Dan's Papers - August 31, 2007 -

When you get out of your car in front of this modest building on Depot Lane, it's not the normal country side smells but the delicious aroma of slow cooked meat that wafts into your nose. Welcome to the place where the pig is king - Farmer Bar - now regarded by many aficionados as the very best place for authentic barbecue on the Island. Everything that Pit Master Ron Philipp and his co owner Dan Reyburn do here is done with due respect for barbecue traditions. Now, for the uninitiated, grilling ain't barbecueing! Grilling is fast cooking, usually on a backyard grill, barbecue is slow cooking for hours at low and carefully controlled temperatures with smoke from specially selected woods. The cooked meat is sliced, chopped or pulled and doused with sauces whose recipes are closely guarded by the Pit Master and his crew. In many parts of the South, barbecue and high school football rank close behind cleanliness and godliness in importance in the community and residents of each State believe fervently that only their version of barbecue is the true one!

When Ron and Dan started Farmer Bar a couple of years ago, true barbecue was rarely found out here but they were very prescient because, possibly due to the many food programs on TV, barbecue is now one of the truly hot cooking styles and patrons at Farmer Bar come back time and time again to enjoy the deep and varied tastes.

Because portions are large and the menu is so varied, this is a great place for a family or group of friends to indulge themselves. In an environment where truly 'Pigs Rule' and where even the house wines, produced by Peconic Bay Winery, are named "Swine White' and 'Swine Red' in their honor, there are a number of non pig appetizers that are delicious. Barbecue shrimp were great with their smoky flavor, and hint of tangy sauce. Another non pig item we really enjoyed was that Southern delicacy of fried green tomatoes. If you have never tried these then they are a must, very light textured and full of taste. Wings were appropriately spicy and had a lot of meat on those bones.

Getting down to the serious stuff, we went the whole hog (sorry for the pun) and had a little of almost everything. Brisket (OK that's beef and not pork), came in two distinct versions, sliced and chopped and both were perfectly cooked and equally enjoyable - it really depends whether you like your meat moist or dry. A dish I have always loved here is the smoked Carolina Lundy ham. This really tastes as ham should taste. Ribs can also be ordered in two different styles, St. Louis or Kansas City style. Both are smoked for six hours and can be served with sauce (wet) or dry rubbed. The Kansas City style fall off the bones while the St. Louis ones are more chewy, again each to his own tastes. There really is something for everyone here - the real problem comes in trying to make a choice. Our very friendly and enthusiastic waitress, Morgan was a great help to us. Sides are important in barbecue and Ron's sides are really wonderful. Fried okra was almost like a tempura version. Cheese grits changed me from a non grit person into a believer and cole slaw and sweet tater fries added their own special tastes to a meal that was so much fun as well as being extremely well cooked high quality food.

If you have any room left for dessert - and frankly not many people do - they change every day and the Mississippi Mud Pie and Manhattan Truffle cake were appropriately decadent.

Apart from wine, Farmer Bar has a varied selection of beers and I found the Blue Point Toasted Lager (a world class award winning brew) was excellent with the food.

Prices are extremely reasonable with appetizers from $6 to $10; main courses (really large portions) from $10 to $23.

Farmer Bar has made a name for itself across Long Island in a relatively short time and they state their objective as being to, 'share our love of barbecue with all of our guests and to provide a truly satisfying and memorable meal'. Based on the times I have eaten here, they are meeting their objective 110% plus!