New Yorkers' newfound infatuation with Texas-style barbecue is migrating upstate.
The venerable Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is planning to add house-made hot guts to its menu when it opens a new location in Troy, a former steel and textile town near Albany.
As The Business Review recently reported, Dinosaur - which for decades defined smoked meat in the Empire State -- will serve a jalapeno-and-poblano-spiked sausage with pimento cheese and pickled onions.
"I wanted to do something we haven't done in our other restaurants," owner John Stage told the paper.
Dinosaur has never been true to any particular Southern barbecue idiom, but its recipes borrow heavily from the saucy Memphis pork tradition that most Northerners consider synonymous with 'cue. Hot guts, the spicy beef sausage that's long been linked to Elgin, remain a rarity north of the Mason-Dixon.
A friend of mine who's a committed Northeasterner and a columnist for Schenectady's Daily Gazette confirmed her neighbors were unlikely to have ever confronted hot guts.
"I do not know what Texas hot links are," Sara e-mailed me. "But they sound good."
