BBQgeek

Grand Champion BBQ - Marietta, GA

 
 
Coming Soon!

Pictures from the BBQ trail #1 - Pork and Hoecakes @ Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que

 

My best buddy is on a five day run on the Tennessee - Arkansas BBQ trail and has sent me back some pictures to share.  His first stop was at Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que in Centerville, TN for a serving of smoke pork and hoecakes with a sweet vinegar sauce.  This is a signature dish for Papa Kayjoe's.  The Southern BBQ trail website has a great audio interview with owner Devin Pikard and a great photo slide show of Papa Kayjoe's.  Papa Kayjoe's is a classic BBQ joint that relys on an old-school cinderblock pit complete with corrugated steel for a lid.  They burn down wood for charcoal and tend the pit by hand.  As soon as I received this picture, it made me think of Glady's Knight's popular chicken and waffle restaurant in downtown ATL.  Then I remembered a similar dish featured in the Atlanta Magazine BBQ issue in 2010.  Staq's BBQ in Smyrna had what they called a "mess" that was a waffle with a pile of pulled pork and coleslaw on top.   Smoke, savory, & sweet = slam dunk.

View Larger Map

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..... 

Happy 1st Birthday to Community Q

Tomorrow marks Community Q's first anniversary since opening its doors. Happy Birthday to you Community Q!  In a very short period of time, Community Q has joined the short list of metro Atlanta's very best BBQ destinations, placing it amongst such heavy hitters as Fox Bros., Dave Poe's, Pig-n-Chik, and  Sam's BBQ 1.  One of the things that I find most interesting about eating at Community Q is the daily special list.  I snapped the picture at left during today 's lunch.  While some specials like the kitchen sink and the redneck chicken salad appear so frequently as to be near de facto menu items, there are always a few extra veggie sides and the occassional soup available to take your BBQ experience to the next level.  Often times the daily veg specials are tied in to the farm fresh veggies available for purchase right next to the register.  As far as I know, Star Provisions/Bacchanalia and Community Q are the only restaurants in Atlanta to offer natural, local farm veggies for sale as take home items for their diners.  Today I was able to sample the smoked turkey that Community Q is adding to its menu in a limited capacity for the holiday season. It was extremely moist and had just the right amount of smoke.  If it is available for lunch or dinner on your next visit to Community, you MUST try it.  It's that good.   I saw a sign on the door stating that you can order turkeys or spiral hams for Thanksgiving (in fact, Community Q will be open for pre-order pickup from 10-12 on Thanksgiving Day).  In the past, I have ordered turkeys and hams from both Dave Poe's and Sam's BBQ1 in Marietta.  I can wholeheartedly endorse outsourcing in this manner.  In fact, I'm sure Dave and Sam are offering similar pre-orders for Gobbler day.  Take a tip from me and get your name on one of their lists soon.  The lists always sell out and for good reason.  You can give your family a holiday meal that they won't forget and you can take all the credit.

Heirloom Market BBQ

 
Situated in a cozy space adjacent to the Akers Mill Food Mart is the most recent addition to the metro Atlanta BBQ scene, Heirloom Market BBQ .  Lauched by Cody Taylor and Jiyeon Lee, Heirloom is wrapping up its first week of business.  In speaking with Cody several times in the run up to the opening, I learned that both he and Jiyeon have culinary backgrounds in fine dining (Repast and St. Regis, respectively) .  The menu will feature traditional BBQ dishes along with a rotating list of side dishes that bear a distinct chef touch.  Asian influences will also show up in subtle ways throughout the menu.  When I visited Heirloom today, there was a Korean BBQ short rib on the specials menu.  Given that Heirloom is just getting its legs underneath it, a review at this point would certainly be premature.  I intend to visit Cody and Jiyeon for the next few weeks and sample some of the other dishes that they intend to offer (pork belly, rib tips, burnt ends, etc.)  But the photos from today's visit came out so well, I could not stand to sit on them until I was ready to write a full profile.  Hopefully, they will get you excited about Heirloom Market and you'll pay them a visit (2243 Akers Mill Rd. Atlanta, GA 30339).

View the rest of the photos from Heirloom Market BBQ here....... 

 

 

Barbacoa - Jamie Oliver & Adam Perry Lang (Updated)

Barbacoa opened a couple days ago and there are now links available for the menu as well as a bunch of other interesting reading.  The menu is diverse but does tend to lean in part on American BBQ staples presented in cheffed-up manner.  There is also a pretty interesting selection of seafood dishes to choose from.  I'll update this post one last time after the UK press delivers a few reviews for us to chew on.

British superchef Jamie Oliver and American BBQ guru Adam Perry Lang are just a few weeks away from opening the doors on their first joint partnership restaurant, Barbacoa, near St. Paul's  in London, UK.  Jamie has posted a few pictures on Twitter recently and it made me think it would be a good time to share them with you.  I interviewed Adam a few months ago and spoke with him about the restaurant concept.  I had wrongly assumed that Jamie had tapped Adam to bring American style BBQ to London.  Barbacoa is actually going to have a menu that offers live fire cooking styles and techniques from around the globe.  According to the Barbacoa website, the restaurant will also have a storefront selling meats butchered in-house as well as house cured meats.  Adam said that he and Jamie share the same culinary viewpoint in sourcing high quality ingredients from local, natural or organic producers and then treating those ingredients with attention and care to arrive at a delicious conclusion.  I think London has something to be quite excited about when they throw open the doors in a few weeks on Barbacoa.   

Daisy May BBQ Cart - NYC

 

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to NYC for the day for business.  On my last visit to NYC two years ago, I published this review of Virgil's BBQ.  I had hoped to steal out for a meal on this most recent trip to Daisy May BBQ.  Time was tight, and I only had time to visit their BBQ cart located on 50th between 6th & 7th.  Daisy May's cart has a quaint character compared to several of the other hot dog/gyro/etc. carts I saw in NYC.  I was really excited to sample Daisy May's BBQ because the restaurant is owned by one of my favorite BBQ chefs, Adam Perry Lang.  I've included Adam's cookbook, Serious Barbecue, several times on my blog because I think it is very well written and has a viewpoint on cooking and presenting smoked meats that really resonates with me.  So, I was really hoping that the Daisy May BBQ cart would blow my socks off and prove that Northerners can cook BBQ.  Continue reading Daisy May BBQ Cart - NYC here.....

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....