Blue Smoke

After a trip up to the top of the Empire State Building, I felt the need for some proper US style BBQ. Now US style BBQ is a poor cousin of to the Australian style, but being an open minded tourist, I felt obliged to at least have a go. I'm glad I did....

Scanning through the Time Out NYC book we picked up from Barne's & Noble, the Mrs identified a restaurant called Blue Smoke which looked like it could be a contender. We walked the twelve blocks down to the restaurant and were lucky enough to be squeezed in after someone had cancelled at the last minute. It seems we are always pretty lucky in this regard. Anyhow for me it's all about ribs, and for the Mrs it was all about Brisket. I ordered the rib selection which included some Memphis style baby back ribs, some Kansas style ribs and some dry rub NYC style ribs. Oh, I almost forgot that I had a side of coleslaw!

Anyhow these ribs went down a treat and I managed to sample some of the best craft beer the US has to offer. First up I had Dead Guy Ale from Rogue Brewing (6.5% abv) which is a deep amber pseudo-bock style beer which was a nice balance of malt and pinecones. In this case the beer is very smooth and the heavy malt flavour perfectly matches out the bitterness so the pinecone flavour tends to be more orange/marmalade flavour. It works nicely.

After I had very quickly devoured the Rogue offering, I opted for a pint of Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter (7.0% abv). This beer was nice, but the smoke flavour was subdued by even the subtlest of roast character - I was expecting a more aggressive, robust beer. The beer was pretty much suited to ribs to a tea. The slight smoke flavour complimented the smokey BBQ flavours of the ribs nicely, and the roast flavours enhanced the sweet charring of the ribs. An almost perfect combo. Anyhow, A picture says a thousand words!

http://www.bluesmoke.com/