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Event Tue Aug 20 2013
The Windy City BBQ Classic Debuts Labor Day Weekend
Brisket was dead to me. A staple in my home growing up, my mother routinely destroyed it by putting it in a casserole dish, covering it with Lipton's dry onion soup mix, pouring a cup of cold water over it, putting it in the oven and roasting it to within an inch of shoe leather. No doubt her purse tasted better and was easier to cut. Upon leaving home, decades passed with nary a thought.
Then I met a few guys here in Chicago that I trusted culinarily. One of them even wrote what I consider to be a BBQ bible of sorts called Low and Slow. So it was with great trepidation that when they reintroduced me to brisket (gently at first) I tried it and loved it.
Then there were the discussions about soaking your wood (do not -- it drops the temperature and creates an ashy steam) and BBQ sauce. "BBQ is about the meat, not the sauce. If you want some have it on the side."
They were right.
Which brings me to the Windy City BBQ Classic being held in the south lot of Soldier Field on Sunday, Sept. 1. The brainchild of partners Jared Leonard and one of my above mentioned buddies, BBQ Life-coach Gary Wiviott, this is real BBQ -- no gas, no electricity, just charcoal and wood, the way God intended serious Q to be, all piggy and delicious.
Their vision for the event is "a cross between the old Royko Rib Fest and Memphis in May, an unabashed celebration of BBQ and Chicago."
I participated in the first Royko Rib Fest and it was legendary. The guy next to me did a spit-roasted, whole smoked bologna that he crosshatch-scored like a ham, slathered in cheese whiz and pressed maraschino cherries into with gay abandon.
While I can't promise that, with 30 pit masters in competition, a whole pig butchery demo, all you can eat swine (and more) from assorted BBQ-centric area restaurants and craft beers in a live blues soaked atmosphere -- the day shall be quite a BBQ bacchanalia.
Tickets are $49-$99 depending on if you want beer or butlers.
