“Big League BBQ Arrives,” the headline stated, as if it were empirical fact. The gist of it is that the Times’ food critic believes a new barbecue restaurant in the East Village has finally brought Southern-quality barbecue to the Big Apple.
Consider us skeptical.
It’s telling that the reviewer, Pete Wells, even included this little passage in his review of Mighty Quinn’s Barbecue, the place of such praise.
“The pulled pork is the only one in town that doesn’t make you embarrassed for New York,” Wells wrote.
Let’s assume the owners of Mighty Quinn’s do a fair impression of Southern barbecue — which is silly phrase, considering there are so many different styles of Southern ’cue: Carolina, Texas, Kansas City, and ours, of course.
But we don’t have to assume that barbeque is one of the many things Southerners know better than anyone else. The taste is all the proof we need.
