If you eat meat, there’s a pretty good chance you’re a fan of BBQ.  Who can resist the grilling of savory pork, beef, and chicken over a hot flame and the community atmosphere that a BBQ brings out in people? A couple weeks ago, the Los Angeles BBQ festival happened, and it almost delivered everything a BBQ fan could want.

To start, this year’s BBQ festival had 8 different pitmasters - all serving out their own “signature” dishes.  The menus included beef brisket, smoked chicken, beef ribs, hot sausage, Memphis baby back ribs, St. Louis spare ribs, and others.  Each had it’s own unique flavor, sauces, and sides.  Among the sides were mac & brie, baked beans, potato salad - all that you’d expect to find at any bbq across the nation.

While the variety of offerings was ok, there definitely was room to grow.  BBQ is traditionally from the south, with variations on cooking and sauce (or lack thereof) between regions.  Some separate regions here were represented, but having been to Georgia and Texas before and eaten their BBQ, it was a bit dissapointing.

That’s not to say I was dissapointed in the food.  For California, this BBQ was great.  In Los Angeles, great BBQ places are hard to find, and some of the better ones I’ve tried in the area were represented (Baby Blues BBQ, and Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs).  But in the future, this event definitely has promise to grow and expand it’s selections.  Given the line that there was to get in the entire two days (from what I hear) and the fact that people paid $10 admission on top of paying $10 for food from each vendor, I don’t see this as a huge roadblock.  Add that to the fact that i saw plenty of VIP admissions (no lines, free kozmo deck, for $50) walking around just justifies the growth of this event in the future.

As for the food - we had a variety of it all.  We started out with the BBQ Smoked Brick Chicken, then went on to the Beef ribs and hot sausage, St. Louis Spare Ribs, and the Beef Brisket.  Overall, all pretty good.  The St. Louis ribs were a bit tough - but I liked the tanginess of the sauce that the chicken was in, definitely my favorite.  To top it all off, Leyna’s Kitchen was there serving up delicious bite-sized cupcakes (at $4 a piece) and there was easy access to plenty of drinks and the afternoon here was very satisfying.

But with all positives there are definitely negatives.  Because there are so few places in Los Angeles, the ones I already knew were represented and I didn’t get to try much of anything new.  I would have also liked to have more variety in terms of beef ribs (a complaint I had of the county fair as well).  The lines were also a bit ridiculous at some points of the festival.  The line for L.C’s BBQ (Kansas City Spare Ribs) was easily an hour long, and I didn’t feel like waiting that long to try it.  In the future, some stricter requirements of how each vendor can operate it’s cashier/food lines will be helpful.

All in all, the BBQ festival was a lot of fun and satisfied my craving for some grilled meats.  Will I be back next year? Sure, but I hope that some improvements are made to make it excellent instead of good.

Los Angeles BBQ Festival
http://www.labbqfest.com