South of the North Cookout

I guess neither Jamie or I knew what a cookout meant before last Sunday, because we weren't mentally prepared to be eating barbecued meats outdoors in hot weather. I had purchased tickets to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine's South of the North Cookout, and the tickets had said Revival's [that's that amazing fried chicken joint] new location in Saint Paul, so I naturally assumed we were going to be dining in a climate-controlled environment. A hot and sweaty 15-minute walk later, we were dismayed to discovered that yes, cookout means cooking, outside. D-uh. The event took place in the parking lot next to Revival's upcoming restaurant, which by the way, is nowhere near done with construction.

We got there right at 2 pm when the event started, and there wasn't a crowd yet.

MSP Mag invited a few of the best local chefs to cook up their favorite Southern food:

Alex Roberts of Brasa Premium Rotisserie - Lamb chop, roasted potatoes
Erik Sather of Lowry Hill Meats - Goat tacos
Jon Wipfli of The Minnesota Spoon - Brisket sandwich
Thomas Boemer of Revival - Pulled pork sliders
Jorge Guzman of Surly Brewing Co - Brisket, ribs, duck hearts, grilled pineapple, cornbread
Kitchen in the Market - Pimento cheese nachos
Wholesoul Eatery - fried catfish, mac and cheese bites
Michelle Gayer of Salty Tart Bakery - One-bite peach cobbler tarts with bourbon cream

Nachos, Lamb, Surly smorgasbord, Slider, Brisket

Interestingly, there was no fried chicken in sight. The only thing we didn't try were the goat tacos, we were too stuffed by the time we made the rounds and that happened to be the last stand. Brasa's lamb chop was the most flavorful, tender piece of meat I've had in a while, unfortunately Jamie's piece was on the rare side and almost inedible. Surly gets a big A for effort, they had the most variety and everything on their plate was delicious. The pulled pork from Revival was so yummy, but we were too full and uncomfortably warm [meat sweats!] to enjoy ourselves by then. We were probably the first people to leave, we definitely didn't get our money's worth from the all-you-can-eat BBQ, c'est la vie.

Chef Thomas Boemer carving up a whole hog.