Meat Week Update: Pork Barrel and PORC Events Filling Quickly – Have You Signed Up Yet?

Image by Brooke Hatfield

In just its second year, the Washington chapter of Meat Week is all over the Internets this week.  Captain Jenelle Dennis (aka BabeBQ) has done a great job of spreading the gospel of ‘cue, and it looks like turnout for this year’s Meat Week will far surpass last year’s.

Want to see what others are saying about Meat Week?  Check it out:

Washington Business Journal
Washington Examiner’s Take 5
Washington Post’s All We Can Eat blog – Jim Shahin’s “Smoke Signals” column
NBC Washington
Northern Virginia Magazine’s Gut Check blog
UrbanDaddy
City’s Best
TBD.com
Girl Meets Food
Kevin’s BBQ Joints (blog)
Zagat Buzz

But enough about us – this update is really about you, or at least it is if you’re thinking about joining us for any of the Meat Week festivities.  We figured you might want to know when to show up each night, not just where.  And as the title of this post suggests, we wanted to encourage you to email Jenelle sooner rather than later if you’re interested in attending either (or both) of the Meat Week Sneak Peek events.

Details after the jump.

 

Eat Meat. Repeat. Meat Week returns for Round Two this Sunday, January 30, 2011!

Just when you thought it was safe to hit the salad bar, Meat Week comes roaring back into Washington ready for round two.  Last year, Snowmageddon forced the cancellation of the final two Meat Week events in our area, leaving hungry carnivores unable to enjoy scheduled outings to Branded ’72 in Rockville and Mr. P’s Ribs and Fish on Rhode Island Avenue.  Some folks might have taken that as a sign, a warning from on high to repent and change their ways.

Not us.

This Sunday, DC Meat Week will once again provide carnivores with seven nights of barbecued deliciousness at some of the area’s best ‘cue joints.  And for the second year in a row, Meat Week will be one of your first opportunities to check out a highly-anticipated newcomer to the DC BBQ scene.  Some of the venues have stayed the same (we HAD to kick things off at Urban Bar-B-Que again, and you know we wanted take a second run at Mr. P’s), and a couple of recent additions have been added to the list as well.

Perhaps the biggest change in DC’s Meat Week chapter is who’s running the show.  I’ve passed the Captain’s hat to Jenelle Dennis, aka BabeBQ, though I’ll be staying on as First Mate along with David Gootzit.  Jenelle brings an impressive barbecue pedigree to the role – she’s a KCBS Certified Barbecue Judge and one of the architects of the Snackadium.  Seriously impressive.

Check out the full line-up of venues for this year’s Meat Week after the jump, and pay special attention to Tuesday and Wednesday nights: they’re RSVP-required sneak-peeks at two of the best things that are about to happen to the DC barbecue scene.

 

SnoTime for Barbecue – Postponing Meat Week’s Finale and Kicking Off Meat-Free Week

When it comes to barbecue, there are plenty of folks who think nothing of braving golf ball-sized hail and tornado warnings to turn out competition-quality smoked meats.

I am not one of those people…and I’m betting you’re not, either.

Nature has spoken – SnoMageddon (Keyser SnowZe?) is upon us, and the area will not be spared.  The tiny white objects of Washington’s crippling fear are already coming down.  Shelves that were emptied last night have been refilled and are being re-emptied as we speak.

So what does all this mean to Meat Week?  We’re no fools – we’re going to postpone tonight’s dinner at Branded ’72 and tomorrow’s gathering for Mr. P’s Ribs and Fish.  Turns out, we couldn’t get together on Saturday if we wanted to.

I gave Mr. P a call to let him know that I was planning to postpone, and he assured me he had a similar plan.  “I didn’t even go out today,” he said.  “The man said there’s gonna be snow.”

We’re still trying to figure out when to plan our trips to make up days 6 and 7, but we’ll be sure to let everyone know.  One idea: wait until July and celebrate the six-month anniversary of Meat Week with a few more locations thrown in for good measure.

