BBQgeek

Heywood Provision Company - Artisan Meats and Foods - East Cobb County, GA

 

East Cobb has a spectacular new butcher shop and charcuterie purveyor.  Located in the former Smokin' J's BBQ space in East Lake Shopping Center on Roswell Road, Heywood's Provision Company is a chef-owned and run butcher shop offering USDA prime beef, house-made bacon, smoked meats, and USDA approved uncured sausages.  Located directly adjacent to Wild Wings and across from Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant, Heywood's Provision Co is the only facility in all of Georgia that is USDA certified to offer all natural, uncured sausage and salumi for public consumption. 

Beautiful coolers full of house smoked and uncured meats and sausage.

 

The menu at Heywood's Provison Co.  Click the picture to see a larger version.

  -     Continue reading Heywood's Provision Company here..........
 

Fette Sau - Brooklyn, NY

Almost four years ago my job began to take me into the NYC area for business.   Over the years I have gotten to sample mind bending yakitori, mediocre BBQ, Vietnamese/French mashups and true fine dining in Manhatttan.  I returned today from another visit to the City and have some very good news to share.  A rose grows in Brooklyn!  After years of searching, I found a BBQ restaurant in NYC worthy of a BBQgeek endorsement.  Fette Sau is located in the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn, NY.  Williamsburg is a trendy slice of the boroughs where bums and graffitti bump up against gourmet cheese shops, cutting edge music venues, high end trendy retail, and kick ass BBQ.  Unassuming and slightly difficult to locate from the sidewalk, Fette Sau strives to offer high quality, locally sourced and properly cooked beef and pork BBQ, homecooked sides, and a fully stocked bar.  From my slightly shakey and poorly shot video perspective, you can hopefully see that the masses agree that Fette Sau is bringing a quality product to the (picnic) table.  What follows is a photo diary with commentary on my Mother's Day meal at Fette Sau.  Continue reading Fette Sau - Brooklyn, NY here..... 

Seeger spotted at Community Q

 

pictured left to right - chefs Guenter Seeger (Seeger's) and Todd Immel (Star Provisions/Bacchanalia)

Like a thief in the night, Atlanta's dearly departed, one and only five star chef Guenter Seeger stole into Atlanta today for lunch at David Robert's  Community Q and followed it up with a meal at Shaun Doty's  Yeah! Burger.  

Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc Apple Bacon BBQ Sauce

Thomas Keller is the nation's de facto chef laureate.  His culinary achievements are the stuff of legend, and his flagship restaurant, The French Laundry, has become a foodie mecca and the birthplace of many of our greatest up and coming chefs.  While I have spent much time admiring Thomas' achievements, cookbooks, and protege's, our two worlds have not crossed paths in any significant way.  But then the need for a Mother's Day gift sent me into a local Williams Sonoma, and I stumbled upon what you see pictured left.  Ad Hocis one of Thomas' more laid back restaurants in the Napa Valley.  It's family style.  No menu.  Simple food created with the same loving care as the pretty plates he creates at The French Laundry. So, it figures that he would bring a BBQ sauce to market under that label vs. The French Laundry BBQ sauce.  I picked up the jar and took a peek at the price. $16 for thirteen ounces of BBQ sauce.  Down here in the South, we'd say that Mr. Keller is awful proud of his sauce.  Our Northern brethren might be a little less genteel and a little more to the point.  That's a lot of scratch for some jacked up ketchup, Thomas.  I realized I was holding in my hands what was, for me, the most expensive bottle of BBQ sauce in the World. We're talking over a dollar an ounce, good people.

So, I bought the sauce and began tainting my mental jury before I could even get out of the parking lot.  See, I've made more than a few gallons of BBQ sauce from scratch in my day.  In fact, it was a bit of an obsession for a few years.  Along the way, I learned a lot of lessons, and I spread the gospel of fresh-sauce-over-bottled far and wide and made many converts along the way.  I drove home mentally working through my mise en place for the dish of sous vide Smug served over a bed of poached told-you-so that I was planning on sending over via FedeX to little Tommie in Yountville, CA.  Continue reading Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc Apple Bacon BBQ Sauce here....

Community Q named as a Top 10 New Dining Destination in the USA!

MSN.com published a list of the Top 10 New Dining Destinations in the US this morning.  Atlanta's own Community Q was the only restaurant in Georgia to be included on the list.  Other notable restaurants included Collichio & Sons (NYC), and Thomas Keller's Bouchon (Beverly Hills).  Congratulations to David, Stuart, and Jim on such a tremendous achievement. 

Cochon 555 - Atlanta, GA

Pork liver pate with apple jelly from 2010 winner Sean Brock of McCrady's of Charleston, SC at Cochon 555.

