Big W’s Roadside BBQ
When we took our Italian friends to Big W’s
SADLY, BIG W’S IS NOW CLOSED PERMANENTLY! WE MISS WARREN AND HIS BBQ!
I know it seems like this is not the time to be writing about a restaurant, but bear with me here. If you follow my story here about Big W’s Roadside BBQ (link here), it will all come around to what’s important right now.
When we looked in the fridge yesterday morning, I saw we had half a container of cottage cheese we needed to freeze or to use in mac & cheese. (Click here for my easy mac & cheese recipe.) I had mentioned that Big W’s was doing curbside pick-up, and Hank suggested we take a drive down to for some barbecue to go with mac & cheese for dinner.
We’ve been stopping at Big W’s since we first saw this article in the New York Times in 2007, and over the years we’ve become friendly with Warren Norstein, the pit master. Once, when we happened to be driving by so early they hadn’t even opened yet, Hank saw Warren in the window, and of course he let us in to buy ribs and brisket to take home. He apologized that the sides weren’t ready. No matter, we said, we wanted the meat, first and foremost! Another time we stopped there with my son, Daniel, and a teammate after a grueling cross-country race – there were no leftovers that time as they finished everything we could not! (Warren’s portions are huge!) Several years ago when we had students and their chaperones visiting from our partner school in Gubbio, Italy, a bus load of us stopped there for dinner to show our guests a quintessentially American food, and Warren took the time to show our Italian friends his smoker.
We’re always disappointed when we drive by on a Monday or Tuesday when they are closed. As are, Warren once told us, the people who want to serve his brisket for Rosh Hashanah or Passover when those holidays fall on Monday or Tuesday!
Warren’s got a great story! A longer version can be found here, but the gist of it is that he has worked in some of the finest restaurant kitchens in New York City, but, like many of us who live and work north of Manhattan, he realized he wanted to do what he loved in a way that felt more meaningful, and to have a better work-life balance, and that led him to what is now Big W’s Roadside BBQ in Wingdale, NY. It’s located in a tiny strip of three businesses on Route 22. You would be forgiven if you drove past it by mistake.
Last night, at home
In any event, it was a sunny day yesterday, and we hadn’t seen much beyond the inside of our house for a week, so we decided to call in an order and go for a drive. After I carefully picked up our order from the picnic table outside, with gloved hands, and placed it carefully in the trunk of the car, Warren opened the door to say hi. He told us to check the Wall Street Journal to read an article about Chris.
I can’t remember whether we knew that Warren’s wife, Christina, is a nurse, but we certainly didn’t know that she is now working in the ICU at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. We read the WSJ article as soon as we got home. (Link here, but be aware, after the first time we looked at it, it then went behind a paywall.) It almost defies belief to read what Chris and her fellow nurses are doing and dealing with.
Chris is no longer living at home so as to protect her family; the hospital is paying for a hotel room near there. Hank called Warren right away, just to share our prayers and our deep and abiding admiration for her, as well as for him and his family, and to say that we will be thinking about them and what this means for them on a daily basis.
I know Christina is only one of so many, but she’s one we know. And I was glad we had driven down to buy dinner at Big W’s, to support Chris, Warren, and their family, even if merely one tiny bit.