ottawa foodies

The bbq's are fired up, the smokers are smoking, and pretty soon the line-ups will be forming. I work on Sparks and can attest that it now smells like bacon! I am opening this thread for people to post reviews or comment on this year's ribfest.

Please let me know if there is anything worth it at this event.

Something worth coming in from Westboro and paying for parking.

Something on the level of Smoque or D&S.... or even better.

Captain Caper I've never been to D&S but I have been to Smoque. IMHO none of the chicken and rib places are as good as Smoque's. There are some good places, though, I just didn't want to get your hopes up-;)

Having said that Billy Bones and Camp 31 are my two favourite places. If you come to centretown on the weekend I believe street parking is free.

The lads on the brewers list are talking about this today of course, and the opinion there is that none of them are as good as D&S. Never been personally.

Thought there are a lot of happy people who are glad they went ... not a single disappointed yet

A co-worker (very sweetly) shared a rib with me today. It was from "the first stall, and the people were from Florida". Perhaps not helpful, but HOLY CRAP was that an awesome rib. The meat was juicy and succulent, great pinkish smoke colour to the meat, sauce not cloyingly sweet.

He reports that a full rack plus beans (apparently not great - he gave them a 5/10) and coleslaw were $25.00.

just crushed a pulled pork and rib combo ($15) from Billy Bones. they're consistently one of my favourite vendors year after year.

i'm also partial to Crabby's. they don't smoke their ribs but i really love their rub and sauce.

here's the full list of vendors:

www.sparksstreetmall.com

Pretty sure this year I'll put my money towards Smoque instead. Better, cheaper (?), and they have beer. Everyone getting excited about standing out in 40 degree weather to hand over a wad of cash for some meat floating in BBQ sauce seems strange when the Shack is here now.

I forgot to mention earlier that last year some of the Sparks Street restos were allowing ribfest customers to eat on their patios providing they buy a beverage. I'm not sure if they are doing that this year but it might be a great way of having some beer with your ribs.

Smoque Shack is great and deserves Ottawa's support, but there is a place for 'fall-off-the-bone drenched in sweet/heat sauce' bbq once in awhile. especially when it's right outside your office.

I couldn't tell from the website but I would like to try some North Carolina style BBQ. Any idea who might have some?

Tree Pug - some vendors have slaw, but most if not all sauces across the board lean towards the tomato-based spectrum vs the vinegar-based Carolina style. most sauces are also sweet (some having more heat/spice than others).

the pulled pork sandwich at Smoque Shack is probably a better representation of the tangy style slaw-on-top type sandwich.

We did a blind taste test between pulled pork my wife brought home from ribfest last year and a batch I prepared in my Bradley. I won all six votes. The ribfest is what started my lust ( no kidding its gotten that bad ) for great BBQ a decade ago. I'm sure the vendors can produce some amazing small batch BBQ for judging , but as most diehards know producing large quantities for the masses sometimes can lessen your product. I find the prices pretty high for what you get but I also do hear of a couple of vendors every year producing ribs and bird that are well worth the money and then some.

I had a totally satisfactory meal from Sticky Fingers (tween Kent and Bank) yesterday... The pulled pork sandwich was loaded, with those crispy
'bark' chunks that are like candy in the middle of the meatpile. A
little fresh bun, a pile of meat, some slaw on top... mouthg@sm. The
ribs were pure meaty rib goodness - American style, pink from smoke, a bit chewy, rubbed and sauced and then sauced again with a nice char on the outside
and pure meaty perfection on the inside. The extra sauce was just gravy.
Pun intended. The slaw was fine but the beans... sunuvabeatch they put
jalapenos in those bad boys, they were solid!

If I was going to be critical I'd note that the sauce on the meat was
primarily a sweet sauce, not much heat. That's just a personal nitpick
tho'... didn't detract from the feast at all. If the beans hadn't had so
much kick I might not have even noticed.

Better than Smoque? - No. But DAMN IT WAS SO GOOD.

so ones to try are
Billy Bones
Crabbys
Camp 31

I remembered that I tried quite a few but it is a bit hazy which I liked the best.

I'm not sure if I should post this but decided to go ahead - OttawaFoodie go ahead and delete if you think it should be. I work on Sparks Street and have always enjoyed the rib fest. This morning I was walking to my office and passed by one of the vendors. There were several trays of meat sitting on a table, uncovered, people walking by the table (including me), some of the trays in the sun. Not sanitary and not safe. I have left a detailed message with Ottawa health inspectors and they have assured me they will check it out. Don't know the name of the vendor but it is the very first one set up at Elgin Street.

unless it was sitting there for an hour and/or passerbye were making a habit of licking it, i doubt there's cause for concern.

