Rib King NYC™ came back on a Thursday, May 30, 2019, in Williamsburg, three years after the first one. It was the first year Sean Ludwig of NYC BBQ picked the field.
The 2019 awards
- Rib King NYC™ Champion: Sruli “Izzy” Eidelman, Izzy’s Brooklyn Smokehouse, kosher Asian beef back ribs
- Runner-up, Bad to the Bone: Robert Austin Cho, Kimchi Smoke, Chinese-style pork ribs
- People’s Choice: Matt Worgul and Alex Recchia, Gentle Giant Brewing Company, traditional beef ribs
- Best Traditional: Mable’s Smokehouse
- Most Creative: Pig Beach NYC, Lebanese-style spare ribs with white sauce
- Best Presentation: Rub It Til It Smokes, al pastor ribs with pineapple and a micro corn muffin
Izzy had already won Brisket King NYC, and that spring he had opened a kosher barbecue taqueria in Crown Heights. The People’s Choice went to a brewery: Gentle Giant came down from Rockland County with beef ribs and won the crowd.
The judges were Dara Pollak, Regina Varolli, Jean-Paul Bourgeois, Sean Ludwig, Leiti Hsu, Adam Poch and Ed Randolph.
Who cooked
- Cash Only BBQ, Corey Cash. A Brooklyn operation that had just closed its small joint and was planning a bigger one.
- Hill Country Barbecue Market, Ash Fulk. Texas-style barbecue in Manhattan; Ash competed on Bravo’s Top Chef.
- Izzy’s Brooklyn Smokehouse, Izzy Eidelman. Kosher barbecue, and that taqueria.
- Gentle Giant Brewing Company and Barbecue, Matt Worgul and Alex Recchia. A brewery with a smoker, from Rockland County.
- Mable’s Smokehouse, Jeff Lutonsky and Meghan Love. In Williamsburg for nearly ten years by then, cooking a mix of Texas, Kansas City and Oklahoma.
- Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue, Cenobio Canalizo. Under new owners since 2018, with Cenobio as executive chef and Eric Springer as pitmaster.
- Pig Beach NYC, Matt Abdoo.
- Rub It Til It Smokes, Evan Burrows and Roberto Pastrano. A New Jersey team that cooks to raise money for charities.
- Wandering Que, Ari White. Kosher barbecue pop-ups; Ari won Brisket King in 2016.
Our community partner was Friends of Firefighters in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and it has been ever since.
Results from NYC BBQ, June 2, 2019.