Patch Readers' Choice

Update: Del Ray Pizzeria Wins 'Best Sports Bar'

Rustico and Pork Barrel BBQ came in second and third place, respectively.

Update: Congratulations to Del Ray Pizzeria for winning the Patch Readers' Choice poll this week! Voting by Patch readers began on Monday and Del Ray Pizzeria saw 51 votes by the time the poll closed Friday at 9 a.m. The winner will get a framed "Readers' Choice" certificate from Patch, plus bragging rights. Stay tuned for our next poll coming up Monday—"Best Hair Salon." Voting will begin at 5 a.m. — — — — We like to watch our sports in Alexandria. We like our watering holes, too. What’s the best place in Old Town and Del Ray to cheer with a beer? Share your favorite Alexandria sports bar with other Patch readers. If you think we’ve missed one, add it in the comments and we'll count your suggestion as a vote. Don't forget to vote in the …

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Pork Barrel BBQ Hosting 'Shark Tank' Viewing Party

Barbecue company and restaurant to be featured Friday night on ABC reality show.

Pork Barrel BBQ is hosting a viewing party Friday night for an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank” that will feature company co-founders Heath Hall and Brett Thompson. Friends and neighbors are invited to join the festivities at the Mt. Vernon Avenue restaurant from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday’s episode will include an update on the nationwide success of Pork Barrel BBQ sauces and dry rubs and a segment on the opening of the restaurant. The hour-long program begins at 8 p.m. and will be shown on all the televisions in the restaurant with sound.    “Anybody is welcome to come by and watch,” said Bill Blackburn, who opened the Pork Barrel restaurant in November with Hall, Thompson and “Mango” Mike Anderson. “It’s going to be pretty fun like it always is at…

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“Project 2312” Starts Tonight at Pork Barrel BBQ

Chef Will Artley is running “pop-up” restaurant

Local chef Will Artley will open his “pop-up” restaurant tonight adjacent to Pork Barrel BBQ in Del Ray. Pork Barrel BBQ co-founders Heath Hall and Brett Thompson, along with restaurant partners “Mango” Mike Anderson and Bill Blackburn, are loaning the unoccupied space to Artley for his special culinary venture. The limited engagement restaurant, dubbed Project 2312, will host 41 guests per seating from tonight through Monday, Feb. 6. The pop-up restaurant is a first for Artley. Reservations were sold out within five hours of Artley tweeting the phone number to RSVP last week. “It is a great honor for me to open Del Ray’s first pop-up restaurant and bring my cutting-edge cuisine back to the community I call home,” Artley said in a …

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Pork Barrel BBQ to Unveil New Sauce During D.C. Meat Week

Eight-day event comes to Del Ray Tuesday

Barbecue lovers, whet your appetites. D.C. Meat Week 2012 is coming to Del Ray Tuesday, Jan. 31. That evening, Pork Barrel BBQ will debut it’s new Pork Barrel Carolina Vinegar BBQ sauce and offer a special Meat Week Sampler Plate that includes a quarter-pound each of brisket and pulled pork, along with a quarter chicken, three ribs, one Texas brisket sausage link and a choice of two sides for $20.12. This is the third year Pork Barrel BBQ has participated in D.C. Meat Week, said the event’s founder, Mike Bober. “They’ve consistently been a favorite of people who have gone year after year, and they offer a great barbecue relative to what is available in the area,” Bober said. The past two years, the Pork Barrel BBQ company has held its …

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Artley Readies Pop-Up Restaurant in Del Ray

Chef expresses excitement over seven-day opportunity to once again cook for his neighbors.

Friendly neighborhood chef Will Artley is opening a new restaurant in Del Ray, but you better get a seat quickly because the doors won’t be open long. In the next few weeks, the former maestro at Evening Star Cafe will open a pop-up restaurant at an undisclosed location. Artley will serve his special brand of contemporary American cuisine for seven days and then—poof!—the restaurant will disappear. “It’ll be there for a week and then it’s gone,” he said. “The space is going to be another restaurant down the road. These people already have a plan, so we can just go in and have a great vibe and good food. … I get to cook for my community again.” Artley is downright giddy over the opportunity. He even admitted losing sleep going over the …

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Curtain Goes Up On Pork Barrel BBQ

Restaurant sells out of barbecue in less than four hours.

