If someone had told me five years ago that Williamsburg would become the city's foremost barbecue destination, I would have guffawed. After all, most of the BBQ joints in town then—which numbered about a dozen—were located in Manhattan, whining that they couldn't do the job properly because of city regulations against airborne emissions. The "smoke scrubbers" required to meet environmental guidelines were prohibitively expensive, the owners maintained. Turns out they were full of crap, saving themselves money by brushing baked meats with cloying sauces and calling it 'cue, figuring nobody in New York could tell the difference. They were wrong. Then Fette Sau opened four years ago on Metropolitan Avenue. This former garage offered meats long smoked over hardwood, Texas-style, with an agenda that included sustainable sourcing, craft beers, and a frankly strange catalog of raw materials that ran to pig tails, flank steaks, and pork belly, in addition to the usual brisket and ribs. Let's call it hipster BBQ. Just last year, Fatty 'Cue flung open the doors of its ramshackle premises under the Williamsburg Bridge. Robbie Richter—the pitmaster who'd set Manhattan's Hill Country on the right track—turned out doctrinaire Texas barbecue, to which are added Southeast Asian flourishes like palm sugar, sesame oil, brined bird chilies, and fish sauce. The formula somehow worked, making for an experience unique in the entire world.
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