Best Barbecue Pork Ribs in Manhattan

Photograph: Jessica Leibowitz at Serious Eats

OK. I'll wait.

Done yet?

C'mon. Really?

OK, children settle down now. Stop the laughing. Yes - the title of this post is the "Best Barbecue Pork Ribs in Manhattan," as in New York City. Yes, we do have multiple true barbecue restaurants in Manhattan and even more in Brooklyn. And today, we'll talk about the "best" pork barbecue ribs in Manhattan. Are they the best in the nation? No one said that, so you Southerners. Relax. We're not taking the crown just yet.

James Boo, Seriouseats.com NY's budding barbecue expert invited me, my buddy Ned Berke of Sheepsheadbites.com, Edible Queens blogger and 'cue enthusiast Joe DiStefano (known in certain circles as "Joey Deckle"), barbecue ambassador Amy Mills to join the staff and judge Manhattan's best pork barbecue ribs and the results are surprising.

Here's what happened, as James tells on Serious Eats...

This tasting focused on smoked pork ribs available for dine-in or take-out in Manhattan. Choices were based on our informal poll on SENY and the Barbecue Bureau's top choices. We purchased half-racks of spare ribs to-go from each restaurant, with the exception of Rack and Soul, which only serves baby back ribs:

• Blue Smoke: Kansas City Spareribs
• Daisy May's BBQ: Kansas City Sweet and Sticky Pork Ribs
• Daisy May's BBQ: Memphis Dry Rub Pork Ribs
• Dinosaur Barbeque Harlem: St. Louis Bar-B-Que Spare Ribs
• Hill Country New York: Pork spare ribs
• Rack and Soul: BBQ: Baby Back Ribs
• RUB: St. Louis-Style Long End"

I'll pick it up from here. We were led into the Serious Eats office and spread out before us was a large conference table with 7 plates of ribs lined up on one side. The only identifiable marking was a purple post-it tag with the numbers of 1 to 7 written on them. We stood around a while discussing how the judging was to take place and finally dove in.

When we sat down I thought I recognized a couple of the ribs, but as I was eating them I honestly lost my preconceived notions. I knew RUB was there. So was Daisy May, Blue Smoke and Hill Country. I saw them on the plates lined up for tasting, but by the time a rib got to my plate I had no idea which restaurant produced it. Joey Deckle was distributing the ribs to the plate and we were all sharing ribs. Trying to figure out where 1/2 a rib came from was a useless pursuit. So my dear readers, this was true blind judging. 

I'm not going to re-write James's post about the whole experience. You should read it over on Serious Eats, but here's the winners from the panel's perspective.

1. Rack and Soul's BBQ Baby Back Ribs (7.8/10)
2. Daisy May's BBQ's Kansas City Sweet and Sticky Pork Ribs (7.3/10)
3. Daisy May's BBQ's Memphis Dry Rub Pork Ribs(6.8/10)
4. Hill Country New York's Pork Spare Ribs (6.3/10)
5. Dinosaur Barbeque Harlem's St. Louis Bar-B-Que Spare Ribs (6.1/10)
6. Blue Smoke's Kansas City Spare Ribs (5.5/10)
7. RUB's St. Louis-Style Long End (4.5/10)

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised by these results. We all discussed our winners and losers and I didn't leave thinking this was how it would play out. James still had to tally our written votes, with the exception of Rack and Soul being the hands down winner, every other position was still in flux.

My feelings -- To me, the top two were Daisy May's. My winner was the dry rub ribs, followed by Daisy's sweet and sticky ribs. This really surprised me as my last visits to Daisy May's proved so disappointing that I wrote a post pleading with Adam Perry Lang to abandon his London restaurants and take care of Daisy. Maybe he listened, but whomever is handling the cookers at Daisy May's now is doing a great job. I need to get back there and update my comments. 

My least favorite in the bunch was Blue Smoke's Kansas City Style Spare Ribs. They were completely untrimmed, fatty and tasteless. To me, it appeared that the chef  had completely given up. There were no discernible spices, nor bark or smoke on these ribs. Huge chunks of fat dominated them and easily over powered the meat. I wouldn't have been surprised to be given these ribs from some newlywed's first attempt at cooking ribs in oven.

Hill Country's ribs didn't fare much better. While these ribs were cooked well, the salt, pepper, paprika seasoning just doesn't cut it for pork. "Hammy" was the most frequently heard comment here. Stick with the beef boys. 

As for the others, well it was a mixed bag as under cooking seemed to be the most common mistake.

I can't wait to do it again!

Who Do You Trust? - AOL/City Search Names New York City's Best Barbecue

This came into my email today....

City's Best Winners - Barbecue - Restaurants and Nightlife ...
Spanky's BBQ, 6th. Pig'n Out Barbeque, 7th. Bone Lick Park, 8th. Pies-N-Thighs, 9th. Sawa BBQ, 10th. 617 9th Ave,New York ... m.aol.com/citysbest/.../citysbestResults.do?...

