A Look Inside Fette Sau, Opening Wednesday

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Fette Sau, the Brooklyn BBQ collaboration between Stephen Starr and Joe Carroll, is opening in Fishtown on Wednesday, October 17. The place has been on an almost Fort Knox-like lockdown, and information about the project has been sparse. Today, though, Eater has first shots inside the shotgun shack, and it's pretty amazing. Fette Sau isn't a traditional sit-down restaurant concept, so be prepared to wait in line to buy food which can either be eaten in the huge dining room (long picnic tables and booths are first come, first served), or taken to go. Alcohol is poured at the bar which is immediately to the right of the food pick-up line, and features mostly all-local craft beer (including a brew from the just-opened Forest & Main) and a wall of whiskey.

While Carroll admits to using Central Texas as his reference point for what a barbecue spot should be, he doesn't follow any hard-and-fast Texas BBQ rules. Most surprising, though, is the fact that German immigrants are responsible for barbecue as we know it today.

"The German immigrants living in the hills of Central Texas were the real innovators, and started smoking meats to preserve them and ran their storefronts like a butcher shop," said Carroll, who is a historian of the cuisine. "And in NYC, the German Jews were doing brisket, pastrami, and all other kinds of cured meats. That's what you still see today."

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