Pigs, Goats, Cow Heads

This Saturday, October 23, Chef Drew Robinson of Jim N Nick's Bar-B-Q will participate in the Southern Foodways Alliance's Taco Truck Degustation. The Jim N Nick's smoker wheels its way across the deep South to Oxford, MS where Drew, along with Chef Dan Lathem and Nick Pihakis will serve whole hog barbecue tacos and for some extra tasty fun, are cooking a goat and some White Oak Pastures grass-fed beef tongue as well. The Southern Foodways Alliance (www.southernfoodways.com) hosts its annual symposium this weekend and programming this year celebrates "the Global South"--in other words, the influences of the rest of the world on Southern cuisine. The SFA points out, "for much of our region's history, we've understood the South to be a land of Native American, West African, and Western European peoples. This weekend, Cuban, Vietnamese, and and Latin American influences will also be highlighted."
On Saturday night, Chef Robinson is delighted to prepare his tacos along side Chef Kelly English from Restaurant Iris and Chef Jonathan Magallanes of Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana both from Memphis, TN, who will cook traditional Barbacoa de Cabeza (bbq cow heads).

Stars Falling on Alabama

Lots of stars are aligning on Sunday, October 3 to benefit the Alabama fishing communities affected by the Gulf Coast oil disaster. Sponsored by the great folks at the gorgeous publication, Garden & Gun Magazine, (www.gardenandgun.com), the Harvest Feast will feature food prepared by some of Alabama's greatest cooks and chefs including Jim 'N Nick's BBQ's own Drew Robinson(photo here). Chris and Idie Hastings (pictured together here)of the Hot and Hot Fish Club (www.hotandhotfishclub.com) lead the charge and there are guest stars falling too! Natalie Chanin, the brilliant, celebrated fashion designer (and biscuit maker--pictured here) behind Alabama Chanin (www.alabamachanin.com) will be there and Ashley Hall (pictured here in blue)who, in concert with the Southern Foodways Alliance (www.southernfoodways.com) has done a series of oral histories and documentation of Alabama's Gulf Shore, post-oil spill. There will also be a viewing of Joe York's short film on Bayou La Batre, AL and the struggles facing the fishing community there since the oil disaster in the gulf.
Spirits will be high however, and the food will be served on a table over which solutions and benevolence may be discussed and a toast will be raised to the great fisherpeople and fishing traditions of Alabama's Gulf Coast.
The event is sold out (hooray!) but you can visit (www.gardenandgun.com)to find out more about this event and how to make a contribution.

More From the Twilight Dinner

Thursday's Twilight Dinner to benefit Jones Valley Urban Farm was indeed a delicious success. Under a full moon, in the middle of the garden, Chefs Frank Stitt of Highlands Bar and Grill, Robby Melvin of Birmingham's Salt Fine Catering along with Chef Drew Robinson, Nick Pihakis, Joshua Gentry and others from the Birmingham Jim 'N Nick's cooked an Argentine style Asado. Pardis Stitt worked with the event team to make sure everything flowed smoothly, Mike "Rathead" Riley served as auctioneer for a live auction where master distiller, Julian Van Winkle was in attendance and auctioned off a selection of three of his reserve Pappy Van Winkle Bourbons. Birmingham's Mayor William A. Bell stopped by to tour the farm, chat with the chefs and sit down to dinner with over 150 diners. Seated at one, very long table in the middle of the 25th Street location of the Jones Valley Urban Farm, everyone enjoyed a family-style service of organic beef, pasture-raised lamb and sausages along with just-picked autumn vegetables and lovely wines from Argentina. The dinner, along with the live auction raised approximately $50,000 for the non-profit, urban farm.
Visit www.jvuf.org to find out more about Jones Valley Urban Farm

A few pictures from the Alabama Asado

An Alabama Asado

Thursday September 23rd was a great evening at Jones Valley Urban Farm (http://www.jvuf.org/). Frank Stitt and his team came together with myself and the Jim 'N Nick's crew for a twilight supper billed as an Alabama Asado on the farm. We grilled and roasted a whole lamb from Sequatchie Cove Farm as well as a slew of other meats and vegetables a plenty from the farm.

After dinner we had a live and silent auction with items from Billy Reid, Pappy Van Winkle, Natalie Chanin amongst others that raised funds and tremendous awareness for this still largely unrecognized jewel in downtown Birmingham.

Bourbon & Q

We are in the process of getting the final details worked out for the Bourbon & Q dinner we are hosting in our Charleston restaurant during the Charleston Wine & Food Festival. The menu looks fantastic with food offerings from the likes of Mike Mills, Rodney Scott, Jimmy Hagood, Robert Barber, Dan Latham and yours truly, the Jim 'N Nick's crew. If that is not enough, Julian Van Winkle will be in the house providing his fine bourbon from the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery and mixologist extraordinaire Greg Best will be turning out some of his famous creations with those fine spirits.
The evening promises to be a great time and we're looking forward to seeing some old friends, making some new ones and fully satiating our gullets. Check it and other happenings out on the CW&F website.
www.charlestonwineandfood.com/new

Big Apple Here We Come

It's official, we've been invited back to the 2010 installment of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. The experience was absolutely incredible last year. New Yorker's blew us away with their voracious appetite for barbecue as well as their curiosity for this gem of Southern cuisine and its place in our culture. The hospitality of the Blue Smoke crew and the Union Square Hospitality Group was absolutely first class to boot.

We are thrilled to be invited back. Check their website out and be sure to stay tuned here for updates closer to the event.

http://www.bigapplebbq.org/