I had several more erratic dinners at RUB until, one evening, in the company of three immaculately dressed female barbecue hounds, I ordered the Baron’s Down Home Pig Pick’n. The dish costs $89.75 and consists of an entire pork butt hoisted to the table with bread slices, pickles, and four silver tongs. The butt weighs twelve pounds when it’s put in the smoker and six or seven pounds when it emerges, fifteen hours later. It’s caked with paprika, chili powder, and a dusting of brown sugar, which gives its exterior a dark, faintly caramelized texture. When it arrived at our table, the ladies let out a collective gasp, then commenced daintily to pick at it. The fat had mostly melted away, and the meat inside was pinkish purple from the hickory smoke, and it came away in long ribbons. After a while, I discarded the tongs and ate with my fingers. The meat tasted porky and sweet, and you could smell the hickory in the back of your nose. The Baron wasn’t in the kitchen, but his presence seemed to hover over the proceedings in a beneficent, almost saintly way. It was a miracle, after all. On this night, at least, and at long last, real barbecue had come to New York City.

Address:208 W. 23rd St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-524-4300
Hours: Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 11 P.M. Friday and Saturday, noon to midnight. Sunday, noon to 10 P.M.
Prices: Sides, $3 to $7; entrées, $5 to $27; full meals: $45.75 to $275 (includes a bottle of Dom Pérignon).
Ideal Meal: St. Louis ribs, Down Home Pig Pick’n, coleslaw, baked beans, fried Oreos.
Note: Fried Oreos are the only dessert. They’re encased in fluffy tempura batter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Eat them fast enough so they don’t congeal, but not too fast, since they’re molten hot.

Related:

• Archive: “Restaurant Review”
• Articles by Adam Platt
• Table of Contents: Jul 18, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!