Roll Call. Inside 30 days. NYC BBQ Cook-Off, Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island, NYC - April 10-11, 2015

[BrewerDJ]

I don't think we are going to start doing hand outs till 1-130 just so doesn't interfere with our turn ins.

That's what we're going to "try" and do. Over the last few years we have only done less than a dozen comp. We do it for fun. We only have a 2 or 3 man team and still probably take way too much time building our boxes so we really need all of us to do it. We're just going to try and ignore the people at the beginning and see how that goes. In a previous post I said the last time we did this comp we gave away the butts they supplied plus every spec of food we had left after building our boxes and still ran out by 2:30 or 3. I get that this is a fund raiser for the location but the PC really was a joke. I know the people that won cheated. They were telling people they would only give them food if they gave them their voting chips. And I was also told they pooled their chips with other teams and then split the prize money. I can't confirm the latter but many of the public people told me about the former. They wanted to know where to buy more chips so they could get more food. The organizer told me they are trying to figure out a way to curb this. We'll see.

 

[Bearded Pigs BBQ]

The PC is a total joke but i do have to say last year i did a few catering gigs from it last year it did pay off in the end . Depending on the location we are set we are thinking just putting the wall up on the front of our ezup while we are doing the turn in and putting a small sign saying we will start at 130. Last year was our first event and it really screwed me up with that turn in and then also having visitors. So this year we have a rule that no one is allowed in our site during turn-ins, at this point even my family knows to stay away.
Plus we only have an extra butt to give out and depending on what is given to us.

 

[eggzlot]

The organizer told me they are trying to figure out a way to curb this. We'll see.

In the past I gave the organizer my opinion - have the People's choice handed out by volunteers in another area and have it totally blind. It will be less congested so teams can run their boxes, it will free up our time to focus on KCBS and since it would be totally blind, it would eliminate the home town favorite winning easily. All this I believe would led to more team participation, more food to hand out and more revenue for the organizer.

Guido and I would do people's choice if someone else handed it out, but since we are a 2 man team, no way we can do people's choice at the same time as KCBS turn in. We did it the first year, and unless there is a change, do not seeing us doing it again. If all we had to do was cook 3-4 butts and hand it off to an organizer to serve, we would do it in a heart beat, and I bet more teams would do it too.

 

[Skip]

Cheating on Peoples Choice? I know that many are upset with them and I can understand if you were competing but as someone who wasn't there i can look at it from the outside in and I have to tell you that its quite sad. How poor of an opinion do they have of themselves to cheat in such an arena? How devoid of integrity are they to cheat in the midst of a fundraiser? I wonder if they steal the coin jar on the counter at the local deli. Can you imagine the conversation in their head? The must not have much respect or confidence in themselves. Also how do you display your trophy? How do you look at others when they view it and perpetuate your lie? "Look at how good we are the public picked us!" I would be ashamed to even entertain the idea for a second let alone solidify it for years to come as you display the trophy.

Some people are just sad sad sad. I couldn't find it in myself to even be upset at it when I found out. I would only feel pity for such a troubled soul. In fact if this is true I do feel pity for them. The joy of your BBQ hobby is the Purloined Peoples Pick. I wonder how proud they are.

 

[DivineSwine-LI]

I was very concerned about the people's choice at this event after hearing all the comments. So I contacted the event organizers to see if they know about the issues and what they might have done to make it better. here is what they wrote me:

"Finally on People's Choice - we very much appreciate your participation in Peoples Choice. I'm sure that Frank also mentioned that we have additional pork butt for you which he'll distribute on Friday night. We too have heard some concerns from past teams about issues with people's choice, and we've worked very hard this year to solve them. Some changes we made include a new turn in time for People's Choice - we will have only team members handling their containers until they are delivered to the judges to be counted.. Also, we've taken extra precautions to make sure we secure the containers so they can not be opened or tampered with. All containers will be counted and any that were opened will be disqualified. Please share this info with any other teams you are talking to - we want everyone to know that we take your concerns very very seriously, and want this event to be great for our visitors, but we wont have visitors unless we have happy competitors."

I am looking forward to seeing how they have addressed the issues and I hope they are fixed. At least they seem to be serious about making it a fair and honest event.

 

[Skip]

I was very concerned about the people's choice at this event after hearing all the comments. So I contacted the event organizers to see if they know about the issues and what they might have done to make it better. here is what they wrote me:

"Finally on People's Choice - we very much appreciate your participation in Peoples Choice. I'm sure that Frank also mentioned that we have additional pork butt for you which he'll distribute on Friday night. We too have heard some concerns from past teams about issues with people's choice, and we've worked very hard this year to solve them. Some changes we made include a new turn in time for People's Choice - we will have only team members handling their containers until they are delivered to the judges to be counted.. Also, we've taken extra precautions to make sure we secure the containers so they can not be opened or tampered with. All containers will be counted and any that were opened will be disqualified. Please share this info with any other teams you are talking to - we want everyone to know that we take your concerns very very seriously, and want this event to be great for our visitors, but we wont have visitors unless we have happy competitors."

