Hill Country Barbecue & Market- NYC

When you think BBQ New York City probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when conjuring up mouth-watering images of slowly roasting meat and giant smoke rooms. New York may not have verdant rolling hills, singing cicadas or pastureland filled with lolling cattle but we do have some mighty good BBQ hot spots.

One of which is Hill Country Barbecue & Market (30 West 26th Street), a surprisingly large restaurant with both an upstairs (mainly for chowing) and a downstairs where they have great live music on weekend nights. You won’t find much fare for vegetarians (2-3 side dishes max) but if you love meat in all of it’s many forms from ribs to breasts to all-in sausages, your collards with bacon and your beans with pork,  then this place is for you.

The down home decor and rough wood furniture is delightful and keeps the fantasy of being in some other place, and time, in tact. The service is friendly when you get it and the “get in line” cafeteria style arrangement for ordering your food makes getting served a relatively quick event.

The meat is flavorful and abundant if not a little one dimensional. Maybe some day an artisanal BBQ restaurant will pop up where different woods will smoke different meats so that it all doesn’t taste the same. Until then if you want decent, stick-to-your-ribs BBQ in a down home environment, Hill Country Barbecue & Market is a good place to start. We were too full to have dessert but they are all made in-house (save for some of the ice creams) so worth the caloric consideration.

The pricing can get steep since you are ordering the meat by the pound so start light and try not to let your eyes order more than your stomach can handle. Even if you do you can get your meat to go and it will be great the next day as well in a sandwich. They also have regular “Recession Specials” all week so it pays to check those out before heading in.

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