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This week’s Somewhere South looks to be a must-watch for barbecue lovers
This week on #SomewhereSouthPBS, @chefandthef Vivian Howard seeks to expand her knowledge of barbecue outside of North Carolina's whole hog tradition and travels to Florida and Texas in search of new BBQ. Watch "How Do You 'Cue" this Fri. 9/8c on @pbs. pic.twitter.com/QcPewQeNf3
— Somewhere South (from A Chef's Life) (@chefsouth) April 28, 2020
James Beard-award winning author Adrian Millerjoined Vivian Hoard to tape the episode of “Somewhere South”
Thanks to The Smoke Sheet for featuring our recent post on mail order barbecue options in NC and SC in their latest issue
Name: John Brown Smokehouse Address: 10-43 44th Dr, Long Island City, NY 11101 Order: 1/2 lb of burnt ends, 1/2 lb pork belly, and 1/2 lb pulled pork with corn bread and collards (link to menu) Pricing: $$
A quick work trip to New York City allowed me to accomplish a couple of barbecue-related things while in town (after finishing up my day job requirements, of course): try another New York barbecue joint to see how its barbecue scene continues to develop and also meet up with Sean Ludwig of NYC BBQ and The Smoke Sheet.
Regarding the latter, I had met up with Ryan Cooper (aka BBQ Tourist), the other half of The Smoke Sheet, last year in Charlotte so meeting Sean would complete my Smoke Sheet punch card. Turns out, Sean is also a great guy and I enjoyed “talking shop” regarding all things barbecue and how they run The Smoke Sheet. Sean is a thoughtful guy and gave me a lot of great things to think about when it comes to Barbecue Bros.
In terms of barbecue, I knew I would be limited when it comes to barbecue options after 8pm on a Monday night. Consulting with Sean ahead of time, we settled on John Brown Smokehouse in Long Island City since it’s open until 10 and was convenient to both my midtown hotel and Sean’s apartment. John Brown’s is a Kansas City-style barbecue joint that opened in 2012 and its co-owner and pitmaster Josh Bowen has also opened the Texas-themed Mothership Meat Company a few miles away, but that appears to be more of a warm weather patio spot.
Thankfully, John Brown Smokehouse was able to mostly deliver when it came to barbecue though some meats were understandably out by the time we get there (which is of course always preferable to serving old or not-up-to-par meats). Sean took the lead in terms of the order and we settled on a 1/2 lb each of burnt ends, pork belly, and pulled pork.
I’ll get the pulled pork out of the way since it was my least favorite of the three meats. John Brown Smokehouse served a coarsely chopped pulled pork that had good bark that surprisingly lacked much flavor.
The brisket is apparently not the order at John Brown and instead Sean recommended that we should go for the burnt ends. According to Sean, the brisket is sliced too thin while the burnt ends are taken from the fatty point of the brisket so you should just order them instead. Curiously, the burnt ends were not sauced as you might expect from a Kansas City joint but regardless, they were moist and flavorful.
I’m not sure if pork belly is typical at Kansas City barbecue restaurants or if this was a case of just wanting to have a variety of meats on John Brown’s menu, but it was yet another case of a successful protein available past 9. Similar to the other meats, it came sauceless but the well-rendered fattiness of the pork belly didn’t require any sauce.
Speaking of sauces, be sure to taste test your sauce bottles if you do go for sauce, as the highly spicy variant of the barbecue was mistakenly labeled and could have led to unexpected results had I been overly aggressive with the sauce.
In terms of sides, the cornbread is a must order at John Brown Smokehouse. Though its not a traditional cornbread cake, instead having a texture of a corn pudding. Moist and sweet, their version of cornbread was a different twist on cornmeal I hadn’t seen before that more than made up for their lackluster collards.
John Brown Smokehouse would have been forgiven for mediocre meats at a less-than-optimal time of day. Thankfully, they more than delivered a great meal on a rainy, nasty Monday night and I can imagine earlier in the day it would have been even better.
The Fusion BBQ Beer Fest claimed to be hosting an event at Dodger Stadium in June, only no one has heard of the organizers and there is a Dodger game that day
You say that South Carolina has 4 distinct barbecue regions? Not so fast my friend, says Robert Moss
The conventional wisdom has long been that South Carolina has four BBQ regions defined primarily by sauce. In my latest for @Southern_Living, I say it's time to revisit that old map. Yellow mustard sauce is on the move.https://t.co/0bfciDXq0m
More whole hog in Texas from Bryan Bingham of Bodacious BBQ in Longview, Russell Roegels with Roegels Barbecue in Houston, and Tyler Harp from Harp Barbecue in Kansas City
Want to pig out? Enthusiasts of all things barbecued pig can get their fill next weekend in Longview. https://t.co/z0eCOhRnpL
Mighty Quinn’s BBQ will give sad Knicks fans good food options at the Garden
.@MightyQuinnsBBQ is opening two new small locations inside Madison Sq Garden so you can get your BBQ fix during sporting events and concerts https://t.co/ytbU8mvQRr
Videographer/photographer Tarik Sykes spends some time with rising star Tyler Harp of Harp Barbecue at his weekly pop-up at Crane Brewing in Raytown, MO (about 20 minutes outside of Kansas City). Sean Ludwig from The Smoke Sheet and NYC BBQ even makes an appearance towards the end of the video.
Description: I shot this video over 2 Saturdays visiting with Tyler at Harp Barbecue which is every Saturday from 11-Sellout at Crane Brewing in Raytown, Mo. (Unless posted they will be closed).
Tyler talks about when they started their Pop-up at Crane Brewing and hits on how BBQ is broke up into Regions and KC being a hub of the different Regions in BBQ. Also touches them making Pork Belly Burnt Ends at the Pop-up !