Thursday, June 5, 2014

A Smoky Encounter...



Fette Sau
1208 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19125

I had heard many great things about the legendary BBQ joint in Brooklyn known as Fette Sau, or fat pig in German. When I heard that my main man Stephen Starr was bringing us our very own Fette Sau to Philly, I was estatic! We wanted to head over to Northern Liberties one Friday evening for dinner, and we took along one of my fiancés friends and a guy she was dating at the time to try it with us. As soon as we walked in it looked like my kind of place. The setting was very casual with outdoor and indoor seating, but when you walked in it looked a bit classed up. The whiskey and bourbon bar was very nice and they definitely had some knowledgeable bartenders working for them. The menu was written on a blackboard and I was impressed with the meat selections that they offered. 

Fette Sau is known for its quality of BBQ meats such as black angus beef, Berkshire and Duroc pork, some of the best that there is available today. Berkshire pork is said to only have 300 breeding sows in the world. When you order at Fette Sau you order by the quarter pound, so my fiancé and I ordered a 1/4 lb. of the black angus beef brisket, a 1/4 lb. of the Duroc pulled pork and a 1/4 lb. of the Berkshire ribs, along with sides of pulled pork baked beans, German potato salad, sauerkraut and pickles.

We ordered a couple of old fashions to sip with our meals. They were very well done, made with a whiskey that was not harsh, but rather smooth and delicious. It is definitely amongst my favorite old fashioneds in the city. 



In true BBQ fashion, the food is served on platters with wax paper lining them, so everything was laid out on top of it. My only complaint was that the meats were not hot enough. I know that can be hard to achieve at a BBQ joint because of the cooking methods, but I wish they would have been a bit warmer. We dug in immediately because of the seductive smoky aroma that was billowing from our tray. The meats were extremely impressive. All of them were smoked perfectly, and the fat had rendered amazingly well in each of them leaving them juicy and flavorful. The brisket was extremely impressive and the ribs were some of the best that I have had anywhere. The sides were definitely a little lack luster, other than the beans. The beans were outstanding. They were a bit spicy, with large chunks of pulled pork dispersed throughout and the bbq flavor really camw through. All the others were very lackluster, and the sauerkraut especially was the worst I have ever had. It had no seasoning, no real flavor to it at all. The pickles and the german potato salad were good, but nothing really to remember. I guess its hard to have everything be as good as the smoked meats because they were ridiculously tasty.

Three pints for Fette Sau. They definitely hit the nail on the head with the concept, and the quality of the smoked meats is unparalleled. If the sides had been better, this could have been one for the ages. It is definitely worth a visit for the smoked meats and the whiskey and bourbon selections alone, so head on over and try it and let me know what you think! Cheers!

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

My photo
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
I am a food lover living in Philadelphia.

Followers