NYC BBQ

Peach Tea Glazed Pork Belly — My absolute favorite bite of BBQ I’ve had in a long time. It was soft, it was fatty, and most importantly, wasn’t too sweet. These perfect squares of pork bliss ruined belly for me forever. Brisket — Slightly overcooked, which was disappointing considering they were fatty cuts. The flavor was wonderful, but you couldn’t help knowing that this could have been better. Not the worst brisket by a long shot, but expectations were high.

This year's runner-up was Leland Avellino of Avellino Family Barbecue, who also won last year's Brisket King NYC. It's rare for a winner to come back the following year, but Leland likes a challenge. The Connecticut-based Avellino Family Barbecue crew served up perfect brisket sandwiches with crispy onions on top. It was one of the best bites of the night, just like last year. NJ-based Tio Rozay's BBQ brought the fire at Brisket King.

Blue Smoke (Brisket King NYC 2023 Runner-Up) – Christine Espinal Rosa – Manhattan, NY Hindsight BBQ (Brisket King NYC 2022 Runner-Up) – Jeff Schmidt and Mark Fuller – Waterbury, CT Bear’s Smokehouse (Rib King NYC 2023 Winner) – Cheryl Antoncic – Hartford, CT Empire BBQ (Pig Island NYC 2023 Best in Show) – Vincent Mangual – New York, NY Tio Rozay’s BBQ – Hery Acosta – North Bergen, NJ Iron & Oak Catering – Alexandra Donnadio (Featured on Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef”) – Hillsborough, NJ...

I recently visited the southern end of the Jersey Shore for a short getaway from NYC. It's my second summer in a row visiting the Shore, and it also allowed me a second visit to the spectacular Wildwoods BBQ in North Wildwood, NJ. While the joint opened in 2021, my first taste of what its team could do was when they won Brisket King NYC in March 2023. Led by Australian pitmasters David Gill and Joel Romano, they wowed the attendees with top-notch brisket and sausage.

What makes this event notable is that it’s a new BBQ event in Manhattan, which does not host many of these gatherings anymore. Most BBQ events these days are held in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Post-COVID, Manhattan has struggled to return to its days as the “center of the city” as more people work remotely and activities in other boroughs have thrived. Events like this can bring people back to the NYC parks like MSP, which are truly special urban spaces.

Pitmaster Leland Avellino of Connecticut-based Avellino Family Barbecue has been wowing audiences at Brisket King NYC for years. But on Wednesday night, he was finally crowned the Brisket King of NYC after serving perfect brisket sandwiches to the masses. Avellino, who previously ran the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que location in Stamford, founded Avellino Family Barbecue in 2020 and has been hosting successful pop-ups since that time.

See many of the top awards listed below. Top Barbecue Sauce (tie) B.T. Leigh’s, The Magical Mop; Kentucky Louisiana Creole Candy, Creole-ish BBQ Sauce; Louisiana Top Hot Sauce of 2023 Coney Island Saucery, Ricky's Smokes Let's Go Hot Sauce; New York City Runner Up, Top Hot Sauce of 2023 Craic Sauce, 40 Shades of Green Chili; Lowell, Mass.

The annual Sauce King NYC competition assembles judges from the culinary world to rate and honor top barbecue, hot, culinary, and other sauces from around NYC and the world. This week, the winners of the fifth year of the competition were announced. (Top winners first appeared in The Smoke Sheet newsletter.) As usual, the competition was fierce, with the judges noting that the variety of sauces continues to increase.

Here are the top BBQ and related food news stories you need to know about: During the past few months, we've sadly seen multiple BBQ restaurants in the area close down. These include: Juicy Lucy BBQ on Staten Island, NY — Juicy Lucy once had a reputation as one of the top BBQ joints in NYC, and had won Brisket King NYC twice. Facing financial challenges, the joint closed two out of three of its locations at the end of 2022, and the one location it had left closed at the end of November.

Jeff Michner Foundation BBQ Benefit When: Saturday, April 27, 2024 Where: Pig Beach BBQ, Queens Why Attend: The annual Jeff Michner Benefit will be one of the biggest BBQ events of the year in NYC. More than 25 big-name pitmasters and chefs (many from all over the country) will be cooking up a feast — all to raise money for charity in the name of the late Jeff Michner. The roster of talent includes Tuffy Stone, Amy Mills, Chris Lilly, Carey Bringle, Billy Durney, and many more.