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RUB's co-owner Paul Kirk is the self-styled "Kansas City Baron of Barbecue" and a pitmaster who has won hundreds of awards and competitions. His arrival in Manhattan is viewed by barbecue fiends as a significant event. RUB's interior exudes a tattered, utilitarian seeminess: the walls are devoid of decoration and painted light ochre, and the tables are dark beaten wood. The menu reads like a laundry list of delicious death foods (pork butt, burnt ends, deep-fried Oreos) from the nether regions of red-state America, served on unceremonious heaps on metal pie plates covered in wax paper, garnished only with slices of Wonder Bread and a scattering of pickle chips. The most popular item on the menu seems to be the Taste of the Baron, a hodgepodge of ribs, chicken, and smoked meats, including a choice of side dishes (good beans, dreary French fries or collard greens, passable cole slaw) served in Styrofoam cups. Cooking truckloads of meat to perfection 24 hours a day, six days a week, is a tricky business, and certain dishes will spark "This isn't like Memphis" lamentations, but the Baron's Down Home Pig Pick'n (pork butt hoisted to the table with bread slices, pickles, and four silver tongs) will make you think real barbecue has at last come to New York City.

St. Louis ribs,$22.75; Down Home Pig Pick'n,$89.75; cole slaw,$3.50; baked beans,$3.50; fried Oreos, $4.75

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Best of New York Awards

• Best Barbecue (2007)

Featured In

• Where to Eat 2008 (1/7/08)