This past weekend, Yelp asked us to join them at a Yelp Elite Event and grill up some of our meat. The event was hosted at New Jersey Beer Company which is literally three streets down from the meat plant. We had never done a Yelp event before. We didn’t know what to expect, but beer and barbecue… How could we say no?
We typically grill up some of our sliders for events like this, but we decided to treat everyone to some kalbi made from our short ribs. Kalbi is popular Korean BBQ dish made with marinaded beef ribs. We like to use three-bone short ribs cut 1/3″ thick. The marinade is both sweet and savory. We use a family recipe and you can find it in our previous post here:
https://patlafrieda.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/kalbi-made-from-pat-lafrieda-short-ribs/
We spent the morning marinating short ribs for 100 people. As we left the plant, the old man must have gotten a craving for sausage because he grabbed a couple of boxes. He was very disappointed to find out that we didn’t have any bread. We planned to serve the kalbi with just lettuce. The old man made a quick call and shortly after a squad car pulled up. An officer gets out and drops off a case of rolls from Hudson Bakery. That’s old school!
The guys from the NJ Beer Co. were great hosts. Their place is clean and well maintained. It’s obvious that, like us, they take pride in what they do. There are three main beers that they offer: 1787 Abbey Single Ale, Garden State Stout, and Hudson Pale Ale. We had a chance to try them all and loved them. (Perhaps too much, I spilled a Pale Ale all over my keyboard.) If you are in the area, we highly recommend that you check them out. They have tastings on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. For more info go to http://www.njbeerco.com.
We made the mistake of having a few beers while setting up. That made us a little complacent, and we were slow getting the grill going. Fortunately, the Yelp Elites were well-mannered and patient. That’s leaps and bounds better than the savagery that occurs with a hungry mob at the typical LaFrieda Family BBQ. All in all, a great event with a great group of people. We’d love to do it again sometime.
You can check out the Yelp reviews for this event here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelps-brews-bash-at-new-jersey-beer-co-north-bergen
Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors 