Dear Fette Sau - you know I love you very much but I may have found another lover and his name is Hometown BBQ. I've had this place on my radar screen for a while but since it's in Red Hook, it's a bit of a trek to get to. Plus so many of my friends are vegetarians that it's a bit difficult to convince them to haul ass all the way out there just so that they can only eat like 2 things on the menu. But now that I've been there, I don't know how I can not not go to this place ever again.
Red Hook has always been one of my favorite neighborhoods in Brooklyn because of its isolation and un-gentrified feel. But because of that, it's also a huge pain the ass to get to if you don't have a car. Luckily there is a cool new ferry line you can take and it drops you off not too far from Hometown BBQ. The main upside for being in Red Hook is the space. This place is huge and easily twice the size of Fett Sau, which has to deal with the constraints of Williamsburg real estate. Dan and I strolled in at 4pm thinking it would be totally empty. Umm - we were totally wrong. The line was out the door and we waited 45 minutes to get to the front of the line. Similar to Fette Sau, it's meat by the pound and you order at the counter where they slice and weight everything for you. Luckily, with all the time you spend waiting in line, you have plenty of time to read the menu and plan over and over again what you're going to order. I think we changed our minds about 10 times because EVERYTHING and I do mean everything sounded amazing. Everyone around us clearly over ordered and I can totally understand why. There was one guy who order a dozen ribs and like 2 pounds of meat all by himself - my kindred spirit. They have it all here - brisket, pulled pork, pork and beef ribs, turkey, chicken, lamb, bacon, amazing sounding sandwiches, and even tastier sounding sides. What Hometown has over Fette Sau are the sandwich options and better sides with mac and cheese and collard greens. After changing our minds 50 times, we netted out on 1/2 lb turkey (for Dan), 1/2 pound brisket (for me), pork spare rib, 1/2 a chicken, 1/2 lb pulled pork and a small potato salad. I really really wanted to Korean sticky ribs and mac and cheese but there was absolutely no way in hell we could have eaten all that food without needing an ambulance afterwards.
Most of the meat is non-sauced but they have 2 kinds of sauces at the table for you. My first bite was of the brisket and it was heavenly. Moist, fatty and meaty all at the same time. The pulled pork was my next bite and it was also super delicious, especially with a bit of sweet BBQ sauce on it. The pork rib was also fantastic with the meat easily falling off the bone. The chicken was a juicy wood fired chicken with a Oaxacian marinade and a tangy salsa verde - this was Dan's favorite. We really should have gotten a 1/4 chicken instead but hell, when in Rome....I was so full at this point that I actually never even got to the turkey sadly. I want to give a shout out to the potato salad too - it was pretty much mashed up red potatoes with a hint of mayo - super addictive but I'm glad we only got a small.
There is also a killer Southern style bar with lots of beer and brown liquor options. There's also a back room where apparently they have live music and other events. In short, this place is perfect. I regret that we didn't just over order (especially the Korean ribs which everyone seemed to have ordered) and bring food back but left over BBQ is generally not as good as when it's served fresh. Due to its location, I probably wont' be going there as often as I like, but that's probably a good thing because I might die of a premature heart attack if I went there as often as I would like. Total bill: $45/pp with tax
Photo Credit: Yelp
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