Narrator: This is the best barbecue in New York City.
Herrine Ro: Oh, it's so good!
These are one of the moments
when you know that your job is so great.
Hi, guys!
So today we are at Hometown Bar-B-Que.
It's probably one of the best, if not the best
barbecue place in New York.
I don't know much about barbecue myself,
but we do have an in-house expert.
Sydney Kramer: I'm in from LA,
and I'm so excited you asked me to come today
because Hometown is one of my favorite spots.
I've been here before.
It's the best barbecue in New York, I think.
Like, hands down.
We're gonna eat brisket.
We're gonna eat ribs.
We're gonna eat lamb belly.
We're gonna eat other stuff.
Herrine: Collard greens.
Mac and cheese.
Just the works.
Sydney: Yeah.
Herrine: I'm super pumped. Sydney: I know.
Let's eat. Let's go!
Herrine: Onwards!
Billy Durney: My name is Billy Durney.
I'm the owner and head fire-tender
here at Hometown Bar-B-Que.
They call everybody in our community pitmasters.
And I said it was the most ridiculous thing in the world
because I'm 46 years old and I haven't mastered anything.
Narrator: Despite Billy's humbleness, it's clear that
his customers appreciate his craft.
Customer: We got here super early.
We knew the line was gonna be pretty bad.
And, I mean, the anticipation is pretty good now
at this point.
Employee: From this door here, it's about 45 minutes.
So, good luck to everyone.
Narrator: Customers can wait up to
two hours just to order.
Customer: I come here every week.
We're regulars here.
It's the best barbecue I've ever had.
Billy's a great guy.
He comes over to your table.
He'll shake your hand, ask you how you're doing.
Billy's a mensch.
Billy: And so, before getting into barbecue,
I was a partner in a private protection firm,
Hollywood celebrities.
It was a 45-mile drive from Austin
to a small town called Taylor, Texas,
to a place called Louie Mueller Barbecue.
That changed my life forever.
I walked in and said,
"Somehow, I'm gonna do that for a living."
Now, we get to serve, you know,
5,000 people a week here.
What sets Hometown apart to a lot of barbecue
restaurants around the world is the fact that we
really have no rules.
I'm a kid that grew up on the streets of Brooklyn,
so all those people and all those smells and sights
and sounds of my youth are represented
on our menu at Hometown.
If I took the Korean Sticky Ribs off the menu,
I might not get any more customers here.
My favorite sandwich is the banh mi.
Herrine: Oh, it's so good!
Billy: Well, I'd say it's tender.
Herrine: Life doesn't suck.
I just drooled.
Sydney: Are you eating over the trash can?
Herrine: It's not my greatest moment.
Billy: I'm never trying to duplicate
what they're doing in the country.
It's just those flavors, they're my interpretation.
Narrator: Even though Billy's unconventional
barbecue dishes are crowd favorites,
his classic barbecue items are equally as popular.
Billy: The brisket is an homage to Louie Mueller.
It's an homage to Texas.
Narrator: Billy trims meats like
brisket, ribs, and pork butt,
then seasons them simply with salt and pepper.
In a smoker fueled with white oak,
the meat can cook anywhere from five to 16 hours.
In order to get a sense of Billy's barbecue,
we decided to order a little bit of everything.
Like the lamb belly banh mi, ribs, and brisket,
honey-butter cornbread, and queso mac and cheese.
Herrine: I'm so excited.
The moment you come in here,
the smokiness already hits you
from, like, a block away.
What's calling you the most?
Sydney: I mean, the brisket's the thing that's,
I think, the hardest to make,
and therefore the most delicious, in my opinion.
But this banh mi, I mean, we had a little
sneaky bite in the kitchen, and holy...
Herrine: I've had more than a few bites.
Sydney: Yeah.
Are you ready for some brisket?
Herrine: I am ready for everything.
Sydney: Do you want fat? Do you want some fat?
Herrine: I want some fat.
Sydney: Yeah, you want some fat. There you go.
But you need a little bit of the bark.
Like, the outside's called the bark,
like, so you need some of that as well.
Do you need help?
Do you need mother to cut your meat for you?
Herrine: Let's do it.
Oh.
Sydney: You can't get this everywhere.
You really cannot get this everywhere.
I've done a lot of videos.
I've been to a lot of barbecue joints.
And nobody else does this in New York.
This is something else.
Herrine: What do you think sets it apart?
Sydney: I mean, it's not dry.
And, like, let's be real, like, we're shooting a video.
We've been, like, you know, messing around,
playing with our food.
It's still so moist.
And there's the right amount of fat.
The bark is salty, a little sweet.
Like, everything they do here is phenomenal
and so well done, and there's so much
care and effort put into it.
This is what happens when you
don't take shortcuts and you do it the proper way.
Should we eat a rib?
Herrine: I've been waiting for you to say that.
Let's do it.
Sydney: All right.
Oh, my god.
It's sweet.
It's tender.
It's fatty.
The fat's the best part.
Truly.
I've got a little bird over here next to me.
Herrine: While Sydney is trying to teach us
all of these things about barbecue,
I feel like I've just been alongside her
just pecking away at the food.
Because as much as I want to learn,
I can't stop eating.
Sydney: She doesn't wanna learn.
She doesn't wanna learn anything.
Herrine: I just wanna eat.
Sydney: Do you want some of this?
I'll share it with you.
This is America.
Herrine: That is actually a really good way of putting it.
Sydney: Yeah.
Herrine: It's queso, pimento cheese, and mac and cheese
all fused together into this one cup.
I could eat a tub of this.
Sydney: Yeah. Totally.
Cool. Herrine: OK. Let's get a bite
of this honey-butter cornbread.
Sydney: The cornbread looks to die for.
Look at that sheen, the glisten, the shine.
Herrine: Oh, my god.
I've never had cornbread like that before.
Sydney: This is like cake.
This is cornbread cake.
Herrine: I love how the honey butter actually is, like,
all the way drenched through.
Sydney: Yeah. It's like tres leches,
but instead of sweetened condensed milk, it's honey.
Herrine: Even the sides are just legendary.
Sydney: They give you a bowl of cornbread.
Herrine: It's so easy to get distracted 'cause everything
on this plate is just so good.
Sydney: Yeah.
So we're here at Hometown to talk about how
it's the best barbecue in Brooklyn.
Would you agree with that assessment?
Herrine: Yeah. I want to say
that this may be the best barbecue
not only in Brooklyn;
I haven't had a lot of barbecue, just growing up.
But within the small sample pool of barbecue places
that I've been to, I think this is the best.
Sydney: This ranks pretty high up there.
It's pretty delicious.
And whenever I go to somewhere in, like,
Texas or something like that, I've been to Missouri,
Kansas City, everybody knows Billy.
Like, literally, everybody knows him.
And they're like: "He's the man. He knows what's up."
Herrine: I think it's also a pretty incredible feat
that a man from Brooklyn, New York,
is one of the most revered barbecue experts,
pitmasters, in the country.
Sydney: Yeah.
Herrine: Like, you would expect,
I would've never expected a New Yorker
to make this plate.
Sydney: Absolutely not, never in a million years.
I, when I first heard about him, I assumed
he was the guy that, like, moved here from Texas
to, like, "bring barbecue to New York."
You know? Herrine: Yeah.
Sydney: But he's from New York.
So, kudos to him, man.
He did it.
Best barbecue in New York?
Herrine: Best barbecue in New York.
Mmm.
Sydney: Amazing.
Go ahead and eat that.
I know you want to.