Biting into the Big Apple: Good Southern BBQ...in NY?

“Do you smell that?” Philip asked me.
“Mmm...yeah, I do,” I responded as the aroma of BBQ kicked my salivary glands into overdrive.

We had just arrived at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, an annual weekend-long BBQ event that raises money for the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Over 15 of the best pitmasters from the southern states and New York, NY were serving all sorts of BBQ - pulled pork shoulder sandwiches, sausage, beef brisket, whole hog, different types of ribs, all natural turkey, coleslaw, and beans - at Madison Square Park in Flatiron.

Whole hog

Over 100,000 people are typically served over the course of the weekend. And Philip, four friends, and I were among the first of those 100,000.

A lot of people who attend this BBQ Block Party have done their research. They know whose BBQ they want to eat and why. Some pitmasters have somehow managed to gain either a following or a level of fame that draws eaters to their booths, and people will stand in line for hours to pay $8 for a small plate of BBQ prepared by the pitmaster of their choice.

The short line for Big Bob's

Two of our friends had been to the block party before and suggested we arrive as soon as the event started, 11 am. We arrived at 10:59, and almost immediately, I started salivating. Because of this “come early” strategy, the longest we stayed in line for anything was about 45 minutes.

We started at what we knew would be the most popular stop at the block party, Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q. (See Big Bob's chopping up their "pulled" pork in the video below.) By the time we got our pulled pork shoulder sandwiches (just under an hour long wait) and finished eating them, the end of the line was about 2 hours away from the cash register. Eek!

Our next longest wait was about 45 minutes for pies from The Original Fried Pie Shop. The only reason it was that short was because our strategizing friends left four of us in line while they figured out what was going on with the lines at the pie shop. Long story short, the vendor didn’t know what to expect at the event, and as a result, their system was chaotic. Our friends figured out there were four lines (instead of one), found the shortest and grabbed our pies. (The people we had been standing by in the extra long line would probably be there at least another hour and still would not make it to the front.)

The Original Fried Pie Shop chaos

Were the pies worth the wait? Well, I guess the 45-minute wait was fine...and I could even handle the cold wind and rain...but I certainly wouldn’t wait 2 hours for it. By the way, “Fried Pie” is a fancy term for “I’m an upgraded McDonald’s pie.” It was shaped like a large, flat empanada, and it was filled with - you guessed it - pie filling. Between the six of us, we had at least one apple, apricot, and blackberry; the only option we were missing was the peach.

The Big Apple BBQ Block Party was an interesting experience, and we all left talking about how we need to do it again next year. As I sit here writing this and smelling the BBQ smoke on the clothes I wore, I can’t help but think, “Yeah, I’ll go again next year. But I might be more strategic about what I wear.”