Cochon 555, a multi-city, national event celebrating the cultivation of heritage breed hogs, rolled into Atlanta, GA this past Sunday.  It was my second pork-themed event in less than a month.  You may have already read my write up of the Southern Foods Pig Out in the Park.  What can I say?  I'm a lucky guy.  The basic premise of Cochon 555 is to assemble five of the best regional chefs, give them each a 175 lb. heritage breed pig to cook, and let the assembled masses enjoy the fruits of their labors.  Joining these five chefs are five wineries showcasing their wines.  So, the 555 equals 5 hogs, 5 wines, and 5 chefs.  Simple enough.  Atlanta's Cochon 555 took place at the downtown W hotel.  Several hundred foodies, food critics, and bloggers turned out to indulge in everything fine about swine (did I really just make that horrible rhyme?).  I've assembled a simple photo essay with minimal commentary to describe the event for you.  Enjoy.  Continue reading Cochon 555 - Atlanta, GA here....
 

Clyde Cooper's Barbecue - Raleigh, NC

 

For the second time in a month, business took me to Raleigh, NC.  On my last trip, I paid a visit to the Pit to experience Ed Mitchell's vision of upscale barbecue.  This time I decided to try and find a different experience.  I wanted something that really painted a clear picture of traditional Eastern Carolina barbecue.  I did a little Googling and ran across Clyde Cooper's Barbecue, in business since 1938 in downtown Durham.  Online reviews of Coopers were very good.  I also checked with a couple of my Raleigh colleagues and they said it was very good stuff.  One colleague even remarked he remembered eating there as a kid and loving it.  After finishing up my morning business meeting, I made a quick run into downtown Raleigh with three of my coworkers to sneak in a quick lunch before hopping back on my flight back to Atlanta.  Coopers really impressed me that day with  some great food and an authentic experience.  Continue reading Clyde Cooper's Barbecue here....

Judge's Table - Southern Foods' Pig Out In the Park

Pictured from left to right are a few of the chefs, as well as one judge, that participated in Southern Foods' Pig Out in the Park - Jose Hernandez and Matt Swickerath (Valenza), Shane Touhy (Dogwood), Allan Benton (Benton's Hams), Stephen Herman and Guillermo Hernandez (Haven)

Twelve chefs from some of Atlanta's best restaurants gathered yesterday at the Park Tavern in Piedmont Park to participate in Southern Foods' Pig Out in the Park, a food industry showcase featuring a pork cookoff.  The participating restaurants included Holeman and Finch, 4th and Swift, Haven, Rathbun's, Dogwood, Valenza, JCT kitchen, Serpas True Food, Speakeasy, Parker's on Ponce, Two Urban Licks, and Miltons.  The pork cookoff was judged by Allan Benton, David Roberts, and me.  Allan is famous throughout the American culinary world for crafting some of the highest quality artisinal country hams in the world at his smokehouse in Tennessee, Benton's Hams.  David Roberts is a the chef and partner in Atlanta's most recent barbecue darling, Community Q.  Me?  I run a little BBQ blog, and I'm still trying to figure out how I managed to be lucky enough to land a seat at the judges table.  Chefs, line cooks, service professionals, and restaurant owners all stopped by the Park Tavern to sample all manner of foodstuffs from some of Southern Foods top line vendors, as well as taste dishes from all twelve of the competing restaurants.  Continue reading Judge's Table - Southern Foods' Pig Out in the Park here....

The Pit - Raleigh, NC

 

Business took me to Durham, NC this past week, but it was my love of great BBQ that took me to downtown Raleigh to visit Ed Mitchell's retaurant, The Pit.   Ed is one of the true superstars of the BBQ world.  He has been featured many times on TV, including the Today show and Throwdown with Bobby Flay (in which he beat Bobby in a spare rib contest).  Ed is not only famous for his traditional NC style BBQ but also for his belief in cooking with local and sustainable vegetables and meat.  Ed has organized a co-op of local hog farmers that raises free range hogs (I was told they eat better than most humans) which he then uses for the BBQ in his restaurant.  He also sources his vegetables in the same manner.  In addition to fantastic BBQ and vegetables, the wine and beer selections are better than most high end restaurants I've visited.  I've spent a lot of time in this blog talking about the idea of taking BBQ to the next level and presenting it in a quasi-fine dining format.  Unquestionably, The Pit is the closest I have come to seeing that idea manifested.  Continue reading The Pit - Raleigh, NC here...

Yeah, Yeah

Yes.  I've been bad.  Very bad.  No posts since...last year.  3 years into this blogging thing I have enough experience to know that these are the fallow months.  No light and cold temperatures are not exactly inspirational when you are a BBQ guy.  I'm past the guilt.  Trust me when I tell you I have your best interests in mind when I don't publish just for the sake of publishing.  That said, Fate has shined upon me and you and stoked the fire this fine evening.  Business brought me to Durham, NC, but my BBQ mania took me to The Pit in Raleigh, NC.  I've got a humdinger of a post coming for you as soon as I get off the road this weekend.  This blasted work laptop won't let me download this evening's photos and share the way I'd like to...so, you will have to wait.  But, I'll give you a tease.  How about smoked bourbon and cola?  How about friendly local chocolatiers (Star and Sam) offering a taste of Ed Mitchell's delicious smoked wings from the Pit simply because they love them and want to share in the joy (and they love them so much they ordered 300 for their wedding in May!)  Tune in this weekend for the full report.