How could I forget to mention this? Tuesday night, my best friend and I RSVPed to an event at Justin Timberlake’s barbecue restaurant, Southern Hospitality. The event being held that night was happy hour specials and a screening of the MLB All-Star Game along with a special guest of honor: Darryl Strawberry! This event combined a few of my favorite things: drinks, barbecue and baseball.
When we arrived, I spotted a table right near the entrance and asked the waitress if we could sit there, in hopes of catching Darryl before he gets mobbed by fans. Our waitress was so friendly and suggested apps and a HH drink, which were both well-received. We got the haystack onion strings with BBQ-ranch dipping sauce ($6.95), which were very skinny pieces of onion coated in batter and fried. They were good and very crispy, but a little hard to eat because they were so skinny they kept falling apart. The HH drink she recommended was the Strawberry Slam ($6), and I don’t remember exactly what was in it other than a load of vodka, but it was bright pink, sweet, and very strong.
For the main course, I decided you can’t go wrong with a pulled pork sandwich ($10.95). My friend got the beef brisket sandwich ($11.95) and we split a side of the mac n cheese ($3.95). My pulled pork sandwich was pretty good; smoky and sweet on a buttered bun, but it could have been a little hotter. The beef brisket was a little bland without their house-BBQ sauce, which happened to be really tasty. I put that BBQ sauce all over my pulled pork and even a little on my fries. I think the fries were the only thing seasoned perfectly with salt, pepper and a blend of cajun spices – they were crispy and golden. The mac and cheese was debatable; it had a really good cheesy flavor, but something about the texture bothered me. It was a little grainy and the cheese seemed to coagulate into little clumps, but the overall taste was very good.
Service, atmosphere, and food all considered, it was a fun experience. I would give it one thumb up, one thumb down since they need to work out some minor kinks. Fortunately though, the highlight of the evening was when Darryl Strawberry arrived. Since we were seated by the entrance, I was one of the first people to notice him. A few drinks in me by this point, I jumped up and asked if I could get a picture. He was very gracious and waved me over to stand next to him for the picture. Unfortunately my friend has the picture on her camera, so when I get it, I will post it up! Another bummer of the evening: the NL lost in the All-Star Game. Better luck next year…
Southern Hospitality
1460 Second Avenue near 76th street, 212-249-1001
