BBQ Comes To Brooklyn!

Really good BBQ finally comes to Brooklyn. Up until now I've had passable, even decent BBQ in Brooklyn. But to get beyond that I had to venture into the city, or worse, wait for the Big Apple BBQ Block Party to come to town. This weekend I finally had some excellent barbecue in the BK. If smoky meat is what you crave, bring your ass down to Hometown BBQ in Red Hook.

Hometown is a big, open space separated into two rooms. Plenty of space to meet your carnivorous needs. 2 full bars, a live band on weekends and enough room not to get your flying BBQ sauce on someone sitting at the next table. That goes a long way towards making me happy. Particularly when eating BBQ. When barbecue is good, it's a full body exercise. You've got your elbows out and a good lean towards the table otherwise you wind up with meat juice and sauce on your Green Lantern shirt...and no one wants that.

Providence shined down upon us when Paula's former co-worker's husband Billy (a fella from my neck of the woods, Bensonhurst) had a predilection for smoked meats and was opening a joint in Red Hook. A few months after he opened up, we gathered up some troops and showed up to chow down. Annie, Paula, Blake and I arrived at 5pm. Right on time for the menu to change over from lunch to dinner. And it was a good thing we got there when we did because by 530-6pm, that line was 15 to 20 people deep and stayed at least that long until we left around 8 or so. I will say that the line did seem to move rather briskly. The folks at Hometown wouldn't want to keep you from your well-deserved gluttony. We got ourselves adult beverages, Blake and I gawked like 12-yr-old girls at a One Direction concert at the bourbon and whiskey selection and then we got ourselves on line to choose our feast.

Looking at this is making me hungry again

When Blake and I made it back to the table, we had trays laden with goodness in all shapes and sizes. I love that the meat comes by the pound and simply on a tray lined with butcher's paper. It just seems right when you're eating this kind of food. We had brisket with such a beautiful pink smoke ring and fantastic bark that it made me tear up. We had a half rack of baby back ribs that we didn't even intend to order. The customer before us ordered a half rack himself. We felt it wouldn't be humanitarian of us to just leave that other half there all alone. So we did our duty and consumed them. Let me say that the Hometown “Sticky Sauce” loves ribs, much as the Carolina-style “Hog Sauce” loves the brisket. Not to be confused with the “Hot Sauce” which loved the BBQ'd lamb belly. Speaking of the lamb belly, such a great melody of fat and meat, it was like a carnivore's song. I'm pretty sure I saw Annie stifle a moan when she ate it. There were also jalapeño/cheddar sausage that came with a wasabi/honey mustard sauce. The sausage didn't need the sauce...nope, not even a little bit. Great snap, perfect amount of heat, terrific flavor. This is what sausage should be. Which isn't to say the sauce went to waste. We discovered it paired incredibly with the whiskey sour pickles. The mac & cheese came with crumbled tortillas on top. When everyone was done with that, I ran my fingers along the inside of the container to get the very last of the cheesy goodness. (Whatever, don't judge me!) The smoked pit beans were loaded with bacon and just wonderful. I'd have done the same finger job on that container but it was taken away too quickly. Someone else beat me to it. I'm not sure who the culprit was, but I can't say that I blame them. We knocked out some sriracha wings, because duh...sriracha. Those were sweeter than I expected but still a good dose of heat and not dry at all. Lastly, the cornbread. I never thought there'd be a day when I'd describe cornbread as luxurious, but that's the word I keep coming back to. It was almost creamy. Just absolutely perfect. Best damn cornbread I've ever had. I thought about rubbing it on my face like Dirty Dee from Pootie Tang. I didn't think Paula would be OK with that.

The staff at Hometown was incredibly friendly. The waitresses and busboys were great. The bartender with the awesome blue hair was a lot of fun. Billy, the owner, was circulating through his place like a proud host making sure everyone there was having a good time. When we told him of our fondness for his pickles and mustard sauce, he produced more for us to eat at the bar. (They didn't last 3 minutes). At one point, the whole family was behind the counter taking orders and slicing meat. It was really cool to see that. There aren't very many true family businesses left in Brooklyn these days. That made me smile.

To give you an idea of how comfortable and at home it feels there, we were probably done eating by 630 or so. We spent another hour and a half sitting at the bar just yapping away with Billy, his wife, each other, the photographer from the New Yorker that blinded us with her camera, the gregarious bartender. The atmosphere just lends itself to being social. What more can you ask from a place? I mean besides great vittles. All I know is that Annie and I have an IKEA run to make in the near future. You best believe we'll be stopping at Hometown BBQ for lunch first!

If there's a pig on the wall, it's got to be good

Hometown BBQ

454 Van Brundt Street

Brooklyn, NY, 11231

347-294-4644