Both me and my girlfriend have food poisoning compliments of ribfest, or whatever new name it's had to take on... likely from bad press for poisoning people...

Ugh, thankful we didn't have chicken. I can imagine this being worse

I've never actually had the chicken and a co-worker actually got an undercooked piece the other day which is rightfully distrubing.

That said, I had brilliant ribs from CAMP 31 yesterday. This was one of my favourites from last year and I remember why. They use a superior quality of rib. Somehow they manage to produce ribs that are lean, loaded with meat, just a bit fatty but pure meaty goodness with this surreal level of sweet crispy charred meat at the edges. A bit of kick, a great level of smoke, not too sweet.

Consumed an entire rack. Joyfully.

Just got back from lunch at Sticky Fingers. I got the chicken and rib combo, both meats were nicely cooked and very moist. I didn't like the sauce too much though - it was evenly spread but had no identifiable flavour. I asked for beans and slaw on the side - the beans were too sweet and the dressing on the slaw had no flavour. I have yet to be impressed by any of the sides so I think I should give up on that and focus on the meat. I will swing by tomorrow on my way home from shopping and pick up ribs and make my own sides at home.

Got a return phone call from a city health inspector based on my complaint. He was at Rib Fest today inspecting all the vendors. He spoke to the vendor that I complained about and advised him not to leave food in the sun and if the food can't be covered up it shouldn't be kept so close to passersby.

We did the following places.

Hawgs Gone wild - shared corn bread and pulled pork sandwich. Yummy spicy sauce, bought a bottle.
Potato on a stick. - not cooked.. soggy not cripsy
Boss Hog, nice smoke, other racks were nicely charred or crispy. ours had just hit the grill and been pulled off to us =(. These guys used a blower to heat the coals.. didn't see anyone else doing this. Shared a half rack.
Blazin bbq- decent ribs. shared half rack.

Whats cool is that you can sit on a patio and drink.. but yesterday was way too hot.

This is my first year to the Sparks Street rib and chicken cook-off. It will hopefully be the first of many years to come. Now that I work downtown, it only takes 12 minutes to walk there for lunch. Tried Camp 31 ribs. Love it. I understand they came in second place last year right behind Billy Bones. Lemonade next door to Camp 31 was pretty good too.

Despite the hot weather, crowds were large at noon. To avoid crowds, you can even show up at 10:45am as they're already serving by then. Will keep in mind for next year. Went all three days....nice to get away from the office and the Camp 31 ribs are definitely worth it. Half a rack was more than enough along with a side of cole slaw and large lemonade.

Was there Friday night at 8pm. Billy Bones already ran out of everything and was cleaning up so got a rack ribs at Camp 31 which was very good :D

Also tried the roasted corn. you can get the corn dipped in melted butter with a selection of spices. Wanted some Cajun but they did not have any so got so had some Jamican spices. The corn was tasty but kinds of small still since it is the beginning of the season. They said they came from Toronto.

I tried the potato on a stick and it was so amazing I went back for several more:D
I also tried the maple bacon lollipops and...YUMMY!!!

Friday night at Gator's. Very good ribs, good bark throughout, pink, smoky, chewy at spots, but buttery and tasty. $23 for a full rack which seems to be the norm. The lineup was about 30 minutes or so. What I liked best was the sides. The beans were so-so, but the potatoes were very good. Better than the slaw I had in the past, which itself is better than most restos' slaw I've tried.

I like the pulled pork. It wasn't shredded to thin, soggy strands, it consisted of varying size chunks, juicy nonetheless, and like OSM, looooove the occasional piece of candied bark in the whole mess. The sauce from the dispenser was tangy, vinegary Carolina style, which made the potatoes even better.

Ange Cafe, just west of Metcalfe allowed access to tables. Nice beer to wash it all down in a cozy cafe (patio full).

Will be back for more Florida BBQ next year.

Because I knew nothing about the vendors, it was a crap shoot for us. lol, The only criteria I used was the kind of music they were playing. Many of the vendors were playing hip hop, lol ummm,, I know it has nothing to do with the food but since I had nothing else to go on, I gravitated to the vendor playing Johnny Cash. We were satisfied,... Boss Hogs I believe. Got full rack for $22 juicy, sticky, maybe a little too sweet to appriate the smoke. Wish they had wet wipes.

Hawgs Gone Wild did great ribs. pulled pork was less impressive vs Camp 31 or Sticky Fingers.

Boss Hoggs didn't beat any other place i sampled this year.