Fifteen minutes before the much-awaited opening of the Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant on Tuesday, a line formed outside the entrance on Mt. Vernon Avenue. When the doors opened at 5 p.m., the line moved to the counter, where patrons ordered their food cafeteria style before finding their seats. The line remained for several of hours until about 8:30 p.m. when all the meat prepared for the evening had been ordered and promptly devoured. “As expected, the Del Ray Community came out in force as they have from Day 1. We’re very appreciative of that,” said co-owner “Mango” Mike Anderson. With familiar neighborhood faces such as Stu Ellis behind the bar and chef Will Artley in the kitchen, the opening night of Pork Barrel BBQ was a resounding …

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Drew Hansen

6:53 pm on Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thanks for the link to the menu, Richard!   more ›

Updated: Pork Barrel BBQ to Officially Open Tuesday

Long-awaited restaurant ready to go.

9:30 p.m. update — Pork Barrel BBQ will be open only for dinner on Tuesday, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Do you plan on going? — — — — 12:32 p.m. update — Pork Barrel BBQ spokesperson Jennifer Brand is unsure if the restaurant will be open for lunch on Tuesday. "At this point, I'd say probably just for dinner tomorrow (around 5pm)," Brand wrote in an email. — — — — 11:30 a.m. update — Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant will officially open for business Tuesday, according to public relations rep Jennifer Brand. "We've passed the inspections and are set to open tomorrow," Brand wrote in an email to Del Ray Patch. Still no official word on the hours of operation. We'll pass those on as they're announced. In the meantime, Brand sent over some recent photos …

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New Loading Zone Complicates Busy Block

New zone in the 2300 block of Mt. Vernon Avenue is enforced from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A new 12-hour loading zone was recently installed on the north corner of the 2300 block of Mt. Vernon Avenue, though it appears many are choosing to ignore it. The loading zone is enforced from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The zone runs from the entrance of 2312 Mt. Vernon Avenue (where the Sierra Club office is located) to the corner of E. Oxford Avenue and the yet-to-be opened Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant. The loading zone was required in the permits for the Pork Barrel BBQ complex, which will also include a sushi bar called Dragon and a fast-casual Asian-fusion spot called Chop Chop. Other businesses in the busy 2300 block of Mt. Vernon Avenue use the loading zone for deliveries, including The Dairy Godmother and the UPS Store…

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Pork Barrel BBQ Entering Final Round of Inspections

Company co-founders offer barbecue-inspired Thanksgiving menu.

The Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant is “almost ready to open to the public,” a public relations rep for the long-awaited eatery told Del Ray Patch in an email Monday morning. No specific opening date was given, however. Jennifer Brand said the restaurant is in the midst of final inspections and that it will fire up the smoker for test runs as soon as it gets approval from Alexandria officials. Following the test runs, “we’ll be ready to open the doors and start serving up some delicious ’que!,” Brand wrote in her email. On Nov. 5, the restaurant announced on its Facebook page that it is hiring hosts and kitchen and bar staff. Before opening its doors, Pork Barrel BBQ co-founders Heath Hall and Brett Thompson have offered a Thanksgiving menu (.…

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Early Look: Pork Barrel BBQ Restaurant

A peek inside Del Ray's long-awaited barbecue joint.

No, we don't know when it will open. All Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant proprietors "Mango" Mike Anderson and Bill Blackburn will say is "soon." But if you've recently pressed your hands and face against the windows of the Mt. Vernon Avenue restaurant, you'll notice the long-awaited, much-anticipated barbecue joint is getting closer to completion. Del Ray Patch received a sneak peek inside the restaurant during last week's First Thursday celebration. It was quickly apparent that Anderson and Blackburn aren't sparing any expense on the place, from ceiling to floor. The stacked-stone pillars separating the bar from the dining room, as well as the honest carpentry on display throughout the restaurant, give the place a very unique vibe.  The …

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