TROY, NY -- The restaurant scene, always a busy one in this riverside city, shows no signs of easing.While the spotlight is on renovations of the former Castaway on River Street to become home to the newest Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sometime this summer, another barbecue spot is on the drawing boards.
The city Planning Board's April 7 agenda lists discussion of "a proposal to occupy a vacant branch bank with a Smokehouse BBQ restaurant."
That would be at 478 Fifth Avenue, across the street from Jimmy's Pizzeria in the Lansingburgh section of the city. It is a project headed by Zakian Khater of Guilderland. It would join the Dinosaur, which made its name with its original spot in Syracuse before expanding to Rochester and Manhattan, in spreading the gospel of barbecue.
The project is not particularly surprising. Troy has become a barbecue mecca since the inception of the Pig Out, an annual juried barbecue competition that draws professional teams for the New York State BBQ Championship.
This year's Pig Out is set for Saturday and Sunday, July 17 (11 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and 18 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) at Riverfront Park.
Even though chef Larry Schepici, one of the original movers and shakers behind the event and whose Tosca restaurant was a sponsor, has shuttered his Troy restaurants and taken a job at the Hollywood Brown Derby in Albany, the event should be as strong as ever.
"Larry certainly was a big part of starting the Pig Out, but we've been pretty much running it so I don't see any problem this year," Elizabeth Young of the Troy Downtown Collaborative told me today.
ON THE WEB
• Troy Pig Out
• Dowd's Guides
• New York Drinks Calendar
1 comment:
Healthy competitions are good, right? Especially to us paying customers. I think it puts them both on guard always as to how to improve or maintain food and service quality. Frankly, for me, it's all about the barbecue, that's all what matters to me!
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