It rained a little on May 23. Not enough to send anyone home, and the courtyard was as full as we’ve ever seen it.
That was the eighth Rib King NYC™, and our fourth in Industry City’s Courtyard 1/2.
Brothers Barbecue showed up already holding one crown. Two weeks earlier Gavin, Jamie and Chris Farella had won Brisket King NYC with a brisket slider, pimento cheese and bacon jam, in what our judges called the closest Brisket King they had ever scored. Chris was also on that season of Food Network’s BBQ Brawl.
Then they won twice in one afternoon. The judges gave them Rib King. The crowd gave them the Friends of Firefighters People’s Choice: every guest got a voting token at check-in, and more of those tokens landed on the Brothers’ table than on anyone else’s.
In September they won Pig Island NYC too, with a North Carolina whole hog sandwich. Nobody had taken all three Food Karma crowns in one year before.
Anthony Scerri of Smoke Sweats BBQ finished second again, his fourth straight year as runner-up. This time he cooked with the Bad for Business banana ketchup crew. He also has a Brisket King title from 2025, so nobody needs to feel too sorry for him.
The 2026 awards
- Rib King NYC™ champion: Brothers Barbecue, Gavin, Jamie and Chris Farella (@brothersbarbecue)
- Friends of Firefighters People’s Choice: Brothers Barbecue
- Runner-up: Anthony Scerri, Smoke Sweats BBQ (@smoke_sweats)
- Clean Bone Award: Cenobio Canalizo, Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue (@morgansbrooklynbbq)
- Rib Queen Newcomer Award: Petra Bartosiewicz, Babysmoker BBQ (@babysmoker.nyc)
- Swicy Award: Kevin Morgan (@kitchentime_kev) with Mike’s Hot Honey (@mikeshothoneybr)
Who cooked
Cenobio Canalizo started as a dishwasher and worked his way up to chef, with stints at Michael Jordan’s Steak House and the original Strip House, before he landed at Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue. He went home with the Clean Bone Award.
Kevin Morgan taught himself to cook in Brooklyn and has run the Kitchen Time pop-up since 2021. For Rib King he teamed up with Mike’s Hot Honey.
Petra Bartosiewicz of Babysmoker BBQ was the newcomer who took the Rib Queen award home.
The rest of the field, as we announced it: Jamal Bland of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Samuel Alleyne of Fire & Smoke BBQ, Fefe Anggono of Taste of Surabaya, Matt Vranic of The Dancing Pig, Vincent DeGennaro cooking for Friends of Firefighters, and Jose Perez of The Meat Truck, who won Rib King in 2023 when he was cooking for Bear’s Smokehouse.
Jimmy’s No. 43 came back for the day as a popup, with David Navarro pairing bites with PM Spirits. Albert Wong of Kin’s Kitchen made sides. Glick’s Pickles brought pickles. The hot sauce was from Achilles Heat and Coney Island Saucery, and dessert was Tipsy Scoop’s boozy ice cream and MuMsKitchens NYC.
The bar stuck to New York producers: Brooklyn Gin, Fort Hamilton Distillery, Upstate Vodka, Round Table Brewery, Bed-Stuy Brewing and Indian Ladder Farms Cidery, plus zero-proof options. VIPs got in at noon, an hour ahead of everyone else, and got the first pours.
On the judges’ table: Brimstone of The Grindhouse Radio, Kara VanDooijeweert of USA Today, Kyle Marcoux (The Vulgar Chef), Lala Ziemski of The Firefly Bocas Del Toro, Gennaro Pecchia of Chefs Who Care, Ethan Fedida of Elfassy Foods, and Adam Poch.
Friends of Firefighters, whose name is on the People’s Choice, provides free and confidential mental health counseling to active and retired FDNY firefighters and their families. Thank you to them, and to Industry City for having us again.
Chris Gampat and Kareem Black shot the day. We’re still getting their photos up. The photo at the top is the Farellas at Pig Island NYC in September, by Sean Ludwig for The Smoke Sheet.
Rib King NYC™ is back on Saturday, May 29, 2027. Get on the list and you’ll hear when tickets go on sale.
Sources: our May 27, 2026 results post on Instagram (@ribkingnyc), our May 2026 newsletters, and NYC BBQ’s August 27 and September 18, 2026 pieces on Brothers Barbecue.