As a former resident of Cowtown, USA, I had been eyeballing the KC Pit BBQ truck for a couple of weeks now. I finally visited the massive 18-wheeler over the weekend only to discover that the owners are based in…wait for it…Sandy Springs, Ga.

Not to worry. The owners, according to KC Pit BBQ’s designed-within-an-inch-of-its-life Web site, moved to the Atlanta suburb after living in the Kansas City area, where they learned the local barbecue traditions.

Given Kansas City’s affection for ribs, I opted for the spare ribs ($11 for a generous portion, probably a half-rack). Not that I had much choice. It was either that or rib tips (not a fan of the cartilage) or a hamburger and hot dog (which, last I checked, didn’t really fit under the K.C. barbecue banner).

Read More “KC Pit BBQ on New York Avenue: Sweet Stuff. Literally.” »

Maybe you’ve noticed the KC Pit BBQ truck squatted at the corner of Fourth Street and New York Avenue NW. Frankly, I don’t know how you could miss it. The damn thing takes up nearly an entire block, and that doesn’t count the separate, customized wood-smoke pit hidden behind the massive 18-wheeler.

The tractor-trailer has been hovering in the District for a few weeks now, serving up K.C.-style ribs and rib tips, among other smoky things. Y&H stopped by for a visit this weekend and sampled the ribs. I’ll post more about that later, but in the meantime, I thought you might be interested in a look inside this portable kitchen, which is actually based in Georgia, not Kansas City (more on that later, too).

According to this specs page, the nearly 54-foot-long truck features:

Read More “The KC Pit BBQ Truck Is Smokin’” »

The Calbi Korean BBQ truck

These eerie, elegant, silent videos on Los Angeles’ food trucks speak volumes about the richness of the city’s street snacks — and the dearth of decent offerings we still have in the District. Take a look at the vids after the jump and try not to drool with resentment.
Read More “Mobilecraving’s Vids on L.A. Food Trucks: Try Not to Drool with Resentment” »

I love how Mike Judge concluded his King of the Hill series, one of Y&H’s all-time favorite sitcoms. It didn’t end with a death in the family, a herd of cattle stampeding down Arlen, or a Yankee invasion of Texas. It ends with Hank and Bobby Hill working together over grills, the smell of smoked meats enticing the cast for a final taste of Texas beef. Understated. Perfect.

The funny thing is, Judge didn’t even intend for the finale to be the finale.

The owners of Urban Bar-B-Que plan to open a third location of their small smokehouse chain in the former Willoughby’s Market in Sandy Spring, pitmaster David Calkins told Y&H over the weekend.

The lease has been signed, and since the space won’t require a massive build-out for the restaurant, Calkins expects to open the latest Urban within a month, if not sooner. Even better, Urban will install a Southern Pride XLR-600 smoker in the Sandy Spring spot; the giant machine, able to smoke hundreds of pounds of meat for 12 hours with split logs, was in large part responsible for Y&H’s recent re-evaluationof the barbecue joint in Rockville. (The lack of an XLR-600 at the Urban location in Silver Spring also explains its inferior meats.)

Read More “Urban Bar-B-Que to Open Third Store in Sandy Spring” »

I was trying to find a good video clip on carne ahumada, the smoked meats of Mexico, when I tripped upon this gem from what looks like the History Channel. It goes a long way toward explaining why Texans are so crazy about their style of barbecue.

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

Laugh if you will, but the WFM Smokehouse inside the Fair Lakes Whole Foods store is no joke. The woman in charge is Maria Mercado, a Salvadoran native who used to cook almost exclusively with wood back in her home country. She now smokes hundreds of pounds of beef, chicken, and pork in a massive Southern Pride unit on the premises, employing a combination of cherry, maple, and hickory wood. She and her team pull out meats at all hours of the day, whether for takeout orders or those souls who want to dine right there at the counter, just a stone’s throw from the Emeril Green set. The “Kitchen Sink” platter, which comes with four meats and three sides, is enough to feed two hungry people and a stray dog. The simple spice-rubbed brisket is the star; it’s carved into these thick, intense, sweetly smoked slices that bulge with fatty deposits. Best of all, you can chase your Kitchen Sink of smoked meats with a bottle of suds available at the nearby craft-beer refrigeration case.

Addendum: Read Y&H’s full report on the WFM Smokehouse.

WFM Smokehouse, 4501 Market Commons Drive, Fairfax, Va. 22033, (703) 222-2058

Photo by Tim Carman

No amount of reading or talking to friends can prepare you for your first turn at the barbecue smoker. On Sunday, I smoked my first rack of spare ribs. It wasn’t a complete disaster, but it was a pain in the ass. Here’s the tale told in pictures (with my new digital camera!)

Here’s the new baby: a Brinkmann Smoke N Grill, with a separate wood box.  If you ever decide to buy one of these beasts, do what my barbecue mentor, Jim Shahin, suggested: Have Home Depot put it together for you.

Read More “Playing With Fire: My First Attempt to Smoke Spare Ribs” »

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

Three different vehicles have taken up residence at the back end of a massive parking lot that serves the Safeway grocery store at 514 Rhode Island Ave. NE. One is a converted 1995 school bus now outfitted with deep-fryers, prep tables, and coolers. The second is a square white panel truck that hauls around a giant generator, and the final is a beat-up red Chevy 1500 pickup with an equally well-used Southern Pride smoker propped up on cinder blocks in the bed.

This sprawling mobile barbecue empire belongs to Fate Pittman, a 73-year-old pitmaster who has been smoking pork, beef, and chicken for more than 30 years. Except no one calls Pittman by his family name. Everyone knows him by the handle painted onto his vehicles: Mr. P.

Read More “Young & Hungry Dining Guide by the Day: Mr. P’s Ribs and Fish” »

I just have one question: Who the hell ate the 26,400 pounds of beef after Uruguayan cooks set up a nearly mile-long grill to steal the title of “World’s Largest Barbecue” from Mexico?