If you’re looking for a reason to skip town on a mini vacation, here’s one: the Heritage BBQ Feast at the 21c Museum Hotel Louisville (700 W. Main St., Louisville, Ky.).
Started in 2012, Heritage BBQ is a national barbecue competition dedicated to supporting heritage-breed pigs and engaging existing barbecue restaurants in the local and sustainable food conversation. According to a recent press release, “Together with local food producers, craft brewers, winemakers and prestigious distillers, the Heritage BBQ tour motivates grilling communities worldwide to support local food producers, and to break ground on a new hyper-local, globally themed BBQ culture while celebrating National Bourbon Month.”
The competition in Louisville, sponsored by Goose Island (beer + barbecue = good), invites five local chefs to compete in a friendly contest to promote whole-pig barbecuing and the consumption of heritage-breed pigs raised by local farms. This year’s competing Louisville chefs are Tyler Morris of Rye on Market, Levon Wallace of Proof on Main at 21c Museum Hotel, Brian Enyart of El Camino, Jeffery Dailey of Corbett’s and Ryan Rogers of Feast BBQ. Each chef will get 200 pounds of pig to create six pork dishes. A panel of 20 judges from the foodie community will vote on Louisville’s “BBQ King.” There will also be “BBQ Traditions” pop-ups, where notable chefs will serve one dish that exemplifies culinary tradition and barbecue culture from anywhere in the world — such as Braai from Africa, Char Siu from China, Churrasco from Brazil and Barbacoa from Mexico.
In addition to the 1,400-plus pounds of heritage pig, there will be booths featuring Bourbon County beers, a pop-up butcher shop to benefit th University of Kentucky, special “Summer Citrus” cocktails from Four Roses Bourbon, a “Perfect Manhattan” bourbon bar to celebrate National Bourbon Month (featuring Eagle Rare, Buffalo Trace, Breckenridge Bourbon, Templeton Rye, Four Roses and Luxardo), a pre-awards “Ice Cream Social” with James Beard Award Winner Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and more.
“This is the new Q that celebrates hundreds of grilling — and smoking — traditions from around the world,” says Brady Lowe, founder of Cochon 555 and Heritage BBQ, in the aforementioned release. “We are on a mission to redefine BBQ as social eating, the act of gathering around fire, making friends and eating responsibly raised animals. Together we work around the clock to preserve timeless family traditions from all over the globe. The bottom line is to host an event that develops the conversation of local food and heritage pigs, thus creating long-term growth, jobs on farms and better food choices for the future.”
4-8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. Tickets for general admission start at $100, and VIP tickets for early admission are $200. To purchase tickets, visit cochon555.com/2014-tour/louisville.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2014.