I am looking forward to seeing how they have addressed the issues and I hope they are fixed. At least they seem to be serious about making it a fair and honest event.

I am not sure if I am missing something but isn't peoples choice done at the cook site? What are they talking about with open and closed containers and judges for? Is there a separate blind judging along with the public pick?

 

[DivineSwine-LI]

I am not sure if I am missing something but isn't peoples choice done at the cook site? What are they talking about with open and closed containers and judges for? Is there a separate blind judging along with the public pick?

I think he is referring to the container where the public will put their chips to vote. From what someone said in n earlier post there seemed to be some teams combining their votes and splitting money.

 

[bbqnjm]

Skip- is Swamp Pit coming? It would be great to see you guys!
Nancy

 

[Skip]

Sorry Nancy but Swamp Pit will not be able to swing this contest. We haven't had the disposable income. We are tentative on 3 possible contests this year but have to have the money to do it. I miss getting out there but maybe the downtime has sharpened my craft...but its probably as sharp as a crayon :biggrin1::biggrin1:

 

[Skip]

I think he is referring to the container where the public will put their chips to vote. From what someone said in n earlier post there seemed to be some teams combining their votes and splitting money.

Thank you now it makes perfect sense.

 

[Bearded Pigs BBQ]

What time is everyone rolling in I may need a hand unloading my smoker if someone is avail

 

[bbqnjm]

Sorry Nancy but Swamp Pit will not be able to swing this contest. We haven't had the disposable income. We are tentative on 3 possible contests this year but have to have the money to do it. I miss getting out there but maybe the downtime has sharpened my craft...but its probably as sharp as a crayon :biggrin1::biggrin1:

Understand- hope you are able to swing those 3 contests- & hope we're at least one of them- miss you guys. Say hi to Julie.
N

 

[Sledneck]

I was very concerned about the people's choice at this event after hearing all the comments. So I contacted the event organizers to see if they know about the issues and what they might have done to make it better. here is what they wrote me:

"Finally on People's Choice - we very much appreciate your participation in Peoples Choice. I'm sure that Frank also mentioned that we have additional pork butt for you which he'll distribute on Friday night. We too have heard some concerns from past teams about issues with people's choice, and we've worked very hard this year to solve them. Some changes we made include a new turn in time for People's Choice - we will have only team members handling their containers until they are delivered to the judges to be counted.. Also, we've taken extra precautions to make sure we secure the containers so they can not be opened or tampered with. All containers will be counted and any that were opened will be disqualified. Please share this info with any other teams you are talking to - we want everyone to know that we take your concerns very very seriously, and want this event to be great for our visitors, but we wont have visitors unless we have happy competitors."

I am looking forward to seeing how they have addressed the issues and I hope they are fixed. At least they seem to be serious about making it a fair and honest event.

Seems to have worked. Top 2 staten island

 

[dr pearl]

I was very concerned about the people's choice at this event after hearing all the comments. So I contacted the event organizers to see if they know about the issues and what they might have done to make it better. here is what they wrote me:

"Finally on People's Choice - we very much appreciate your participation in Peoples Choice. I'm sure that Frank also mentioned that we have additional pork butt for you which he'll distribute on Friday night. We too have heard some concerns from past teams about issues with people's choice, and we've worked very hard this year to solve them. Some changes we made include a new turn in time for People's Choice - we will have only team members handling their containers until they are delivered to the judges to be counted.. Also, we've taken extra precautions to make sure we secure the containers so they can not be opened or tampered with. All containers will be counted and any that were opened will be disqualified. Please share this info with any other teams you are talking to - we want everyone to know that we take your concerns very very seriously, and want this event to be great for our visitors, but we wont have visitors unless we have happy competitors."

I am looking forward to seeing how they have addressed the issues and I hope they are fixed. At least they seem to be serious about making it a fair and honest event.

Yep. All fixed. Same team from SI won. :dancer::dancer:

 

[DivineSwine-LI]

I wrote to the organizer to find out the People's Choice results, hoping to see how many votes people got. I will say the winner did have decent food they did finish 9th overall. We made 60lbs of pork and thought that was a lot, but ran out in 2 hours. I know the team next to us cooked 150lbs of pork served to the end and they didn't win. How many pounds do you guys usually cook?

 

[Bearded Pigs BBQ]

We cooked 11 butts for the give out (6 of our own 5 from event) we wanted to see what would happen if we went all out with it and how we placed, I emailed Frank also to see where we ended up to find out. Our line was over a 30 minute wait i was told by people in the line, and we served right up until our turn in of the ballot boxes.

Nancy did say they are looking to change this entirely but we will have to wait and see how that works out, but im pretty sure almost everyone will agree it will not work until they go with a blind judging. Well it was great seeing all of you who we did and look forward to seeing you all at future events.

 

[Bearded Pigs BBQ]

Did anyone hear back from Frank regarding the peoples choice i sent 2 emails and no response from him.

 

[DivineSwine-LI]

Did anyone hear back from Frank regarding the peoples choice i sent 2 emails and no response from him.

I haven't heard back either.

 

[bbqnjm]

They have the chili event this weekend, he may have been a little preoccupied.