SaltPepperGarlic
From the land of suburbia, tax free shopping and Joe Biden, the Baker children flourish into hustlers who will cook their way out of any corner or brick wall.
Well, really just Nathaniel cooks. Jasi hustles. From certain angles we look alike put personality wise we're on the polar ends of intro and extro with a good dash of snark & wit thrown into both ends.
In the Fall of 2009 Nathaniel cooked and Jasi marketed, Nathaniel's way into the Culinary Institute of America. And it's an ongoing story, mission, & hustle until Nathaniel beats the statistics and comes out a Black man with a culinary degree from CIA :)
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A review on Danny Meyer’s “Blue Smoke” restaurant. I originally posted this on yelp.com
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how much I do not believe that there is any real BBQ that could stand up to my Daddy’s BBQ in NYC, I must say my waitress Kaaren (that’s Karen with two As!!!) was the BEST EV.AR! Like she seriously caught me make the yuck face after sipping on my drink (Porch Swing, that Pim’s was overpowering) and instantly replaced it with the best drink I’ve ever had, “The Hayride” *dreamy*. Why was she so on point? She even dealt with my a million and one questions about how the bbq was prepared, whether the bbq sauce was vinegar based and other random things like my blurting out that I don’t trust White people’s collard greens (cause one too many times it’s NOT been collards, yucky turnip greens). Fantabulous.
Now the food.
Really I don’t have high expectations of barbecue in NYC, probably because I come from a family that takes their bbq very very seriously. I mean that’s how we paid from my brothers first year of college. And Blue Smoke definitely didn’t fulfill any of my bbq expectations. We basically tried just about every meat on the menu sans the wings. The ribs aren’t bad, if I was to order something again it would be the ribs. The chicken I would skip, though my friend says her office orders catering from here frequently and the chicken tastes way better when catered *shrugs*. Pulled pork was salty, brisket was…yeah, I don’t really remember it.
The collard greens were actually decent, though they weren’t cut properly (yo, I”m particular son, if you gonna do, do it right)…actually I don’t think they were cut at all lol. The sweet potato wedges were really just quartered baked sweet potatoes, that maple sauce was good tho. And the mac and cheese, *le sigh*. WHODASAY PUTS AMERICAN CHEESE IN MAC & CHEESE?! It tasted like velvetta…really at an upscale bbq joint by Danny Meyer I’m served mac + cheese with american cheese in it? They know they wrong. Dead wrong. And they just as wrong for that tomato based bbq sauce on the table. Someone please tell me who eats tomato based bbq sauce?! That’s called ketchup :[
Now while the food was rather basic, the experience was great. I do believe most people eat out in NYC not because the food is that exceptionally good, but because of the ambiance and the experience. I feel kind of bad for bashing the food after the Sous Chef so nicely gave us a tour of the kitchen. Hey their homemade pickles were great! :D Everyone was just very nice and the service couldn’t have been any better.
So in the end, I will definitely come back to Blue Smoke.
To sit at the bar and drink “The Hayride”…maybe I’ll order an appetizer, if Kaaren is serving it, lmao. :)
