Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival Keeps the Flame Lit

If you build it, they will come.

The annual Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival may have been located this year in an obscure parking lot in a mixed-use neighborhood near Perimeter Mall, instead of the friendly confines of Brook Run Park, which hosted the festival for nearly a decade, but that didn’t stop several thousand community members from finding their way to the site and enjoying some tasty ‘Q’ and meaningful fellowship.

If there was a theme to this year’s festival … it was perseverance.

The competitive cooking teams assembled on a cold and windy Saturday night with grand designs of slow roasting their award-entry briskets … but that would not be the case.

“The competition teams prepare their meat on Thursday night before the event, then it is sealed by a mashgiach, and stored on site in a refrigerated trailer until Saturday evening, after Shabbat,” said ATL Kosher BBQ Festival Executive Director Jacqueline Morris. “This year, however, as the teams were retrieving their meats from storage, it became quickly apparent there was an issue: the meat was warm. Event staff conferred with team captains, measuring internal meat temperatures and trying to determine how long ago the refrigerator had stopped. Some of the food may have been salvageable, the rest was clearly spoiled. Out of an abundance of caution, the decision was made to throw out all of the food – roughly 12 hours before the event was set to start. There was nothing for the competition teams to cook.”

Morris and her team had to pivot. There would be no beef ribs – an issue that would come up later on Sunday afternoon when handing out trophies, which were crafted beforehand and the “Ribs” trophies would ultimately go to the winner of the “Chicken Cutlets” category, which served as a replacement.

“It was a hectic time,” Morris said. “Everyone was on their phones calling anyone they thought could help, including grocery stores, butchers, logistics companies, chefs, and food safety experts. However, in the face of this crisis, the Jewish community pulled together. Michael Berkowitz of Deli 2 U and Peter Swerdlow of Griller’s Pride graciously got out of their beds and drove to their warehouses to resupply the festival, and we simply cannot thank them enough for being there when the festival needed them most.”

And that, excluding the part about the rotten meat, is the point of the annual Kosher BBQ Festival … to bring the community together.

“If you attended this year, you might not have even noticed this happened,” Morris said. “The competition teams had to deal with a night of complete and utter chaos, but through their patience, skill, and perseverance, everything was cooked – and everything was delicious. The fact that the festival was executed so smoothly on Sunday is a testament to the teams, our emergency meat suppliers, and the community as a whole.”

As Sunday morning warmed up, the Jewish Atlanta community and its fellow barbeque enthusiasts made their way to the site and took part in the festivities, enjoying live music, a petting zoo, various bounce houses and kids’ games, and, of course, tasty smoked meats.

Many of the youngest attendees spent much of their time scanning the festival grounds for 50 Jewish Ducks that were hidden in various spots. If found, the ducks could be returned to the Atlanta Jewish Times’ booth for a stuffed dog animal.

And then, there was the star of the show … the barbeque. The cooking teams competed in four categories: Chili, Chicken, Chicken Cutlets [in place of Beef Ribs], and Brisket.

The full list of winners is as follows:

BRISKET
1st – Pirates of the Cow-Rib-Bean
2nd – Bark-B-Q Crew
3rd – Fuego BBQ Team

CHICKEN CUTLETS
1st – Fuego BBQ Team
2nd – 8th Day BBQ
3rd – Moshe Ribeinu’s Burning Bush BBQ

CHILI
1st – Pirates of the Cow-Rib-Bean
2nd – Rest in Meat
3rd – Beth Shalom Masterful Mensches of Meat

CHICKEN DRUMLETS
1st – Fuego BBQ Team
2nd – Pirates of the Cow-Rib-Bean
3rd – Feederation

The Fan Favorite winner was Beth Shalom’s Masterful Mensches of Meat; Grillin T’Fillin won Best Team Name and Best Booth; and the Fuego BBQ Team was awarded Grand Champion.

Morris shared, “To everyone who participated in putting together this festival, we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for making this possible. To everyone who attended, we thank you for making this worthwhile. To all the barbeque lovers out there, kosher or otherwise, we hope to see you next year.”