The weather was gorgeous on Saturday so two of my roommates and I decided to walk from our spacious Friendship Heights estate to the Barbecue Battle downtown. We figured the combination of meats, sauces, and beers could not be beat. Only $10 to get in! Surely we could gorge ourselves. I can eat $10 of meat in, like, 20 minutes. We couldn't lose!
We lost.
What the website doesn't mention (anywhere) is that the food costs extra money. In other words, there's a $10 cover for the privilege to eat. Sure, "entertainment" was provided. But it's not like we were going to a barbecue to see a reggae band under a tent. Even if we were, the tent was right by the gates so we could listen from there. A homeless dude was having a good time spasmodically dancing on the steps of the Wilson Building. He didn't have to pay ten bucks for the experience.
(And no one can say that common sense dictates that we would have to pay extra for the delicious smelling food. The three of us are bright. At least two of us have some common sense. We were all, to the man, blindsided by the unadvertised costs of BBQ pork.)
Obviously I can't (and don't) blame DC for this. I mean, they weren't in charge of the barbecue. It's just a shame that something so potentially awesome for the city could be ruined so easily. The money was all going to charity so I blame them. Stupid Metropolitan Police Boys & Girls Clubs. Why can't you let me gorge in peace?
6.25.2007
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Furthermore, the food you can purchase is from Red Hot & Blue, Famous Dave's, etc., that is the same barbecue joints you can already patronize at will. The actual barbecue that's prepared for the competition is off-limits to the general public. Which I suppose makes sense, as it would be difficult for Jim Bob's Kick-Ass Barbecuin' Team to prepare enough ribs for everyone who wanted them. But I still find it a bit misleading.
ReplyDeleteThe trick to getting your money's worth was to have the patience to stand in line for all the free samples from Safeway.
ReplyDeleteThe best implementation of this sort of thing I've seen was when there were various BBQ'ers from all over the country selling their cooking. It was decently priced (though there was the cost of admission), and the variety was so wide that it made things worthwhile. As far as I could tell, on Sunday afternoon, there were at most just a couple local BBQ places selling food.
Rusty likes sausage.
ReplyDeletePork is gross. Eating meat products prepared on the street from street vendors is even more gross. Suuuurre. Ohhh..maybe I'll stop at the downtown hot dog carts on the way home as well and have one more meat treat to polish off my day of street meat
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to agree with Carl. Should've saved the time and effort by just heading over to Red, Hot & Blue. It's air conditioned and they have beer.
Rusty,
ReplyDeleteI hope this is tongue-in-cheek writing at its finest. Surely you did not believe that for $10 each, you and your friends were going to be treated to an all-you-can-eat gorge-fest down the road from our nation's capital, courtesy of local barbeque joints and Safeway. Did you also think the moon bounce and hoops games were free as well?
Your $10 granted admission to sub par musical entertainment, long lines for food (both meals and samples), and the opportunity to have smoke blown in your face. SUCKAS.
My friend and I walked the perimeter and decided it was not worth it. So we snagged the free ice cream Edy's was giving out and kept walking.
Imagine the crowds if it were unlimited food. All of southeast would have been in northwest for an afternoon.
Alas, I, along with my roommates, did indeed think it was $10 all you can eat. For reals. The website mentioned nothing of buying food.
ReplyDeleteI also declined to enter and instead enjoyed a $5 burger and a supermug at the downtown Chef Geoff's.
yeah i made the mistake of going to that last summer.
ReplyDeletethe morning news was advertising it as "free food"...notsomuch
This is Washington, fools, only multi-national corporations get anything for free.
ReplyDeleteNext time look for the no-bid BBQ