Bay Ridge Joins the Brooklyn Barbecue Revolution
If the astronomically rising rents are any indication, in a few years, Bay Ridge might become yet another playground for the daughters of Russian oligarchs. And while we may never be able to afford to move back to the neighborhood we long called home (to the tune of $975 per month), because of the growing influx of wine bars, farm-to-table restaurants, Nutella lasagna-serving bakeries, Cali-style taco stops and Brooklyn Cured charcuterie-peddling salumerias, well, it’s hard for us to hate on the hipster-baiting interlopers. Because, in the rather unusual case of Bay Ridge, they’re not actually interlopers at all, but a younger generation of loyal, dyed-in-the-wool locals, helping to raise the area’s culinary game.
And now, a forthcoming barbecue joint will undoubtedly assure our exile to Southernmost Brooklyn, destined to move further and further outward in search of reasonably priced housing, until we eventually fall into the sea. But again, we’re not holding it against native son Thomas Perone aka “The Pig Guy,” who’ll open a brick-and-mortar branch of his Citi Field serving, pork-adulating catering company later this year, on Third Avenue and 84th Street.
The eatery will specialize in carnivorous, unapologetically sloppy goodies, like pulled pork on Texas toast; maple and sriracha-glazed bacon; provolone-stuffed, chimichurri-topped chorizo dogs; and a noodle casserole-crowned brisket sandwich dubbed the Mac Attack (although it remains to be seen if the space can accommodate Perone’s signature whole pig roasts). And if the concept proves successful, he hopes the Bay Ridge locale will eventually become Pig Guy’s bustling flagship, serving as training ground for further franchises throughout the city.
Perhaps he’ll throw this Bay Ridge exile a bone, and consider opening another outpost in restaurant-deprived Bath Beach.