What to do between now and then?

If your week of barbecued indulgence has left you craving something fresh and green, you might consider attending some of the events of Meat-Free Week, taking place from Saturday to next Friday.  They’ve got some great locations on the agenda, including Restaurant Nora and Sticky Fingers Bakery.

As you might expect, Meat-Free Week is patterned directly after Meat Week.  And if you can get past the somewhat preachy opening paragraph, the write-up at DCVegan is a good read (and a direct response to one of our posts from last week).  Who knew – you CAN make friends with salad, after all!

We’re planning to hit up one or two of their events, and I’m definitely looking forward to meeting Amber McDonald to compliment her on the idea.

 

Meat Week Report: Rocklands and Red Hot & Blue (The Old Guard)

When planning the schedule for Meat Week, I had a few really tough choices to make.  In some cases, it was a question of how far afield people would be willing to go for the inaugural edition of Meat Week DC.  In other cases, the decision came down to what kind of impact a particular establishment has on the DC barbecue scene.

After opening Meat Week at Urban Bar-B-Que, one of the most widely praised among the newer ‘cue joints in the area, it was on to two of the veterans in the field.  Both Rocklands and Red Hot & Blue have been serving up smoked meats in Washington for more than twenty years.  In the process, they’ve expanded to several locations each around the DC area.  To me, they embody (in very different ways) the “all cues to all people” mindset that tries to serve up a taste of home to ‘cue lovers from all traditions.

So how do they stack up against some of the newcomers?  Check out some photos, some thoughts and a reminder about tonight’s big Pork Barrel BBQ event after the jump.

 

Meat Week Day 1 Recap: A Strong Start at Urban Bar-B-Que

I’m not going to lie.  When I showed up at Urban Bar-B-Que at 7 PM last night, I figured there was a 50-50 chance that I was going to be enjoying a plate of brisket all by myself and then heading home.  Such is the uncertainty that comes from putting something like Meat Week together.  It’s a feeling I hadn’t had since I stopped planning events as part of my job.

So I showed up with my Meat Week flags and my most recent copy of the KCBS Bull Sheet, ready to greet my fellow Meat Weekers…but I brought a book with me, just in case.

I’m more than a little pleased that the book turned out to be completely unnecessary.  Washington’s barbecue lovers turned out in force to kick off our inaugural Meat Week.  At one point, we had twenty-four people celebrating over plates brown paper-covered trays of ribs, pulled pork and brisket.

The team at Urban were the perfect hosts for our inaugural event.  I had given them a heads up that some undetermined number of people would be arriving to celebrate Meat Week.  Rather than ask “What the hell does that mean?” they actually looked into it and were ready to greet us when we arrived.  They reserved a few tables up front so we’d have a place to gather (we eventually overtook the entire restaurant), and then they stepped back and let Meat Week take its course as everyone ordered whatever they had a taste for.

More photos and details – as well as info on a Haiti relief event tomorrow night – after the jump.

 

DC Meat Week: All the Juicy Details

Image by Mike Licht, http://www.notionscapital.com

One week ago, we announced the arrival of Meat Week to Washington, DC.  Since that time, we’ve been blown away by the amount of attention that this celebration of all things barbecue has received.  Not surprisingly, Tim Carman was the first to give us a shout-out over at the City Paper, but his nod seems to have triggered an avalanche of additional coverage: Zagat Buzz, UrbanDaddy, Brightest Young Things, DC MetroMix, Notions Capital…even Modern Domestic!

The word is clearly getting around: Meat Week is Real.  But we’ve gotten more than a few emails asking about the finer points of what this is all about.

And we’ve had A LOT of people asking about our Meat Week Special Sneak Preview of Pork Barrel BBQ on Wednesday night at Mango Mike’s in Alexandria.

All your questions answered – and the details on the Pork Barrel preview – after the jump.