Atlanta BBQ festival 2016

A friend and I attended this annual festival today. I have been to this event in 2014&2015 when it was held at Atlantic Station. This year the event moved to the parking lot of Perimeter Mall in north Atlanta. 

The event, sponsored by the Atlanta BBQ club, was noticeably smaller this year with 28 teams compared to 48 in 2015. 

They had a number of vendors selling BBQ and other food. Many of the teams participated in selling pulled pork samples to the public for $1 a sample. I tried quite a few that ranged from a little bland to very good. 

I was very impressed with the pork sample from a team named The 300, which is run by the same guys that own the Twin Smokers restaurant in downtown Atlanta, a place I’m definitely going to visit. I also managed to score a brisket burnt end that didn’t make the turn in box. It was outstanding. 

One interesting thing was to see two teams cook whole hog for their public samples. I had samples from both which were very moist and tasty. But the appearance was odd as there was no bark as typically found on pulled pork from shoulder cooks. 

Clearly the appearance prize of the day went to the team 3 Taxi Guys. They made a smoker from a traditional taxi cab with cook chambers in the engine compartment, trunk and main center area of the cab. The whole hog was a sight to behold. They obviously knew how to cook a whole hog as they had a 2nd place whole hog  throphy on display from Memphis In May 2016. The team was from different parts of the country with one of the three being from Atlanta. 

One of the teams I have visited each year I’ve attended this event is name DPR, which is short for Department of Porks and Rumperation. My congratulations to them for winning 1st place in ribs today. 

Of course I’m always checking out the teams using Big Green Eggs and I saw a few there today. I do remember getting a very tasty pork sample from Team Marr-b-q. 

We had a fun day visiting the event, even though it was smaller and quite hot today.  At least the parking lot had a scattering of trees for some occasional shade breaks.