Friday 27 January 2012

This little piggy......

I don’t like pork. I say pork…… what I mean is roast pork or pork chops, that sort of pork. I love bacon. And ham. And sausages, particularly cold sausages which are quite a different beast to the hot sausage and best eaten from the fridge, while wondering what to eat…..

I don’t like BBQs either. I hate BBQ sauce. Even though I lived for a time in Los Angeles where everything is cooked, al fresco, on the BBQ, surrounded by blokes with long folks poking it and drinking beers, I still tend to remember the dodgy outdoor dining of my childhood: chicken legs systematically burnt and blistered on the outside, appetisingly raw on the inside. It's a wonder any of us have made it to middle age.


So, you might wonder why it was I could be found queuing…… yes me queuing ……… outside, on a chilly evening, to get into a BBQ joint specialising in pork. Quite simply I was so seduced by the pictures of pork being served up at Pitt Cue Co. I could think of little else for a week. This Southern-style American BBQ project started life, I believe, in a mobile catering truck under the Hungerford Bridge, where the queuing began, and is now London’s brand new, must-go-to, Soho eatery, situated on a corner near Carnaby Street.


Once inside we then had to wait some more, but we were in and we now had a pair of Whiskey Sours to warm us up. The bar is teeny-tiny, and serves a whole lot of different bourbons, amongst other things. We were seated eventually at the bar by the window: half curtained, looking out onto the street. I felt like I was back in

New York's west village. The high ceiling is strewn with low hanging, low light, clear light-bulbs; the only way to light a restaurant in London at the moment. Downstairs there is more seating for about 20 or so but it's a tad tight.

The menu is small, beautifully formed and vegetarians are welcome but not catered for. They do pork and beef a couple of different ways and a choice of sides, but here I feel it's all about the pig. And they do take away.

My mate Dave knows all about pork, and BBQ, and expertly ordered us ribs and slow-cooked, pulled-pork with sides of slaw, mash & burnt bits, and a jar of pickled stuff. The food comes lip-sticky and unctuous and smokey, the pickles and slaw crunchy and sharp, a perfect accompaniment to the sweet BBQ sauce we sucked from our fingers. Dave pronounced it all excellent. For me the pulled pork was the winner. I appreciated the smokey ribs and sticky-sauce but it’s never going to be my first choice. But I could happily have eaten the whole jar of ceamy mash topped off with the ‘burnt’ bits of chewy pork from the pan, again and again.


The buzz is big about this place. It seats only 30 so they don’t take bookings, to make it fair they say. It also makes queues down the street which is never a bad look. Whoever’s doing the PA is definitely doing their job, a clutch of Canadians desperate to order and newly arrived in town had it on their itinerary .……. the place only opened last week. The guy on the door sounds like a Rupert or a Charlie and much of the clientele seamed to be on first name terms with the staff who probably all went to school with each other, no doubt helping to keep the place hot and heaving during it’s opening weeks. I'd happily go back..... when the queues go down......


Top tip: try something you know you don't like...... you may suprise yourself.....


17 comments:

  1. wow. I swear I'd even get in the queue if it wasn't so far away. that's a helluva plane ride.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm putting it down as a must visit. I actually do like pork.....I also like beef, chicken, lamb, ham, sausages, salmon, sea bass, turbot, halibut, vegetarian etc, etc, etc !!!!!
    Have been rather busy of late, helping our children move, decorate and babysit so have missed a couple of your posts.....Bryan Ferry was our patient and was rather weird and, my friend, who is an art teacher and a potter, went to the David Hockney exhibition and was so blown away by it. She said that we HAVE to go. I must investigate getting tickets. XXXX

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm all for re-visiting stuff I thought I had made my mind up on. Sort of makes you re-think who you are when you surprise yourself like that. Open heart, open mind, keep on truckin'.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my.......... just the thought of mash and burnt bits.......... The minute I read those words I was in seventh heaven....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Damn, girl. I just had some barbecued pork butt last night and it was so darn fine. We here in the South revere the pig and all its parts and there is nothing so good as the way it tastes, done right.
    Worth the wait and worth the weight and worth the cholesterol too. Glad you found some worth all that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello:
    This all sounds most intriguing although we have to say that we are not keen on anything to be eaten with fingers. The whole experience, however, sounds very interesting and it certainly must be that they are doing something right if they can have queues down the street whilst many other restaurants are struggling to fill their tables.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds delicious, I want to go, but couldn't stand queuing. The mash and burnt bits would definitely make my order!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The drool is now running down my beard (not as good as the nectarine juice from last week)from your decriptions of the BBQ pork. I can almost smell it. You're lucky to have something like that on your doorstep.
    I must say however that my beloved's Pork Ribs in her special marinade/sauce, smell and taste almost as good when we do a BBQ.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Big fans of Pig products in this house and that sounds "totes amaze! as they seem to say around those parts. Slow roast Belly Pork does that pulling away thing. Gorgeous. x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh my God that looks good ! I've gone off BBQ's & try to avoid them ( I'm slowly turning into my mother )
    Oh no... I have some left over sausages in the fridge & agree about the just having one cold sausage while I think moment !

    ReplyDelete
  11. I live in the South, so barbecue as you describe is easy to come by. It's delicious, but the cold leftovers the next day are so fat-saturated, it's a little horrifying. The lesson here is to always eat every bit so you are happily unaware of what cold pulled pork is like.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I live smack dab in the middle of the USA, in a city that prides itself on its barbecue. I am very amused by the description of this place and may just have to drop a hint to a restauranteur or two. Sounds delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  13. O well, I'm a vegetarian but went tonight to a new restaurant owned by old friends. East Indian food that was DELICIOUS, the best I've ever had. We ate everything. We make cauliflower 'mash', steam a head of cauliflower, run it through the blender with butter and salt and pepper. Yum.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm a vegetarian too, well, a pescatarian but that makes me sound even wierder than I am! Whisky sours are def. vegetarian!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I must admit, I am not always a fan of BBQ sauce either. I much prefer things in a more natural state and am adverse to most condiments. But no American can deny the allure of a smashing pulled pork....and a whiskey sour? Yes please!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gosh that does look delish. I am a big bacon eater but sometimes pork has a funny thing about it but this looks wonderful. And always open to cocktails.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Try putting those cold sausages in a bun. Smother with hot fried onions. Serve with large mug of hot tea.

    Food of the Gods.

    ReplyDelete