Cycling to the World's End

BBQ Shack at the World's End, 60-61 London Rd, Brighton

Enough BBQ to kill a horse and sufficient beer to drown a rat king: £20 each

With all the meat love going around London this summer, I find it surprising that excellent examples of the flame-grilled genre are still hard, if not almost impossible to find. Perhaps our fabled fondness for the burned sausage at our own outdoor feasts is impeding an inevitable BBQ revolution. Many a foodie has lamented the lack of BBQ perfection in London. I had reluctantly concluded that only a trip across the Atlantic would satisfy this hunger, until I read an article that dared me to hope. A Texas-trained ex-chef-turned-BBQ aficionado? Only 50 miles from London? Get me to Brighton.

Fette Sau: the BBQ benchmark

Fette Sau, 354 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, New York

Meal for three starving people (excluding drinks): $75 or £46

It feels like it's all about BBQ here in London this summer. Not the burnt sausage, crappy burger kind but the sort of cooking one associates with the Southern States of the USA: all pulled pork, sticky beans and shots of bourbon by the pit. Within the space of a few weeks, we've had a new restaurant open up in Hoxton and a van pull up under Hungerford bridge (review on its way), both dedicated to the fine art of cooking with fire and smoke. However, whilst both make an admirable attempt at recreating that American stalwart, neither of them have quite got it and they fall short of smoky perfection. Even with our new-found love of the BBQ pit, we still have to leave our beloved city for the good stuff. Having put off writing up my recent (ish) visit to New York, BBQ disappointment has finally given me the impetus to blog about the opposite: BBQ heaven. For as I discovered on my last visit, our urbanite cousins in New York can hook themselves up with fantastic BBQ at the drop of an artfully distressed hat. Mind you, they do have to leave Manhattan which is perhaps just as traumatic for some. Fette Sau is the sort of place I would love to see transplanted to London. In fact, I would even sell a fairly vital organ in order to make this happen. 

Red Dog Saloon: where's their smoke?

Red Dog Saloon, 37 Hoxton Square, N1 6NN
Meal for two (with 50% off food): £40

It doesn't take a genius to realise that North East London is changing. Where once there were only money lenders, Turkish supermarkets and secret warehouse raves, now the Kingsland Road sports those two well-known harbingers of gentrification: a Tesco and a Subway. The arch-hipsters, who remember when the area was the cutting edge of cool, have either moved to Clapton or are consoling themselves by producing ironic t-shirts and moaning about the changes in the Sunday Times Style magazine. Even Passing Clouds, once the sole preserve of the trendsetting elite who knew where to find its unadorned doorway, has started to advertise its presence with a sign. The restaurant business in this part of town is also changing to reflect its new market. The Turkish and Vietnamese places remain virtually unchanged but, in Hoxton and Shoreditch in particular, more and more recognisably mainstream places are opening, such as Busaba and Byron.

Even so, when I heard about a barbecue joint opening in Hoxton Square, my first thoughts were of the marvellous Fette Sau in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Those familiar with both New York and London will know that Williamsburg is the transatlantic ideal to which Shoreditch aspires. As such, I hoped that Red Dog Saloon would bring the same on-trend approach to BBQ that Fette Sau has successfully pioneered in New York. I expected rough wooden tables, artisan beer by the gallon and a selection of rare whiskies in mismatched glassware. Most of all, I had high hopes for the meat: I wanted meltingly tender slices of brisket, unctuous pulled pork and smoky slabs of ribs. Unfortunately, whilst Red Dog Saloon makes an admirable attempt at recreating these things in London, it doesn't quite hit the mark.