Pigtrip.net BBQ Reviews - Boston, New York, New England, Long Island and the Hudson Valley

Remember the little birdie who told me about a list in the Sunday Boston Globe of the ten best barbecue joints in New England outside of Boston? It didn't appear last Sunday as originally expected, but it's in today's Travel section.

read the article online

Here are the joints the Globe listed (in alphabetical order):

BBQ Bob's (Bethel ME)
BT's Smokehouse (Brimfield MA)
Buck's Naked (Freeport ME)
Chester's Barbecue (New London CT)
Cookhouse (New Milford CT)
Curtis BBQ (Putney VT)
Moat Mountain Smokehouse (North Conway NH)
Muddy River Smokehouse (Portsmouth NH)
Smoke 'n' Bones (Oak Bluffs MA on Martha's Vineyard)
United BBQ (Providence RI)

Before last weekend, I compiled my own list just to see how closely the Globe's list would overlap. There wasn't much.

Only three of the Globe's ten selections (BT's Smokehouse, Buck's Naked, United BBQ) made my list. I also like Chester's, a tough omission that might be the next joint to make my list if I dropped a couple of too-close-to-Boston joints. The Cookhouse would have made my list at one point, but they spiralled downhill shortly before closing down three of their four locations, leaving only the New Milford flagship. Three of the Globe's choices are joints I have not yet visited, though I have heard very good things about one, very bad things about another and nothing about the third. Of the Globe's two selections I disagree with, one I can understand and one leaves me scratching my head in amazement. It's easy to fall in love with Curtis BBQ based on the funky location, unique open pit and personable pitmaster, but the (decent) 'cue for me just doesn't warrant the hype (give me corporate looking but better tasting Big Bubba's at Mohegan Sun any day). As for Muddy River Smokehouse, its inclusion gave me the second biggest chuckle of the article (I'll let you guess which line early on gave me the biggest).

My list of New England BBQ Joints beyond greater Boston (in alphabetical order):

Big Bubba's BBQ (Uncasville CT)
Bobby Q's (Westport CT)
BT's Smokehouse (Brimfield MA)
Buck's Naked (Freeport ME)
Goody Cole's Smokehouse (Brentwood NH)
KC's Rib Shack (Manchester NH)
Lester's Roadside BBQ (Burlington MA)
Route 7 Grill (Great Barrington MA)
Texas BBQ Company (Northborough MA)
United BBQ (Providence RI)
Wilson's (Fairfield CT)

(09/11/09)

New Jersey BBQ: A Guest Review by Eric Devlin of Southern Smokehouse

My New Jersey coverage has been admittedly weak and recently challenged, so when I heard from Eric Devlin (Home of BBQ) about his recent visit to Southern Smokehouse (Linden NJ), I seized the opportunity to ask him for a guest review. Here's his take:

With my predilection for all things smoked, sighting a new BBQ joint is always a treat. I recently had occasion to drive a friend to Newark International Airport. Stuck in some truly horrendous traffic, we managed to miss his flight by minutes. After rescheduling for a later flight, we decided to get an early dinner.

Driving a few miles down routes 1 and 9, we found a shopping center that had a number of restaurants. Tucked into the back was a Southern Smokehouse location. Being completely unfamiliar with them, I suggested we try them out. I now deeply regret fostering further calamity on my already stressed friend.

When we walked through the door it became clear that this was a buffet. Not a good sign, but not enough to deter us. I asked the college aged hostess if they smoked their meats. She quietly shook her head in the negative. I should have been more surprised, with the name being ‘Southern Smokehouse’, but I have been getting more and more inured to false advertising in BBQ. We took the attitude of ‘how bad could it be’ and continued into the dining area. Oh, what fools we were.

The food ranged from atrocious to edible. The service was friendly but inept and sporadic. There were no BBQ type items available during the lunch hours. The closest was the fried chicken. During the dinner hours they have turkey and ribs. The turkey is baked and the ribs are grilled.

There seemed to be little or no rotation of the buffet items, resulting in dried out and just nasty food. They had a salad bar that fell into the ‘edible’ category. Oddly, they also had an Asian section in their buffet. The usual standards were on display. Lo Mein, General Tso’s Chicken and chicken on a stick all made an appearance. Sadly, their totally quotidian General Tso’s Chicken was the best thing that I had to eat.

The bathroom was disgusting, but the rest of the cleanliness was reasonable.

Thankfully, the prices are low. I was able to get my money’s worth at Southern Smokehouse by drinking about 10 Sprites in an hour’s time.

My advice? If you are waiting for a flight at Newark and you’re getting a bit peckish, roll down your car window and suck down the diesel fumes. You’ll get just as much nutritional value and it’ll taste better.

