OH

Linkdown: 2/23/22

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

This morning, Axios Charlotte brings details on the upcoming Carolina Barbecue Festival to be held May 22 at Camp North End in Charlotte. I’ve heard rumors of a Charlotte barbecue festival starting last summer from Donald himself and more recently from Garren Kirkman of Jon G’s. But this festival is shaping up to be quite the event, with a roster of notable pit bosses from Barbecue Bros favorites from all over the Carolinas including Bryan Furman of B’s Cracklin’ Barbeque (who grew up in Charlotte), Elliot Moss of Asheville’s Buxton Hall Barbecue, Nathan Monk of Lexington Barbecue, Matthew Register of Southern Smoke in Garland, Tay Nelson of Bobby’s BBQ in Fountain Inn, SC, and Brandon Shepard of Shepard’s Barbecue in Emerald Isle. Master Blend Family Farm, a family-owned farm in Kenansville, N.C., will contribute the hogs for the event.

The day looks to be full of Carolina barbecue (be it east, west, or South), beer, local music, and charity, with the proceeds going to nonprofits Piedmont Culinary Guild, World Central Kitchen and Operation Barbecue Relief. And I’m here for it.

More details and tickets at carolinabbqfest.org

Native News

John Tanner’s been making the rounds in NC lately with fruitful stops at Troutman’s Barbecue in Denton

…as well as Dickie-Do’s BBQ in Haw River where he discovered some delicious, smoky barbecue

Jon G’s will be back in Waxhaw today

Charlotte Magazine has a pretty straightforward list of Where to Get Barbecue in Charlotte for 2022

Non-Native News

Now’s your chance to get your barbecue story featured on the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy Podcast

Cattleack Barbeque, Hurtado Barbecue, and Heim Barbecue make Eater Dallas’ Essential Restaurants for the city

Latest Blake’s BBQ building update

At Brett’s BBQ Shop, J.C. Reid dug the sausages

Very curious to see who Tesla gets to smoke the barbecue at what could be the “Largest Barbecue in Texas” at their Austin Gigafactory

More coverage on the passing of Rene “Ray” Rodriguez

Chef Michael Symon’s Mabel’s BBQ is expanding

AMEN

Barbecue Bros Book Club: “Michael Symon’s Playing With Fire” by Michael Symon

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Monk: Michael Symon’s Playing with Fire: BBQ and More from the Grill, Smoker, and Fireplace: A Cookbook is part of a recent trend of cookbooks from barbecue personalities. See: Rodney Scott (2021), Aaron Franklin (2015), Matthew Register (2019), Christopher Prieto (2019), Ed Randolph (2019), Sam Jones (2019), and Elliott Moss (2016). Not that I mind, as it has clearly given me lots of content over the years.

As for Michael Symon’s contribution to the barbecue cookbook world (which came out in 2018), he starts off with a short “love letter to live-fire cooking” and that sets the tone for the rest of the book. Not strictly a barbecue book, Symon includes a lot of grilling recipes informed by his love of Cleveland.

Symon makes his case for “Cleveland-style barbecue,” which is “a style and menu that draw upon Cleveland’s rich cultural heritage, much of which is firmly rooted in eastern Europe.” He goes on “We season meats with Jewish deli-style pastrami spices, our kielbasa is made by a sixty-year-old Ukrainian butcher at the West Side Market, we smoke over locally sourced apple- and cherrywoods; we serve Hungarian-based sides like spaetzle and cabbage; our tangy mustard-based sauce is designed around the legendary local stadium-style mustard Bertman Ball Park.”

Outside of the typical barbecue recipes, that is what sets this book apart. I was disappointed that we only really get Symon’s perspective in the introductory letter and some of the short intros to the recipes. Contrasted with Rodney Scott’s recent book that bared so much of his barbecue soul and history, it seems like a missed opportunity.

All in all, Michael Symon’s “Playing with Fire” features nice food photography and a slightly different point of view, but is far from an essential barbecue book. I’d recommend checking out the books from Sam Jones, Elliott Moss, Rodney Scott, or Aaron Franklin first and then preview this book at your library to see if Cleveland-style barbecue and live-fire cooking with ingredients native to that region is of interest to you.

Rudy’s Smokehouse – Springfield, OH

/ Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Name: Rudy’s Smokehouse
Date: 10/3/20
Address: 2222 S Limestone St, Springfield, OH 45505
Order: Monk: 3-meat combo with pork, ribs, and brisket; hush puppies, mac and cheese, and fries; Speedy: 3-meat combo with pork, ribs, and brisket; hush puppies, collards, and fries; Rudy: 2-meat combo with brisket and pork (link to menu)
Pricing: $

Speedy: After our terrible experience at Ray Ray’s Hog Pit, all it took was a billboard advertising “award-winning BBQ” for us to give Ohio one more chance. So in the town of Springfield, we found Rudy’s Smokehouse (unrelated to the Texas Rudy’s). Rudy’s looks very much like a small town restaurant – think a Shoney’s or Cracker Barrel (minus the country store), which did not leave me with high hopes. Still, we marched up to the counter to place our order.

