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“Dinosaur Bar-be-Que”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Barbecue	Upper West Side	Moderate	Good

The barbecue mavens in my circle have been salivating over Dinosaur BBQ since it opened in December of 2004, when it made the move down state from its original home in Syracuse. Being rather lazy (read: travelling to 131st Street for dinner was not something I was about to do without a car), I smiled and nodded when scores of rib-obsessed friends and colleagues told me I needed to check out their ‘cue, with no intention of making the trek. After all, I had RUB, Daisy Mae’s, Smoke Joint, Hill Country and Blue Smoke. I was doing fine on my BBQ fix without schlepping up north.

And that’s the way things went for almost four years, until last weekend when Craig and I headed up to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame (a life long dream of his and hordes of other 12 year old boys). Like most trips we take, there is always a culinary component; for every bloody sock (baseball fans will hopefully get this reference), there’s a new place to dine. So on the way up, we stopped at the CIA for a great lunch in their Apple Pie Bakery and Café (I was thoroughly impressed), and on the way back home, we decided we’d finally take in the smoky goodness at Dinosaur and make a pit stop for Sunday night ‘cue fest.

If you’ve never been to Dinosaur, it’s worth a trip. (Smile and nod.) That being said, the place is a mad house, so be prepared to feel like you’re in Grand Central Station during rush hour, times ten. While the place is massive, with seating for close to 200 in a wood-beamed, license-plate strewn, honky tonk roadhouse, it fills up fast and even early on a Sunday evening we had to squeeze our way through the scrum of fans to find our way to the hostess station and put our name down for a table. Despite the mêlée, the people who work at Dinosaur are trained civilized professionals. No one is harried or rushed, or frantic. The crowds may be rib-crazed, but the staff is friendly and smiling, and the hostess took our names and assured us a  less than 15 minute wait with the calm sweetness of someone serving fresh-squeezed lemonade on a sidewalk.

If you’re lucky, you can wait at the bar, where you can calm yourself with pint-sized glasses of sweet tea, margaritas, bourbon cocktails or a local brew like the Hook and Ladder. While waiting, you might watch one of the games playing on TV overhead, get caught up on your people watching (it&rsquo ... [more, click below]

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Posted: November 30, 2008

Other restaurants in Upper West Side :
+ 'Cesca   + Asiate   + Blue Hill Stone Barns   + Per Se   + The Neptune Room   + Spigolo   + Telepan   + Aix Brasserie   + 'Cesca   + Bar Boulud   + Dovetail   + BarBao   + Dinosaur Bar-be-Que   + Kefi   + Bar Luna   + Ed's Chowder House   + Red Rooster, by Rachel Barbarotta   + Loi by Dara Pollak   

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