(09/10/09)(second post)

A few Photos From Today's Catered Lunch By Redbones

(09/10/09)

Boston BBQ Becomes Worcester BBQ: Redbones Is Catering My Lunch Today

It's that time of year again at my office: there's a summer barbecue luncheon today. This year I'm even part of the inner circle that's planning the event, so I know ahead of time that it'll be Redbones (Somerville MA) making the trek out to Worcester to cater it. And this year I know that the menu will consist of pork ribs, brisket, sausage, pulled chicken, vegetables, cornbread, rice and beans, watermelon, cookies and brownies. (I would have also added the BBQ hash, but what do I know?) I'll try to take a few photos.

New York City BBQ: Beer and BBQ Dinner at Hill Country, September 23

Hill Country (NYC) is partnering with Samuel Adams to host a Beer and BBQ Dinner on Wednesday, September 23. The event starts at 7:00PM with a reception featuring passed appetizers (chicken and cheese stuffed jalapenos, mini jalapeno and cheese corn muffins, mini chili bowls with aviocado) paired with Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Samuel Adams Light. The first course is a BLT wedge salad with devilled egg spread on toast, paired with Samuel Adams Coastal Wheat. The second course is a smoked bone-in pork chop with homemade apple sauce, baked sweet potato and cinnamon sugar, paired with Samuel Adams Octoberfest. The dessert is fresh berry crumble pie with Blue Bell ice cream and Samuel Adams Cherry wheat.

The event is $65 and may be reserved by contacting Laura at 212-255-4544 ext 13, or laura@hillcountryny.com.

more details here

(09/09/09)

Joints Directory Madness

Here's the latest batch of barbecue Joints directory activity, spanning three states. This time there are eight new joints, three new closings and one new website.

Old Devil Moon (New York, NY) has been closed since winter. Thanks to Robert for the tip. There's a tribute posted on Vanishing New York.
Bad Bob's (Oceanside NY) was a borderline addition when it first joined my directory, since it's a small but national chain. There's no longer an outpost in Oceanside and there are two locations struggling in Port Washington. Based on its chain status and some mixed reports from people I trust, I've pulled it from the Directory altogether.
Picnick, Smoked (New York NY) is a barbecue truck that's a sister operation of the Picnick kiosk, located at the corner of Wall Street and water Street. It doesn't have ribs and doesn't have a phone, but it does seem to have a loyal following based on the Menupages reviews and a Midtown Lunch post.
Marfa NYC (New York NY) earlier this year took the space previously occupied by a Chinese transvestite bar. The theme is West Texas, with pork ribs, pulled pork and chipotle chicken arguably offering barbecue (where's the beef?). Current recession specials include all you can eat ribs ($12) and/or wings ($9) on Mondays and all you can eat fried chicken ($9) on Wednesdays. www.marfanyc.com
Riverview BBQ & Grill (Seymour CT) was bought in December 2008 by two brothers who opened the joint in March 2009. I know nothing about the food, but I have a hunch the service might be good, based on the friendliest, most courteous telephone response I've received in a long, long time. www.riverviewbbq.com [website not currently active]
Pig Pen Bar and Barbeque (New City NY) is a squeaky clean new addition with two kinds of ribs (St Louis cut pork and boneless beef short ribs), three types of burgers (beef, turkey and pork), plus a wide range of appetizers, including shrimp with Alabama white sauce. www.thepigpenbbq.com
Smokey O' Grady's (East Lyme CT) has the distinction of a PigTrip visit before it was added to the directory. I can say that it's a good place to watch sports and the Sunday deals in particular are inviting. As for the barbecue, my review is forthcoming. There's no website but you can view the menu here.
Sweet Potata's (Bloomfield CT) is another addition to Connecticut's already-strong soul roster. In addition to the usual ribs, brisket, "chopped BBQ" and BBQ chicken, Sweet Potata's offers a full breakfast menu (starting at 6:00AM) with specialties such as grilled SPAM and egg sandwiches, salmon cakes, smoked sausages, grits, sweet potato pancakes and too many others to list. www.sweetpotatas.com
Shaw's Ridge Farm BBQ Barn (Sanford ME) just might be that elusive "fun for the whole family" place, with miniature golf, more than 40 flavors of ice cream, barbecue and a separate lunch shack offering salads and sandwiches. www.shawsridgefarm.com
The Real BBQ Bob's (Bethel ME) was already in the directory but now has a website: www.therealbbqbob.com
Overtime Grill & Ale House (Island Park NY) doesn't have the full barbecue offerings of the previous two regimes that occupied (disgraced?) this space, but babybacks, a pulled pork sandwich, a bevy of TVs and possibly better execution might be an upgrade. Thanks to Sledneck for the heads up. There's no website but you can view the menu here.
Island BBQ (Islip NY) has shut its doors after just seven months of operation. Thanks to Will for the tip.

(09/07/09)

Long Island BBQ: A Guest Review by "Chuck From Long Island" of Townline BBQ and Turtle Crossing, Part 1

Now that summer's unofficially over, the trek to the Hamptons and other Long Island points "out east" should be a lot easier, so this is a good time to post some guest reviews of Townline BBQ (Sagaponack) and Turtle Crossing (East Hampton) by Chuck From Long Island.

