RUB Bringing Barbecue to Los Angeles?Hill Country and the forthcoming Wildwood have been getting most of the headlines lately, but RUB seems to be the New York barbecue most likely to take over the world. The huge Vegas operation is set to open on the 15th at the Rio, and owner Andrew Fischel also has plans to open an immense RUB in Los Angeles. “It’s still something we’re in talks on, but it’s going to be big!” Fischel tells us. Of course it is. RUB is a planet eater. But will this occasion the building of a second RUB chopper? Or will L.A.’s car culture demand a RUB hot rod, possibly with a smoke-belching blower coming out of the hood? Or maybe a RUB lowrider? Fischel is mum on the possibilities, but we can’t help but dream.
Related: It’s Not a Motorcycle, Baby. It’s a Mobile Barbecue Pit.
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Motorbike-and-BBQ Megastore Coming to Palisades MallThe (strictly professional) love affair between Paul Teutul Sr. of TV’s American Chopper and ectomorphic RUB owner Andrew Fischel began with a hour-long special about the creation of a chopper with a meat-smoking sidecar and soon led to RUB cooking for Teutul’s wedding. Now the unlikely pairing has led to a major joint venture.
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Legendary Texas Beer Sneaked Up North Into RUB
We always suspected that the cult of Shiner Bock, a much-beloved Texas beer seldom seen up north, had more to do with scarcity than excellence. Now we’ll find out, because Andrew Fischel, the hyperkinetic owner of RUB, has found a way to somehow get the heretofore unavailable beer into the bar at his restaurant, where they will sell for $6 each. “We pulled a Smokey and the Bandit,” Fischel boasts. “Don’t ask me how we did it! I won’t say. But you can’t get it anywhere but here. And that’s it.” The dark, Czech-style beer is made at a single brewery in Shiner, Texas, with only 55 employees, but whether that translates into its really being better than, say, Rhinegold is another story.
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Need a Meat-Smoking Sidecar? Call ‘American Chopper’!
The mind of Andrew Fischel, the brash young owner of RUB barbecue, never seems to rest. The last time we looked, he was opening up a giant spinoff in Vegas, and had retooled the New York branch with the loudest neon sign this side of Times Square. Now Fischel has engaged the guys at Orange County Chopper to create a customized “RUB Chopper” with a working smoker as its sidecar. “We’re creating the most kick-ass mobile barbecue vehicle ever made,” Fischel says. “It costs as much as a Bentley.”
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The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party Steamrolls the OppositionThe Danny Meyer broadcasting service just put out the word: The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is on for this year. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Although the annual June bonanza is hugely popular, it’s also massively challenging. Past barbecuers have expressed much dismay that souvenirs and T-shirts yield very little profit (food profits go to the Madison Park Conservancy), and that the travel allowance doesn’t cover the cost of transporting heavy smoking equipment across hundreds of miles.
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Living Large at a Big Apple Big Easy PartyThe crowd at last night’s “The New Orleans Table: Return and Recollect” at 5 Ninth had their hands full — literally. The restaurant, which is spread out over three floors of an ancient townhouse, was packed to the rafters with food players and New Orleans culture heroes.
