THE ART OF URBAN GRILLING

My love of outdoor cooking runs deep.  So deep, in fact, that my backyard is filled with grills and smokers of varying sizes, shapes and styles.  But what about all of the urban dwellers in grilling country?  I turned to two such pitmasters, Neil Strawder of Bigmista Barbecue in Los Angeles and Matt Fisher of RUB BBQ in New York City, to find out the challenges they face when cooking in the big city and how they overcome them. When did you first get the barbecue and grilling bug?
Matt: I started gas grilling when I was a teen — maybe 12 or so, but got into charcoal and live fire about 16 years ago. A friend gave me a Weber kettle he wasn’t using anymore and I made my first ‘BBQ’ ribs a few months later. Neil: I’ve been doing what I thought was BBQ all my life but I really got the bug around 2004 when I saw Alton Brown cook a Pork Butt in a flower pot. I knew I had to try this low and slow thing so my wife let me go out and buy a smoker the following week. If she only knew what she was getting into!

And as I’ve personally witnessed, you built a hobby in to a full time career.  Tell us a bit about what you’re doing now.

Matt: I’m a pitmaster and kitchen manager at Paul Kirk’s RUB BBQ in New York City. I work in the flagship restaurant in Manhattan and the newest location located in East Meadow, NY. We cook competition-style BBQ in a restaurant setting. It’s more work than people think, but it is definitely worth it.   Neil: Now we have a thriving BBQ Business, Bigmista’s Barbecue, where we sell the best BBQ in Los Angeles at various farmers markets around the city. We also do catering for all types of events from corporate meetings to full blown weddings. Both my wife Phyllis (Mrs. Mista) and I work the business full time and we are having the time of our lives.  

Unlike many outdoor cooks, you didn’t perfect your skills in the backyard of your house in some suburb, you were living in the middle of New York City, correct?  What challenges does that present?

Matt: The building I live in now doesn’t allow grills. I have to bring my gear up and down three flights of stairs and I set up on the sidewalk (illegally) around the corner from my building. Usually if I share with the neighbors, no one complains.   Neil: I started BBQ’ing on the balcony of our second floor apartment in the Hawthorne area of Los Angeles. My first grill was a Chargriller but I didn’t have enough space for the side firebox. I had to learn to cook indirect and that taught me a lot about fire management. Technically we weren’t supposed to have grills on the balcony and I lived directly over the manager’s apartment but I had two things working in my favor. The first was the fact that we lived on the top floor and any smoke I created went up over the top of the building and my neighbors never knew I was cooking. Second was the fact that I constantly fed my manager BBQ so she looked the other way.     

And if you do have a balcony, it’s often not big enough for a larger grill so you end up cooking on a hibachi, a Weber Smokey Joe or another small portable grill.  Any tips or techniques you learned when cooking with less surface area?

Matt: I have a pretty small grill for street-side cooking and it forced me to learn exactly how small a fire you can use for offset and being vigilant about checking the temp and being patient.   Neil: The biggest tip I could give would be allow yourself enough time to cook, especially if you are cooking in batches. It’s better to finish early and keep everything warn in coolers or an oven than to have everyone standing around wondering when dinner will be done. Unlike us barbecue fanatics, most guests would rather eat than watch you cook.

But many people in larger cities don’t always have access to a balcony, private courtyard or roof top area for grilling.  What do you or your city dwelling friends do in those instances when you want to scratch that outdoor cooking itch?

Matt: I always have a batch of bbq in the freezer and it works in a pinch, I also have a stovetop smoker that I use to get smoke flavor into dishes, or to get smoke on a big cut of meat that I finish in the oven– it may not be the ‘real deal’ bbq, but it can be pretty delicious.   Neil: If you can’t do outdoor cooking at home, go to a park! Take your grill or use the ones that they have in the park. Sometimes you just gotta cook outside!

Thanks so much for taking the time today, guys.  Any last words of advice or urban grilling tales?

Matt: Take the opportunity to get to know your neighbors– invite them to join you, share the food, or even offer to cook something extra for them while the grill is lit. Good grilling makes great neighbors. Cheers!   Neil: The biggest problem I had with cooking outside was keeping the balcony clean. I ended up losing our security deposit because of grease spots on the balcony. Buy a grill mat and save yourself the grief. Keep on GRILLIN!