Virgil's Barbecue Review - NYC

 

Last Tuesday the 16th, I had an opportunity to travel to NYC to do a little business.  I'd been waiting a long time for the opportunity to get into the Big Apple for 24 hours sans familia and do some serious food research.   This trip represented an opportunity to test a theory I've been hashing out for a long time on this blog;  Could BBQ be elevated to a quasi-fine dining experience and not become separated from the quality so often found in non-fine dining restaurants (aka Joints) here in the South?   It's not such a crazy idea.  Richard Blais was pretty interested in itwhen I explained it to him.   So, it was with a mixture of anticipation and dread that I prepared for my trip.  After all, NYC is the restaurant capital of the globe.  Granted, it's not the BBQ capital of the world.  But, if anyone could pull of the concept of upscale BBQ, I was willing to bet on my BBQ-challenged Northeast brothers.  They had balls and budget -  A powerful combination in any land.  

My preferred destination for this experiment was Blue Smoke.  I had long admired their ethos and their menu.  However, my limited time in the city and my hotel location drove me to search for a walkable destination.  Virgil's fit the bill perfectly.  A mere 4 blocks from my hotel, I soaked up the city as I took step after step towards my Waterloo.  NYC is an amazing place.  Noise.  Color.  Smells.  People.  So many restaurants that you wonder how anyone actually makes a buck selling food in this town.  10 minutes later I was standing outside Virgil's quaking in my shoes.  I didn't want to be disappointed.  So much was on the line.  The close proximity of Virgil's to Times Square and all the megastores wasn't alleviating my fear at all.  I was squarely in the tourista zone.  My instincts were telling me that Bad-B-Q lurked inside, but I hitched up my skirt and threw open the door.

Stepping into Virgil's, my first impression was BIG.  First floor dining and bar.  Second floor dining and bar.  I don't think I have ever been in a two story BBQ restaurant.  After all, my favorite BBQ restaurant has only 10 seats.  Being a party of one and a fan of alcoholic beverages, I took a seat at the bar.  Directly in front of me was a blackboard with the daily specials.  The soup of the day was tortilla soup.  The salad was BBQ Cobb salad.  The entree was grilled red snapper.  Huh?  Searching for some normalcy, I noticed Stella on tap and quickly ordered one while I settled in with the menu.  A trifold menu - my options were almost more than I could handle.  There was a lot more than BBQ going on here.

All the staples were represented - pulled pork, ribs, brisket, chicken.  There were also some mystifying options like the Maryland Crab Cake, the Owensboro Lamb Po'Boy, the Vegetable Plate (seriously?) that really threw my mojo off.  It felt like the focus was lost.  This wasn't the upscale BBQ I had imagined.  This was more along the lines of BBQ with a side of TGI-Friday's.  Would you like some spinach-artichoke dip with those ribs, sir?  Perhaps some potato skins...?  Seeking to maximize my puny per diem, I opted for the two meat sandwich - pulled pork and brisket with sides of potato salad and cole slaw.  When the plate arrived at the bar, I immediately noticed that the Cardinal Sin had been breached.  My BBQ had arrived pre-sauced!  What were these rats trying to hide?  Great BBQ always shows up the party unadorned, naked as the day it was smoked.  Every single nueron in my brain said RUN, but I lived by the code laid out by my forefathers.   Buy the Ticket - Take the Ride.

 

I pulled a Gordon Ramsey and started picking and pulling at the sandwich with my fork.  Things did not look good.  The brisket was clearly fatty (poor trimming).  The pulled pork was pulled down far to fine for my taste.  Instead of just coaxing the pork into big chunks, these guys had pulled it down to long strands.  I was so nervous that I jumped into the potato salad first.  Not bad.  Punchy.  Vinegar kick.  Could use some bacon.  All in all, they had avoided the nuclear yellow potato salad trap that my Southern brothers fall into so easily.  This was halfway to a decent German potato salad.  I was hopeful for the cole slaw based upon the potato salad.  Sadly, it missed the mark.  It wasn't over-mayoed, but it lacked definition.  It was just bland.  Someday, someone somewhere is going to listen to me and abandon this ridiculous cabbage-centric quest.  If you want a stellar cole slaw, run some green apples through your mandolin and toss it with a bit of vinegar, poppy seed, salt and pepper, and sour cream and you are HOME FREE.  Pork loves apples.

Show time had arrived.  I dug into the sandwich.  Damn.  Not good.  The texture of both meats was soggy.  I couldn't find a discernable smoke ring.  The smoke flavor was virtually non-existent.  The sauce simply sucked.  When it was all over, I had only eaten half the sandwich and I ordered a side of fries to help fill me up.  My dreams of grand NYC BBQ were dashed.  I spent some time talking with the day manager and learned that they had all the right tools in the kitchen, namely two big-ass Southern Pride Cookers.  They just didn't know how to use them.  I couldn't blame it on their being new to the game.  They've been cooking BBQ here since 1994.  That's plenty of time to dial in the smokers.  I either caught them on a bad day or they were going about this sideways.  As it came time to settle the check, Virgil's delivered a pleasant surprise for the first time that day.  A steaming towel.

The steaming towel became a totem of this trip and for my dreams of upscale barbecue, which were somewhat damaged at this point.   I still believed it could be done and I intend to return to NYC very soon to sample the menu at Blue Smoke.  Despite the lackluster sauce Blue Smoke has introduced onto the commercial market, I still hold some optimism that upscale barbecue can be done.  I am eager to try their BBQ mussels and toasted ravioli.  Perhaps the mistake was mine in choosing Virgil's.  Maybe all they ever wanted to be was a decent tourist bar serving some average BBQ.  Perhaps my dreams are a little too aggressive.  I left Virgil's with the determination to get a stunning NYC meal and I knew that meant only one thing.............Yakitori.

Comments

[David]

how were the fries?

[Matthew Calderone]

I just stumbled upon your blog from the BBQ Bible Board. I appreciate the review of Virgil's. Having walked by it and almost been falsely impressed enough by the outside to stumble in, I'm glad I didn't. I'll have to look up Blue Smoke and perhaps check it out my next time in the city.

While I firmly beleive that nothing I buy BBQ wise from Maryland through Maine can best what I could cook, I have had the pleasure of finding 2 worthwhile stops in my travels.

If ever in Baltimore, check out RUB. Great authentic Texas BBQ. If ever driving up the 95 corridor going into Deleware, stop at a place called Durham's Best BBQ. It offers no seating and a full BBQ menu. The ribs and chicken are amazing there.

[weber 2820 smokey mountain cooker smoker]

Sure... the palce looks cool but would you really expect great bbq in NYC??

[Yasamin]

You should stop by - Smoke BBQ Pit located at 129-21 Merrick Blvd., queens, NY 11413!