9/25 Westport CT Blues View and BBQ

I am competing this weekend at the Westport CT Blues Views and BBQ contest.  The last 2 years, this contest was a full 2 day sanctioned BBQ contest.  The even organizer, Bob Lerose, decided to change things up a bit this year. This year it is a one day invitational grilling event. Me against 5 other teams. Its a winner takes all. The categories are chicken, ribs, chefs choice and iron chef.  Typically I hate doing chicken but in Westport I  look forward to it. Since my first competition back in March 2006 I have only 2 top 5's in a chicken category, a 1st and a 3rd. Both of these were done in Westport the last 2 events.  As far as ribs go I am hit or miss. With  the last two categories chefs choice and iron chef I have no idea.  I am bringing along some help  for that ;) Typically at regular BBQ contests these are extra categories of which I rarely participate in.  If you are in the Westport CT area on Saturday come on by and say hi. We will be in the parking lot behind the library located at 20 jesup rd. There will be cooking demos, a backyard bbq contest, a kids que, great music and more  http://www.bluesviewsbbq.com/index2.html

Westport CT BBQ

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Above, everyone enjoyed music and good food at last year’s Blues Views and BBQ. This year’s event will be held Sept. 24-26 in downtown Westport.- Contributed photo

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By Mary Golota

Summer and smoke: Westport’s third annual down-home Blues, Views, & BBQ Festival once again celebrates the best of the blues and barbecue. The Festival takes place September 24 through the 26 at both the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts and the grounds of the Westport Public Library.

This year Rick Browne, celebrity chef and host of PBS Barbecue America and author of a book of the same name, will speak at the Westport Library, demonstrate master griller recipes, and participate in the Festival’s Pro-Am Invitational “Throwdown” competition, in which amateur teams compete against the pros. Browne will also be signing books both days and mentoring the Kids Q competition to encourage budding chefs.

Sponsored by the Westport Downtown Merchants Association, the Festival will benefit its partners, the Levitt Pavilion, the Westport Library, the Westport Women’s Club Food Closet, Builders Beyond Borders, and other community charities.

All competitions will be judged by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, the country’s premier BBQ organization, according to Bob LeRose, president of the Merchants Association, founder of the Festival, and owner of BobbyQ’s Barbecue & Grill in Westport. He said that the Festival is a “big community event that has grown every year.”

LeRose said “this year, along with barbecue, we’ve opened up the fest to include anything that is smoked, grilled, wood-fired, or slow-cooked. We’re promoting barbecue and outdoor cooking styles to people of all ages who love to cook.”

Preceding the Pro-Am face-off, the Pro-Invitational grilling contest will feature “six top professional teams from the area (certified pit-masters) grilling, smoking, and barbecuing in a winner-take-all contest,” said LeRose. All adult competitions showcase ribs, chicken, or chef’s choice of meat.

In the Cookin’ for a Cause competition, teams of 2 to 4 local amateur participants prepare their favorite recipes. Participants bring their own grills or other equipment and ingredients, and are judged by the Kansas City Barbecue Society rules.

The Kids Q will feature competitive teams in the 8 to 11 and 12 to 15 age groups. Teams of two to four kids, supervised by an adult, will compete in cooking burgers, hot dogs, or chef’s choice recipes for trophies and prizes.

Friday night will kick start the Festival with a benefit concert starring the Blues Traveler band headlining at 8 p.m. in the Levitt Pavilion. The Steve Palmer Band will open the show for Blues Traveler.

In addition to Blues Traveler, 11 blues bands and rock performers, both local and national, will be playing all day Saturday and Sunday at the Pavilion. Suzanne Meeker, a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Blues Society, said that the Festival has “a really good lineup and stronger national acts than last year.”

The Blues Society will have a tent at the Festival, selling t-shirts and CDs and also featuring Vorkan, an artist duo that paints as they listen to music. Meeker said that it will be “nice to have a chance to come to Fairfield County and talk to people here.” The Society is located in Hartford, and its mission is to “try to keep the blues alive in Connecticut,” said Meeker.

Crispin Cioe, Westport resident, saxophonist, and founder of the Uptown Horns, works as a studio and touring musician and has booked bands with LeRose since the Festival began.

The Uptown Horns, who have toured with the Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello, will stage a revue on Sunday at 4 p.m. starring blues guitarist Debbie Davies; Christine Ohlman, a singer who has performed with the Saturday Night Live band; and Joe Louis Walker, winner of the W.C. Handy award for blues album of the year. The band will play separately and together with the revue.

Other Sunday performers will be the SaRon Crenshaw Band based in New York; Dan Stevens who plays guitar, drums, cymbals and harmonica; Connecticut R&B guitarist George Baker; and Charlie Karp and The Namedroppers from Westport.

On Saturday, the lineup includes Manny and the Mojomatics, a Fairfield County band; Eran Troy Danner out of New Haven; Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials from Chicago; Black and White with Dave Howard from Boston; Bryan Lee and The Blues Power Band based in New Orleans; and Popa Chubby from upstate New York and internationally known.

Cioe said that the Festival aimed for “an eclectic mix of local, national, and international bands . . . with great musicians and acts that may be just a bit under the radar.”

In addition to the music and cooking competitions, family and kids’ activities will include seven inflatables, a mechanical bull, Fairfield’s School of Rock, Yankee Paintball Target Practice, face-painting, magicians and balloon artists, and movies at the library.

The food court will include Jamaican jerked meat, Whole Foods burgers and Portobello mushrooms, grilled pizza, kettle corn, Yumnuts, and Michele’s pies.

A three-day pass that includes the Blues Traveler concert is $60 per person; daily tickets are $10; and a two-day weekend pass is $15. On Saturday, the Festival is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. All concerts will be in the Pavilion, and parking is available in the Imperial Avenue parking lot. More information can be found onbluesviewsbbq.com.

Tickets can be purchased online at levittpavilion.com, by phone at 203-226-7600, and at the Pavilion gate. 

The Bacon Burglar

Redhill house burglar steals bacon from fridge

Police have issued a CCTV image of the bacon theft suspect

A man who broke into a house and stole bacon from the fridge before leaving a rasher on a door handle is being sought by police.

Surrey Police said the thief, who also took a telephone, broke into a house in Redhill early on Saturday while the occupants were asleep upstairs.

Det Con Julian Knowles said the victims were "at a loss" to understand why someone would take a packet of bacon.

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to trace after the theft.

'Potentially peckish'

Det Con Knowles said: "This is a very peculiar burglary as the suspect placed a rasher of bacon over a door handle before leaving the property.

"The victims are at a loss to understand why someone would break in to their house and steal a packet of bacon and we are equally stumped as to who this potentially peckish suspect is."

Appealing for information, he said the break-in happened between 0250 BST and 0340 BST.

There was no damage to the house and the stolen telephone was later recovered.

The suspect was described as white, with short dark hair and a moustache, wearing a dark T-shirt with a white motif, and dark trousers.