First up is Townline BBQ. Here's Chuck's take:

I recently visited Townline BBQ on a sunny summer afternoon. The restaurant is just a short drive from beautiful Sagg Main beach in Sagaponack, NY. It's housed in a large, modern, barnlike structure on a stretch of Route 27 after the town of Bridgehampton (across the road from a driving range and surrounded by farmland on both sides). Townline BBQ provides take-out and counter service only, but there's plenty of indoor and outdoor seating with nice accomodations such as a pool room, clean bathrooms and a sink in the dining area for hand washing.

In my opinion Townline BBQ serves better than average barbecue for Long Island, but nothing extraordinary. It's supposed to serve Texas BBQ, but few of the offerings are actually done in a true Texas-style. On this visit I ordered the pork ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork sandwich, coleslaw and collard greens. I was alerted that my order was ready for pick-up via a vibrating beeper device.

The dry-rubbed St. Louis cut ribs were prepared Memphis style, with a spicy rub sprinkled liberally on the ribs after smoking. They were lean, smallish in cut, and presented with a discernable smoke ring. The dry rub contained papika and many other spices (while typical Texas style ribs are generally prepared with a Dalmatian rub of salt, pepper and a bit of cayenne). Nevertheless, it was very flavorful somewhat reminding me of the kind used at RUB. Unfortunately, I found my ribs to be slighlty on the dry side and could not taste any smoke over the flavors of the rub. (I found myself adding some of the tomato-based sauce to the ribs for both moisture and to balance the heavy rub seasonings.)

The pulled pork sandwich was served on a hamburger bun with cole slaw on top (typical of the Southeast). The pork was moist and flavorful, served with a thin application of sweet tomato based sauce. I enjoyed the contrast of textures and flavors of this sandwich: the sweet, moist pork contrasted nicely with the creamy, crunchy coleslaw.

The beef brisket was probably the best thing I tried on this visit. It was offered both moist and lean. (I chose the moist, but it was still very lean.) Nice flavor although it probably could've benefited from some more drippings. I'd say it was above average, but nothing like the brisket offered at either Hill County or Wildwood.

All in all a nice place to stop after a day at the beach, but I wouldn't go out of my way for a visit.

(09/05/09)

Connecticut BBQ: Tar River Barbeque Reviewed

A post on a Saturday is a rarity, and a Saturday post on a holiday weekend is even rarer. Rarer still is a barbecue joint review on a Saturday, but since last week was light on posts due to other pressing matters, why wait 'til next week.

The site's 163rd barbecue joint review is now available for Tar River Barbeque (Colchester CT). Check it out via the Reviews page or link to reviews using the red icons in the Joints directory.

I'll probably have another post or two this weekend.

(09/04/09)

Southern BBQ: Some Assigned BBQ Reading in This Month's Travel + Leisure

Based on their article in the September issue of Travel + Leisure magazine, it's obvious that food writing brothers Matt Lee and Ted Lee know how to prepare for a barbecue crawl. The vehicle of choice for the 5-state sojourn (Kansas City to North Carolina) was a 1972 Buick that may not have had the gaudy miles-per-gallon stats you'd like for such a long journey, but the four cigarette lighters allowed refrigeration and computer connectivity to process photos.

The actual magazine has a different assortment of photos from the online version, but the article is identical and a great read. Note that the "America's Best Barbecue" caption on the front cover was probably not written by the Lee brothers, who did not include Texas, Alabama, South Carolina or any of the nouveau barbecue regions on their survey and did not claim in the article that their goal was to include and identify the best in the country.

Read the Travel + Leisure article online

(09/02/09)

New England BBQ: The Best of New England, Outside of Boston

A little birdie told me that this Sunday's Boston Globe will feature a rundown of the ten best barbecue joints in New England outside of Boston. The point of this post is neither to brag that I was involved (I wasn't) nor whine that I should have been involved (I never think that), but merely to offer a heads up. I'm very much looking forward to seeing that issue on Sunday.

Just for fun, I compiled my own list of 10. Part of the challenge lies in how you define "Boston." For the purpose of this list, I excluded all barbecue joints that are listed in the Boston Metro Area section of my Joints directory.

Here's what I came up with (in alphabetical order):

Big Bubba's BBQ (Uncasville CT)
Bobby Q's (Westport CT)
BT's Smokehouse (Brimfield MA)
Buck's Naked (Freeport ME)
Goody Cole's Smokehouse (Brentwood NH)
KC's Rib Shack (Manchester NH)
Lester's Roadside BBQ (Burlington MA)
Route 7 Grill (Great Barrington MA)
Texas BBQ Company (Northborough MA)
United BBQ (Providence RI)
Wilson's (Fairfield CT)

Yes, there are eleven joints, but that's my list. There were some tough omissions, but for the most part it was easy without all the metro Boston and New York restaurants to jockey for position.

I'm guessing that the Globe's list will include Uncle Willie's (Waterbury CT) and Curtis BBQ (Putney VT), and if they really want to lead the receiver, they could also include—as I nearly did—the upstart Flaggstead Smokehouse (Farmington CT).

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