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Carne-Val at The Meatwave – Delicious Pork Barbecue in Astoria

Last Sunday I attended a wonderful Astoria event series, The Meatwave. It’s run by local Astorian Josh Bousel, who really knows his meat and how to cook it. He (and probably his wife, Kristin) comes up with clever titles, and the one for this particular day was “Carne-val.”

There was pulled pork, pepper vinegar barbecue sauce, ribs, chicken—all grilled and/or barbecued. Plus there was a delicious mustard slaw, plenty of beer, and one of the guests offered me one of her s’mores bars. It was all so good and I’m glad I went.

Here are some of the things I ate. First, the pork in two states—whole and pulled. Here’s the before:

foiled-pork-barbecue-the-meatwave-astoria-queens

And the after:

shredded-foiled-pork-barbecue-the-meatwave-astoria-queens

Josh used big black rubber gloves to shred it by hand. He then poured some sort of liquid on it—probably braising liquid, which helped to keep it moist. This batch of meat was cooked in foil. There was another chunk of pork he had cooked without foil, which promised great bark. All I know is that they was truly delicious and made for a great pulled pork sandwich. Here it is—on a appropriately squishy Martin’s Potato Roll—with the aforementioned slaw.

pulled-pork-sandwich-vinegar-mustard-slaw-the-meatwave-astoria-queens

The ribs were great, too! I believe they were in the smoker and then grilled with a sweeter barbecue sauce. I loved the texture and taste.

barbecued-ribs-the-meatwave-astoria-queens

I did not get a chance to try any of the chicken, though.

As for the weather, it was damn hot, the beginning of a seven-day heatwave. I sweated buckets and was happy to find myself in the air conditioning afterwards; we headed to MOMI to catch a movie, then over to a nearby pub for more A/C, conversation, and project planning—more on that later. And since we were there on the early side, it was nice to have a chance to chat with our hosts.

Thanks to Josh and Kristin for a delicious afternoon!

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Astoria’s Butcher Bar

got grass

In late December, I stopped by Butcher Bar, a new spot in Astoria focusing on local, organic, and grass-fed/pastured meats. It’s part butcher shop, part barbecue restaurant. The barbecue is pretty dang good, but I must admit that it’s the butcher shop aspect that excites me the most. I order most of my meats through my CSA or online, so it’s really cool to have a place I can just walk to if I want some fresh pastured meats.

While I was there, I got into a conversation with the owner, Matthew Katakis, about the shop and his reasons for opening it. Essentially, he came to understand that grass-fed/pastured meats are superior in many ways, and felt that now was the time to bring them to Astoria. I agree with him on all points, and am particularly happy to see someone who is so much a part of the community doing this. The people behind Butcher Bar are the same ones behind Pita Pan, a popular Greek spot on 30th Ave in Astoria.

They head upstate every Monday and visit the farms and pick up their meat. This allows them to have a closer relationship with the people that raise the meat, and since a lot of the farms are local, the meat fresher. They also work with Heritage Foods, and stock D’Artagnan products. Across the board, they are sourcing from places that humanely raise their animals, which is important to me.

 local farms

The sell a number of cuts, some whole and some of the meat is ground up. I hear from very reliable sources that the “Bob’s Burger” is fabulous – 80/20 brisket and… bacon. The delicious smokey bacon fat melts into the rest of the meat and makes for a real taste sensation.

butcher bar pastured meats collage

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