Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Barbecue Riverfront Pork
Posted by Chris Chamberlain on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 9:55 AM
The First Annual Music City BBQ Festival took place last weekend at Riverfront Park to mostly glowing (charcoal briquette) reviews. For an inaugural event the volunteers organized a wonderful atmosphere for the competitors and put together an entertaining schedule of music for the masses. Some complaints bounced around the Interwebs about the lack of bbq available for purchase, but I found several good options spread up and down the Paseo de Puerco.
A first-time event means a lot of first-time attendees as well. Festival organizers tried to plant expectations that competitive bbq events are not intended to be a buffet for visitors for several reasons. First and foremost are health concerns. Cooking teams prepare a limited amount of meat for the judges and for their own guests without intending to sell their products. The vendors who did have food available passed the regular Department of Health inspections that any mobile food purveyor must have.
These pork shoulders did not:
That being said, visiting with the teams on Friday night and showing sincere interest in their methods and extraordinary cooking rigs led to several invitations to drop by after judging on Saturday for a sample if there was anything left. They make big time investments in their set-ups and appropriately feed themselves first. The vendors who support the Festival by paying to be there deserve to get paid for feeding the rest of us.
And frankly, any competitive bbq festival is primarily about the cooking teams, their friends and the parties they throw while they add smoke to pork all night. They are hilarious to watch as they go at it, especially if you know that you will be able to go home to a soft pillow as opposed to sleeping in a lawn chair in a parking lot.
In a nutshell, the absolute best way to have a great time at a barbecue festival is to compete. With 70+ teams this year, here's hoping even more people get involved next year. (Chris Ferrell isn't a vegan or anything, is he?) Just kidding, boss.
Check out the fun that was had and the amazing pork party wagons after the jump:
Click on the thumbnails below to go whole hog:
Comments (5)
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Are you implying that we need a SouthComm bbq team? With Jim RIdley as our kitchen manager, Carrington overseeing sauce, Ken Whitehouse as our pitmaster? And me with a beer in a lawn chair? I like the way you think.
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For a first-year event, this was well done! I had a great time and I can still smell the BBQ. My hats off to those who made this possible.
I look forward to next year!
Thanks again!
Nicki, if Ken is going to be the pitmaster I think you're going to need some alumni supervision...
