spare ribs

Name: King BBQ
Date: 1/25/26
Address: 2029 Carver Ave, North Charleston, SC 29405
Order: Pork combo with BBQ red rice with yum yum sauce and slaw (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Monk: King BBQ is the collaboration of husband and wife team Shuai and Corrie Wang and pitmaster Brandon Olson, who worked for them at their other restaurant Jackrabbit Filly not far from the location of King in North Charleston. Even if you haven’t been there, you may still recognize Shuai from his finale run on the most recent season of Top Chef Destination Canada.

King BBQ takes inspiration from Shuai’s upbringing in Queens, NY, Corrie’s upbringing in Buffalo, and Olson’s NC Piedmont roots (he grew up outside of Charlotte). There’s not a lot of beef to be found in those places, and thus there is not at King BBQ. However, in addition to the pork, there is duck, chicken wings, and occasionally fried fish taking cues from Queens and Buffalo.

On this day, I stuck with pork – chopped pork topped with fried pork skins and pork spare ribs. The barbecue items are smoked in Lang offset smokers but while I did not detect a ton of smoke from the chopped pork, the texture and taste were nice, particular when paired with some crunch from the pork skin or the creamy chopped slaw I selected as one of my sides.

The spare ribs were slathered with a char siu barbecue sauce, which added a slight sweetness to the rib that wasn’t overpowering. The flavor was great but to a certain extent the sauce masked any smoke on the ribs. They were cooked nicely with each of my bites coming clean.

The BBQ red rice was a highlight as well, and came recommended by the server as I was ordering at the register. Paired with a homemade yum yum sauce, I would consider even going a double side of them next time.

There’s so much more to King BBQ than what I tried on that day: duck, sausage, noodle bowls, shrimp toast, a play on crab rangoon, and more. I hope to find myself back in Charleston again soon to check them out with a bigger crowd.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 4 hogs
Ribs– 4 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 4 hogs

Name: Pig Beach
Date: 7/21/19
Address: 480 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Order: Sampler platter with ¼ rack of ribs, ¼ lb of pork shoulder, brisket, and turkey each; 2 links of Yankee red hot sausages (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Monk: To say I’ve had a mixed history with Brooklyn barbecue would be an understatement. On one hand there was my introduction to Brooklyn barbecue at the now-closed The Smoke Joint in Fort Greene, which may be the single worst barbecue restaurant I’ve ever been to. Then, there’s the ridiculously good, 4.5 hog Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook, expertly run by Billy Durney. If those are the two ends of the spectrum, just where would Pig Beach in Gowanus fall?

Despite the fact that the weekend that Mrs. Monk, the eldest Monkette, and I were in New York was during a heatwave, we opted to go to the beer garden locale of Pig Beach because in addition to having a decent reputation for barbecue it looked like a cool spot and surely there would be some shade right? The restaurant is located just off the Gowanus Canal, but thankfully we didn’t have any issues with any smells from the canal wafting into the beer garden area. In the back corner of the property behind an outdoor bar was a smokehouse comprised of a number of Ole Hickorys, which are gas-assisted wood smokers.

What we got from those Ole Hickory pits was a bit of a mixed bag. The two best meats on this day by a good margin were the brisket, which had a nice peppery bark and was well-smoked, and the “Yankee Red Hot Sausage” which is stuffed with the unique combination of provolone and hot cherry peppers. I’m no sausage expert but I definitely had not seen provolone in a sausage before. Unorthodox or not, it worked for me.

A notch below was the smoked turkey, a meat I don’t usually order at barbecue restaurants. I probably won’t start ordering it on the regular but if other restaurant’s turkey is smokey and moist along the same lines of Pig Beach, then that’s a decent option.

The pork was bland and forgettable and the rIbs may have been holdovers from the previous day based on how chewy I found them. Both were very forgettable on this day.

For sides we picked coleslaw, mac and cheese (dusted with goldfish crumbs nonetheless), and cucumber salad. All were well executed and above average.

Pig Beach has a great setting that would have been even more pleasant had it not been in the middle of a heat wave in late July. They’ve also got no shortage of drink options from local beers to cocktails, so you can definitely stick around for awhile after you finish your meal. On the Brooklyn Barbecue Spectrum (trademark pending), they are definitely more Hometown than Smoke Joint for sure.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Brisket – 3.5 hogs
Ribs – 1.5 hogs
Sausage – 3.5 hogs
Turkey – 3 hogs
Sides – 3.5 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs