Pig Beach, West Palm Beach, Florida

Pig Beach in West Palm is an offshoot of a NewYork City barbecue place with a distinguished history. You remember Sean Ludwig from this post and this one. Sean, of course, is the creator of NYCBBQ.com and co-author of The Smoke Sheet. Sean and bride Stephanie hosted their wedding at the original location in Brooklyn, the one with acres of outdoor space and a hugely fun atmosphere.

The Brooklyn location has closed, alas, in the face of a big real estate redevelopment plan. Sean has all the details here. Pig Beach lives on, however, with active locations in Queens, and a Louisville location imminent, plus plans for a new Brooklyn location on the horizon and, of course, the West Palm location, a long, long building on Federal Highway.

Nancy and I went to Pig Beach with Ella and Lily, along with our good friends and neighbors, Julie Hammons and her son Hudson. It’s an appealing location. On one side are the big cookers, fired with gas plus cherry and maple.

On the other side is the parking lot with a welcoming mural.

Pig Beach is roomy inside, with a ginormous television screen behind the bar.

We sat down and ordered … a lot. Way down at the kids’ end of the table went a smash burger, a hot dog, macaroni and cheese, and fries. The response was enthusiastic. Lily (almost 4) took a bite and announced, “I’m falling in love with this hamburger.” Hudson (9) gave the hot dog five stars, and Ella (6) gave the fries five stars, and declared that the macaroni and cheese was “very good but a little cheesy.” They all enjoyed their lemonades.

The adults started, okay, I started with smoked fish dip.

I polished off the excellent fish in short order with some assistance. It was smoky and delicious. I confess that my grading curve for smoked fish dip starts with a B+ and soars upward from there. As you can see, this one came with water crackers and carrots as vehicles and pickled onion, cucumbers, and jalapeños as counterpoints. You should try some.

The centerpiece of the meal was a Sampler Platter, a quarter rack of ribs and a quarter pound each of pork, brisket, and smoked turkey, plus a cheddar jalapeño sausage link, all supplemented by a purple slaw with pineapple and jalapeño and more fries, these topped with cheese and bacon.

That was for Liza, Julie, and me. Nancy had a salad topped with smoked turkey. The salad contained kale, so I’ll draw a veil over the photograph.

I opened my attack on the platter with a rib. I tested the sauce, which was thick and sweet, which is what most people like. I don’t. For me they tend to overwhelm the flavor of the meat. I keep forgetting to say “No sauce, please.” One of these days I’m going to have “No sauce, please” tattooed on my forehead. I scraped off the sauce, and found some tender and tasty rib meat underneath. Good recovery, John.

I moved on to the cheddar jalapeño sausage, and was pleased, indeed. This is a fairly smoky, well seasoned sausage, with a medium grind and a nice bite. Order a sausage.

Next the pork. My serving of pork was fatty, which is not a deal-killer for me. The pork was very moist and tender and was crowned with porky richness. It didn’t have as much smoke as you get from an all-wood cooker, but smoke was there. And in the brisket as well, which was left sauce-free. Again, it was tender, not dried out, and had a beefy flavor and feel, as well as some smoke. I later spoke to Emily Jacobson, and she and Doug had really enjoyed some brisket tacos there.

I never got to the turkey. It was very popular with the others, however. Turkey soaks in smoke flavor better than other meats, and this turkey warmly embraced the smoke from the Pig beach cookers. Nancy, who gets dragged to swarms of barbecue places and ends up eating smoked turkey all over the US, liked it, and Nancy has demanding standards when it comes to smoked turkey.

The sides. I tried the purple slaw to see how slaw with pineapple and jalapeño tasted. Pretty good! The pineapple and jalapeño added some nice flavor and contrast to the cabbage and dressing. I think I resisted the fries, which I coudn’t reach anyway.

Our server, Mirasol, did a fine job and was sweet with the kids. Pig Beach welcomes families, and it was a fun lunch. Outside the building, Pig Beach boosts its beach atmosphere with some games out front — the one where you toss bean bags at a hole, for example. Things inside are relaxed and there’s some delicious food there. Give Pig Beach a try.

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