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'Meatopians' Feast at Governors Island BBQ Festival

By DNAinfo Staff on July 11, 2010 9:28pm  | Updated on July 12, 2010 9:58am

By Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

GOVERNORS ISLAND — Thousands of meat-eating New Yorkers descended upon Governors Island Sunday for a festival of BBQ, aptly titled Meatopia.

The event, which had been hyped by co-producer, Josh Ozersky, as “a never before seen confluence of meaty genius,” featured some of the city’s top chefs from high-end eateries like Bryant Park’s Aureole, and BBQ institutions like Hill Country Barbecue on West 26th Street.

Ozersky, a James Beard Award-Winning food writer, has hosted a similar gathering for the past six summers at Water Taxi Park to celebrate his birthday, Meatopia co-producer Jimmy Carbone explained, but this year the pair teamed up to bring the festival of flesh to the public.

Mo Shoschin, 31, who works at bar Great Harry, serves up a Sixpoint Righteous Ale at Meatopia on Sunday.
Mo Shoschin, 31, who works at bar Great Harry, serves up a Sixpoint Righteous Ale at Meatopia on Sunday.
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Elizabeth Ladzinski/DNAinfo

Based on early attendance numbers, Carbone said he expected around 7,000 meat-lovers would partake in the festivities, which cost $25 for a 3-tastings ticket.

For an extra charge, Brooklyn’s Six Point Craft Ales helped revelers wash down their meat with a “smoky, whiskey” beer brewed specially for the occasion.

Tom Tancredi, 28, and Julianna Shubins, 27, said they saw the event as an opportunity to try out new restaurants and menu items.

“He told us it’s corn fugus,” Shubins said enthusiastically, as she chowed down on a pork-shoulder taco from SoHo’s La Esquina, which featured a mysterious wheat puree.

“That’s what’s cool about this,” Tancredi added. “You get to try all these new things.”

Meatopia, which benefited local food charities Slow Food NYC and Just Food NYC, also offered a number of meat-related educational opportunities.

TriBeCa resident, David Robbins, 46, said he would definitely be checking out Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in Chelsea Market after watching owner Jake Dickson and Head Meat Cutter Adam Tiberio deconstruct a pig during a demonstration/Q & A session.

Later, Meatopians listened eagerly as food writer and recipe developer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt expounded on the finer points of burger making.

“You really only want to salt the exterior of a burger and right before you cook it,” Lopez-Alt told the crowd, as he squirted onion juice onto a steaming batch of cheeseburger sliders.

BBQ chicken wings on a grill at Meatopia on Sunday.
BBQ chicken wings on a grill at Meatopia on Sunday.
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Elizabeth Ladzinski/DNAinfo

But not everybody was in pig heaven.

Stephanie Mayer, 25, said three of the tents ran out of food while she was still waiting in line.

“I’m still hungry!” Mayer grieved on the ferry back to Manhattan.

Asked whether Governors Island had in fact been turned into a meatopia, Long Islander Peter Peterson, 24, said, standing in the 85 degree sun, “Not quite.”

“It is a heatopia, though, I’ll tell you that!”