OK - I'm always interested in what others think about the New York BBQ scene, but looking over this little email notification, something was clearly amiss. Spanky's came in at number 6? Spanky's has been closed since early 2009 as I reported back on January 28, 2009! Sawa is also closed - and I don't think they ever were a barbecue joint. Bar BQ is also long gone as is Pig'n Out.

WTF is going on here? I've always heard that the "leaders" in the review world could be bought. Is this evidence? Why would AOL/City Search list FOUR closed restaurants as part of the top ten and leave out NYC's current leaders like RUB, Wildwood, Hill Country, The Waterfront Ale House etc? I call shenanigans!

In case you're interested, here's AOL/City Search's top 10 BBQ joints of New York City - for what it's worth. And that ain't much.

1. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
2. Virgil's Barbecue
3. Blue Smoke
4. Bar BQ
5. Daisy May's BBQ
6. Spanky's BBQ
7. Pig'n Out Barbeque
8. Bone Lick Park
9. Pies-N-Thighs
10. Sawa BBQ

PS - That rib picture that leads this post is from the incredible RUB! You need to check them out whenever you're in Manhattan.

A Bowl of Red

Tonight, I'm making Chili. No, that's not right. Tonight, I'm beginning to make Chili. To be more precise, I'm making Texas-Style Chili aka Bowl of Red. And I'm using a cook book for the recipe.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you will know how much I love the Chili that Adam Perry Lang makes at his restaurant Daisy May's BBQ. You can always rely on the chili at Daisy May's. It's always fantastic. Rich, spicy, thick and savory. Everything a bowl of red can be.

So what does Adam and Daisy have to do with my making Chili? Well, in the beginning of the summer, Adam published the cook book Serious Barbecue. Let me tell you it's a seriously good cookbook and highly recommended, and on page 193 he lists his recipe for Texas-Style Chili aka Bowl of Red. Since I bought the book, way back in June, I've been dying to try out this recipe. If this chili is half as good as the chili he serves, it will make an outstanding meal.

I'm not going to give you the recipe. You'll have to buy the book for that, but I'm following the recipe as closely as possible. I can't tell you how rarely I follow a recipe. Usually I use recipes as inspiration and adjust them to what I have on hand or to what flavors I like. Adam's chili is so good that I'm following his recipe as closely as I possibly can.

So far, I've only made two small modifications. Adam call's for 1 (one) lb of whole pod dried chilies, preferably New Mexican. Now I thought I could buy those in one of my local markets, but all they had were Mexican chilies, so I bought 2 oz of Chile Guajillo, 4 oz of Chile Mulato and 10 oz of Chile Ancho all produced by Central Chilera de Puebla. I've never used the Guajillo or Mulato Chilies before but Ancho and I are old friends. I hope these chilies aren't too hot!

So far, this has been a complex process. I had to seed and stem all the dried chilies, soak and steam them and puree them with some more ingredients as per the recipe. I would say it took about 45 minutes to prepare it to this point. Right now, the meat and chili mixture is marinating in my refrigerator. That's a picture of the meat mixture above. I don't have any plastic bags large enough to hold the 4 lbs of chuck, cut into 1 (one) inch cubes, so I used a baking dish. The meat is thoroughly coated with the chili mixture, thinly sliced sweet onions and micro-planed garlic.

More tomorrow after it hits the smoker.

Oh, if you decide to make this. Buy some disposable rubber gloves before you begin. Chili oil on your hands leads to chili oil in places chili oil doesn't belong. Trust me. It's not pretty.

Wordless Wednesday Even Tho It's Thursday

Beef rib at Daisy May's BBQ USA

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Going Down on Daisy

Yesterday I picked up a copy of Adam Perry Lang's new cookbook Serious Barbecue. This is an outstanding book and a review will be coming toot sweet, but not today. Today I have a different story to tell.

After leaving the book store, I high tailed it down to Daisy May's (Adam Perry Lang's NYC BBQ joint) with the hope that Adam would be there and I could get him to autograph it for me. I knew it was a long shot, but I figured what the hell. The least I'd get out of it was a good meal.

Daisy May's is probably the barbecue restaurant I frequent most. The place is a glorified take out joint which works very well for me in my life as a consultant. I can usually find a parking spot right in front, get my food and get on my way. Going to Daisy May's doesn't require the same time commitment a visit to a sit down joint. It suits me just fine.

When I arrived last night, at about 7 pm, I ordered my food, paid and asked the cashier if Adam was there explaining that I wanted to get his autograph. The cashier asked if I had called first. I told her no, but was hoping to catch Adam. She laughed and said "Adam's never here."

As I was waiting for my food, I started to think about the last time I saw Adam at the restaurant. I consider Adam a friend and every time I'm at Daisy May's I ask for him. About a year ago, I was told by the cashier that "Adam is never here after 5:00pm." OK, makes sense. He's a family guy with two young children. He needs to be home.

