Sunday BBQ Dinner at John Brown Smokehouse

Early Sunday dinner with MD, HA and KA and baby at the relatively new BBQ joint in Long Island City.  The John Brown Smokehouse opened up in LIC after closing their Astoria location a few minutes driving away and continues to serve their Kansas-style BBQ.  Now I don’t claim to be a BBQ expert and all that to make me happy is a flavorful falling off the bone tender meat.

The four of us adults were plenty hungry and ready to eat even though it was still early.  Best way to sample the 7 meats by the pound offered was to order two 3-meat platter, which also comes with one side.  Of course, we couldn’t resist throwing on a quarter slab of pork ribs.  “Appetizer” as I tried to pass these off as.

We all agreed to pass on the smoked turkey so ended up with a platter of the pulled pork, rib tips, burnt ends, home-cured pastrami, brisket and pork belly.  The fatty pork belly and slightly burnt and flavorful rib tips were my favorites and we agreed that the burnt ends were also a winner.  The pastrami bordered on too salty and the pulled pork lacked moisture and sauce.

And for sides, we went with the tangy cole slaw, toothsome collard greens, rich mac n cheese and corn bread.  One bite of the soft sweet corn bread and I knew this was bad news.  These were more like corn pudding than bread.  The soft bread was stuffed with kernels of corn and so delicious that I wanted to eat the entire serving all by myself.  Is that allowed if I don’t eat dessert?

Between the four of us, we managed to finish the entire two trays of food, even some of that toast with smear of the house BBQ sauce as MD so happily did.  And yes, I did manage to snag the last bite of the corn bread.  You can be sure that I will be back, for a serving of the corn bread with a side of the rib tips.

John Brown Smokehouse | 10-43 44th Drive, Long Island City, NY 11101 | http://www.johnbrownseriousbbq.com