[Rebelbase]

"Mr. Aretsky has fitted Pearson's roof with a $36,000 electrostatic precipitator that filters out the smoke, vapors and grease that are inevitably exhaled by a barbecue pit."

He has no clue how many customers he is losing by not luring them in with the smell.

[Mears]

I thought NYC was smoke-free.

[paulklenk]

Ping a ling a ling!

[paulklenk]

Believe it or not, in NYC, emissions laws force restaurants to do crazy things like that. It's why Virgil's, one of the best barbecues in Manhattan, has to supplement wood-smoking with gas... Too bad.

[Taiwan Bocks]

I'm just wondering which part of this NYTimes article is a lie.

It's their own sort of "special BBQ sauce."

Every NYTimes piece deserves suspicion.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[Mears]

Dreamland sounds like my kind of place. I hate to say it but there is nothing like a salad to ruin a really good meal.

Meat,bread and butter,pure heaven!!!!!!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Exactly. Its not a real BBQ place if it doesn't offer brisket, ribs, AND links(sausage).

[Victoria Delsoul]

Robb Walsh, the restaurant critic for the Houston Press and author of the definitive "Legends of Texas Barbecue Cook Book," said, "Let me put the question in New York terms: If you filtered Houston city water so it was the same as New York tap, and used the same flour, and brought in the same ovens, could you make authentic New York bagels in Texas? Yes, and no."

LOL! Thanks for the ping.

[Shooter 2.5]

But he will be working the same no-frills pit, shipped from Mesquite, Tex., that he has always used.

Where have I gone so wrong?

I have yet to go to a barbeque place here.

Shooter 2.5-Mesquite, Texas

[NovemberCharlie]

He has no clue how many customers he is losing by not luring them in with the smell.

Oh, I think he knows, but the NYC smoke/enviro nazis aren't going to let it happen.

[paulklenk]

Maybe the punctuation...?