About 6 months ago I was told Adam was only there "occasionally." I started hearing rumors that Adam was no longer involved in Daisy May's, but Adam reassured me that he was still at the helm and at Daisy May's "all the time." I still wondered as more stories appeared about Adam working with Mario Batali in Vegas, working with Jamie Oliver in London and working on his book. Had Adam lost interest in Daisy May's?

About 4 months ago, I noticed that the place had become inconsistent in its food. Some visits were outstanding, others, well not so much. Unfortunately, this isn't too uncommon when it comes to barbecue places, but it appeared that Daisy May's was slipping. A couple of months ago, I brought my wife, daughter and two of her friends to Daisy Mays for lunch. Something was definitely off; cold food, burnt ribs, everything over salted. About the same time, I sent a friend and his wife there for dinner. They weren't happy.

Last night, since I had time to sit down, I ordered the brisket plate with baked beans and macaroni and cheese, (8oz of chopped brisket and two sides for $14.) and a quart of sweet tea ($4). The tea as always was fantastic, minty with just the right sweetness. The brisket was horrendous, overly sweet and mostly chunks of fat. The beans which claim to be made with burnt ends, were also studded with these same chunks of fat. The macaroni and cheese was so over cooked that it could have easily passed for mush. Diners on both sides of me were complaining to each other that they hadn't gotten what was ordered.

I'm glad that this wasn't my first visit to Daisy May's because it would have been my last.

It pains me to write this review, as I mentioned, I consider Adam a friend. But when I started this blog I told myself I'd report the good and bad and let the chips fall where they may. Adam agreed with that philosophy back then, I hope he still does.

C'mon home Adam. Daisy needs her man.



Photgraph of Daisy May's BBQ courtesy of Pig Trip and used with permission. Use of this photograph does not imply that Pig Trip shares my opinions of Daisy May's. For their review of Daisy May's please click here.

BBQ Joints: Virgil's

Virgil's Barbecue
152 W 44th St
New York, NY 10036
(212) 921-9494

Last week I mentioned that I joined Gary from PigTrip for a mini crawl through two of Manhattan's BBQ joints. We had a mission when we set out on this trip, but unfortunately we didn't meet any of our goals. But, we did get to eat some fine food.

I know I'm doing this out of order as our second stop of the day was Virgil's BBQ in Time's Square. I should really start with post about Southern Hospitality, but not today.

Virgil's may qualify as the grand daddy of real barbeque in New York City. Some people give Blue Smoke the credit for sparking the barbecue renascence in NY, but Virgil's set the fire, Blue Smoke, Daisy May's and RUB stoked it. Before Virgil's arrived decent real wood smoked barbecue was not found in Manhattan.

Back in the day, I used to frequent Virgil's frequently as I worked at MTV just up the street. Back then Virgil's was good, but very inconsistent in its quality. Some days the food would be so burnt and dry it was almost inedible, others the food was close to perfect. It was a real crap shoot. So when the new kids arrived, I stopped going to Virgil's. The new places were so much better.

In my quest for the best barbecue in New York, I would be remiss to dismiss Virgil's based on its past performance. How's it doing now was the question that Gary and I tried to answer.

But we were thwarted by our own gluttony. As I mentioned, earlier in the day we stopped into Southern Hospitality for a sampling of their food and we were feted by the ever hospitable Dr. BBQ. I'll talk about that visit in another post, but let's just say that we rolled out of Southern Hospitality with our bellies and heads full.

We arrived at Virgil's without much if any, of an appetite. But in the name of research we trudged on. We ordered the Texas Red Chili and the BBQ Chicken wings. Both were good, but neither were the best of NY. The chili had some nice flavor which was dominated by Ancho chili, a little heat, but was not smokey at all. It also contained a smattering of beans which are not included in a bowl of traditional Texas Red.

The wings were good, but as with most smoked wings, the skin was a bit rubbery. They were sauced just enough for my liking, but unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of the sauce. There is a citrus base to the sauce that becomes overwhelming if you eat more than one.

That said, the wings were intriguing. The crust was nice, the smoke level good. They were good enough to raise other questions; how's the ribs? The brisket? The grilled hot dogs? Look's like another visit is in order. Gary? You ready?

Tuesday Two

Well, it didn't work. My head says I'm fine, but my body has other ideas.

March Madness continues. Dinner tonight: grilled London broil, corn and pasta for the swimmer.

Be sure to check out this month's Food and Wine magazine. This month features a great article on Passover dinner with a modern twist as presented by my buddy Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May's Barbecue. The article also drops some great news; Adam's releasing a cookbook called Daisy May's Barbecue. Personally, I can't wait.

Picture of Adam Perry Lang's Short Ribs courtesy of Food and Wine Magazine.