More Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue News!

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue got one step closer to opening up yesterday! Final inspections are underway, the gas should be on in a few days and the health department and other officials SHOULD give us the green light to open up to the public very soon! Of course that news will be shared with everyone as soon as it is final. 

The owner of Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue, Bill Fletcher, was on CBS Morning News talking about tailgating yesterday. The segment rocked! You should watch it. 

In the meantime, we will keep the fires lit. 

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Forget to Remember to Forget: Opening a BBQ Joint

Dry-Rubbed Babyback Ribs and Pork Belly with My Red Hook Red Sauce @ Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue.

Well, Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue is coming closer and closer to opening. Right now we are finishing off last minute aesthetic touches (a missing piece of stainless steel here, a coat of stain there), and any big nagging mechanical issues while simultaneously interviewing potential staff, sourcing ingredients, creating the paperwork that will be the backbone of the Back of House operations, writing-testing-re-testing recipes and drilling into the ingredients in each recipe and whether there are two similar ingredients that can become just one compromise ingredient that works for both recipes. From a cost perspective, maybe you don't need granulated onion and onion powder, for instance.

In some cases recipes were tested at home and we want to be sure they work in the, currently-bare-bones kitchen in which we are working.

Fire-Suppression Inspection should be tomorrow. Once that passes we should be able to get gas turned on to run the stove, oven and grill....From there, we are a hop-skip to the health department and all lights switching to "GO!". Unfortunately, what can be written in a few sentences, will most likely take weeks to happen.

I foresee a late-september opening becoming an early-October opening....

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Beginning to See The Light: A Bar's Eye View o' Barbecue!

A little peak from the bartop perspective looking in on the open kitchen and all of the action at Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue....Opening this fall in New York City!

Baaaaaah-bee-cuuuuuuuuuue!

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue
433 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
http://www.fletchersbklyn.com
http://www.facebook.com/FletchersBKLYN

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Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue

Hola, my people! I am, in my role as Executive Chef and Pitmaster, in the final stages of getting Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue open @ 433 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215. The owner is Bill Fletcher, a bbq savant with a design and advertising background. Our menu will focus on humane, sustainable meats cooked with traditional American BBQ philosophy injected with the brash flavors of Brooklyn! Come say howdy!

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Cure for Pain: Maple Smoked Ham + other news!

Home-Cured Maple Smoked Ham

A few days in a brine of maple syrup, sea salt, white pepper, garlic powder, Cure #1, thyme, sage and tap water. A quick rinse and dry, then a bath in some cool maple smoke, raising the temperature at the end about 50 degrees to give a little color.

Here's the outside of the ham
FRUGALDAD.COM named us one of the top BBQ sites on the web! How cool is that! Thanks, Frugal Dad!

FRUGAL DAD WINNER
TOP FOOD BLOG

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It actually helps to be an idiot: Cookbook writing and other news

Image from http://www.zagats.com

Hello-

I can't imagine anyone ever comes to visit anymore, but that's okay. Me talk pretty one day.

So, what's it like to be a cookbook author according to the New York Times? The secret is: "It actually helps to be an idiot".

I'm sure that's not true for all, I have met many of them and they were articulate and interesting. I've also read some really wonderful food writing, but this article is a really fascinating peek into that world-- and makes you realize that food bloggers really have de-pantsed the side of the industry that was merely churning out bulk-- considering that some of the best bloggers combine cooking talent, writing and breathtaking photography.

Yet more on the state of cookbooks in contemporary publishing from The Boston Globe. They make the argument that “Cookbooks are not about recipes anymore,’’ but come closer to memoirs with recipes and full-color glossy photos. The recipes are replete with techniques and ingredients that push the culinary edge so far that they are too involved or to difficult to source for most home cooks to ever even attempt to recreate them. This seems an additional result of pressure from the online foodie community to me, as well.

Lastly on more earthy topics, the folks at Zagats have put together a list of 14 favorite 'off the radar' burgers. Some of my favorites aren't on here, but that means the wait for a table won't be as long....

Recently I cooked barbeque outside for the first time in a loooong time. I made ribs. They were yummy, smoked over apple, maple and hickory.

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Milk Is Bad For You

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A little electrocution: Smoke power

This tune from the Cleveland pop guru, Bill Fox, manages to capture the melancholy I tend to feel like so many of his songs are capable of doing.

I haven't mentioned the power of smoke and bbq to transform the spirit recently. But the mere smell of a clean hickory fire with the faint whiff of spice and meat causes an actual physical response in the hungry. The mouth waters, the senses heighten, the need for action is transmitted through the spinal column from the brain. There've been studies.

I haven found it within myself to be able to preach the truth about the 'que in the longest of times, but I tell you I am a believer. I have seen bbq redeem lives, give second chances, create and destroy legends. There is destruction in the past, but with destruction always comes the possibility of hope.

I give you Ricky and Zach Parker of Scott's-Parker's Barbecue, Lexington, TN.

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