East Coast BBQ, Rok:Brgr Take Top Prizes at Rock n' Roll Beer-B-Q

For months now, New Times has been heaping praise on East Coast BBQ. The tiny 'cue joint in a Pompano Beach strip mall earned a rave review in our Dish section, a Best Barbecue award in this year's Best of Broward/Palm Beach edition, and generally just as many column inches as we can spend on one restaurant.

So it was fitting, then, that East Coast BBQ would take home the Best Overall award at the inaugural Seminole Hard Rock and New Times Rock n' Roll Beer-B-Q event this weekend. As usual, East Coast's entries were smoky, with a tangy-sweet sauce, just like they serve at that Pompano strip mall.

The Beer-B-Q featured 20 restaurants competing for six categories. Most of the non-BBQ restaurants submitted their versions of traditional barbecue, including a pulled pork corn dog and a brisket taco.

Most Unique and Fan Favorite
Rok:Brgr
Our

Best New Restaurant in 2011 served up one hell of a burger to the

Beer-B-Q crowd. It came topped with caramelized onions, what tasted like

American cheese sauce, and some great pulled pork. It was a monster,

cut into quarters for the crowd, which waited in a line as long as any

on Sunday. It was definitely the Most Unique item served, and it was

also fantastic.

Best Chicken
Bru's Room Sports Grill
Bru's

Room has long been a favorite during Dolphins games, and it's not just

for the $1.50 drafts. The wings there come in three varieties, including

barbecue, so it's safe to say Bru's Room has experience with the grill.

Best Ribs
East Coast BBQ
If

you haven't had the St. Louis-style ribs at East Coast yet, you now

have lunch plans. The ribs have that perfect layer of flavored bark,

that tender-yet-not-falling-apart texture, and the right amount of

smoke. Read more about them in this article, in which we heap praise on the ribs being among our 100 best dishes in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Best Brisket
Jack's Bar-B-Que Smokehouse
Anyone

who's driven down Oakland Park Boulevard knows this place, if simply

for the smell of burning hickory that perfumes the road from I-95 to

Dixie. The brisket is a highlight at Jack's, so it's no surprise that

they pulled in a top award here.

Best Pork
Whiskey Tango
Our readers know how good Whiskey Tango is -- they've named it Best Sports Bar in 2010 and Best Bar overall in 2011. Add to that praise the ability to throw down barbecued pork with the best of them. Whiskey Tango's offering for the judges was both creative and delicious. It stuffed a corn dog with pulled pork and topped it with a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. It was great bar food -- and also great barbecue.