Monk: What Speedy has yet to mention is the reason we were in the Springfield area: I dragged the other bros (plus friend of the blog Boomsauce) an hour west of Columbus in the middle of western Ohio to hike and check out the town of Yellow Springs. I was actually very much against going to Rudy’s and wanted to check out Yellow Springs although I didn’t voice my opinion in time so before I knew it we were headed to Rudy’s. 

Nevertheless, getting out of the car I did smell some smoke from the parking lot at least, which was a promising sign. The interior reeked of kitschy barbecue restaurant decor but the prices weren’t bad and we went into barbecue review mode, each ordering multiple meat combo platters. 

Turns out, the pork was much better here than at Ray Ray’s while not being amazing. “Not being amazing” is probably as good as you’re going to find in Ohio based on this trip.

Rudy: The pulled pork was pretty plain and needed a decent amount of sweet sauce to make it something to eat. But it was not dry, so just because it wasn’t the pulled pork that we are used to in North Carolina, doesn’t mean it was bad, it was just ok.

Speedy: After our rib experience yesterday, I was nervous. Rudy’s ribs certainly exceeded the low bar previously set. While they were way overdone, they had a nice flavor and smoke taste, and were sauced nicely. Were they the world’s best ribs? No – far from it, but they were passable. The sides were fine as well, rounding out a perfectly average meal. 

Rudy: I agree, I thought the ribs were pretty good, but that may have been because of the jerky that I had experienced the day before.  We were given an order of the turkey due to them adding it in the order by mistake.  I tend to stay clear of turkey at barbecue restaurants because at best they can be ok, at worst they can be dry.  Rudy’s was very good, probably as good as you can do with turkey, moist and flavorful, but still just turkey.  

Speedy: The brisket was another meat that exceeded the extremely low bar from the previous day, but wasn’t really that good. So while I have repealed my “never order brisket outside of Texas” rule, on this weekend, a new rule was born: “Never order brisket in Ohio!”

Monk: I always love new rules from Speedy. We didn’t expect a ton out of our Ohio barbecue experiences, but Rudy’s Smokehouse partially made up for our poor experience the day before at Ray Ray’s Hog Pit. Though I would still like to know what award it won…perhaps this is a Pabst Blue Ribbon-type situation. 

Oh, and here’s proof we actually did that aforementioned hike.

(L-R) Monk, Speedy, Rudy, Boomsauce

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 2.5 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Ribs – 2.5 hogs
Brisket – 1.5 hogs
Turkey – 3 hogs 
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 2.5 hogs

Rudy's Smokehouse BBQ Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Ray Ray’s Hog Pit – Columbus, OH

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Ray Ray’s Hog Pit (food truck)
Date: 10/2/20
Address: 424 W Town St, Columbus, OH 43215 (at Land Grant Brewing)
Order: Meatsweats (Smoked brisket, pulled pork, jerk chicken, dry rubbed ribs, Ray Ray’s hot link, with pickles and sauce) (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Monk: So for the first time in almost exactly 5 years, all three Barbecue Bros were going to be in the same city with a chance to eat barbecue together. Now, due to COVID reasons and the need to have a drivable and centrally located city we ended up having our annual guy’s trip in the lovely climes of…Columbus, OH. Not ideal for barbecue, but a little research yielded a potentially promising prospect in Ray Ray’s Hog Pit BBQ. It kept popping up on “best of” lists, the website was well done, and the Franklinton location at Land Grant Brewing was extremely convenient to where we were staying for the weekend. 

Rudy: The euphoria of having the band back together, combined with the positive previews of Ray Ray’s would basically guarantee that we would have a great barbecue experience, right? Land Grant had a great set up with lots of outdoor seating, a stage for music (although not on the night we were there), and had Ray Ray’s attached. After looking at the menu online with all of the great pictures, we decided to get their Meatsweats box (sampler of most of the menu) and since we couldn’t decide which meats to get extra, we figured we would order more after trying them all.  This restraint proved to be a good idea.  To start with, the brisket was bland, had almost no taste of seasoning or smoke.

Speedy: The pulled pork was … not great. There was very little smoke on it, and it was dry. That said, the pork was far superior to the ribs. The ribs were dry, barely seasoned, and basically were pork jerky. 

Monk: I’m not sure if the overall quality of the barbecue had to do with the later hour we were at Land Grant Brewing eating Ray Ray’s, but yea, dry dry dry.

On the other hand, the jerk chicken was miraculously moist and flavorful. Not sure how this was so fresh while the other meats were dried out but it was passable.

Rudy: The two areas that I thought were decent were the sausage, which had cheese in it (even though that was not advertised) and some texture to it, so it did not seem completely generic. We also ordered the collard greens, which were very good and probably the best part of the meal. While the greens (and the pickled onions on the side) were very good, when that is your highlight, it is not a good thing.

Speedy: All three Barbecue Bros get together about as often as we can see Haley’s Comet, so when we do, (begin sarcasm italics) we only eat the best.

Monk: Hey there was that one time at Lexington Barbecue!

Speedy: In all seriousness, despite the 5 hog company (and decent beer!), the barbecue at Ray Ray’s Hog Pit was as bad as I’ve had in a long time. Ohio – am I right???

Ratings: 
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 1 hog
Ribs – 1 hog
Brisket – 1 hog
Chicken – 2 hog
Hot Link – 2.5 hog
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 1 hog

Ray Ray's Hog Pit Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato