Meatopia 2010

Technically this review isn’t for 2010 but I see that others have reviewed it for other years, other than the named 2010, so I’ll put mine here.
Luckily we didn’t have to pay for this event or we would have asked for our $ 280 (yes THAT much) back.
Yes there were lots of booths with meat but out of the maybe 30 or 40 that we tried less than a handful impressed.
Outdoors in a muddy field … fine, don’t make it upscale I know it’s a BBQ but then don’t make it $ 140 a person! That’s just ridiculous.
The brisket was to die for (ONLY reason this review isn’t 1-​star), the ice cream was tasty, a few other chefs should be commended but most of the items just weren’t top-​shelf meat IMHO.
Luckily the lines weren’t too long … maybe the rain scared some people away … but the added pain of having to get to and from Randall’s Island also put a damper on the day.
Oohh … and to say Unlimited Beer when the only beer there is piss Amstel Light is a crime.

I’ll give Meatopia 5 stars on making up for the event’s execution mistakes made last year.
The organizer wasn’t getting my emails asking for the refund that I’d been promised on site, but then I finally got through and he called me personally and offered me complimentary tickets to this year’s event. Apparently, this year there will be more food booths, fewer tickets sold, and it’s being run by a top-​notch event organizer. We’re giving Meatopia another shot this year!

Only in New York City is it kosher to charge fifty bucks to taste BBQ.
Listen: BBQ is not a high-​end pursuit. Repeat: BBQ is not a high-​end pursuit. It’s the cheapest cuts of meat, lazily cooked and flavored with a light mix of pantry staples. There is nothing haute about the picnic shoulder or cider vinegar — nor should there be.
Previous reviewers are absolutely correct about the event itself. A wonderful location and a good idea ruined by bad food philosophy. Someone thought to themselves «How can we make BBQ a high-​end pursuit?’ — thereby eschewing everything we learned in paragraph two! — and so you get a ticket and a taste instead of a hoot and a holler.
Just as you shouldn’t trust anyone over 30, so should you never pay more than five bucks for a pulled pork sandwich. (OK, OK, inflation brings those numbers up to 35 and six bucks.) And you definitely shouldn’t trust an organization that only sells BBQ by the taste. Might as well sell pony rides on a cinder block.

I’d have to agree with my fellow Unilocalers… great location! It was fun getting on the ferry and heading out there with the rest of the NY’ers! I was amongst those who arrived at 12:30. Lines were a little long, but tolerable. You weren’t kept waiting for more than 10 minutes. Right away, I was able to scoop up the bacon sandwich at Bobo, the mutton sandwich at Resto, the pork shoulder at i-​que, the duck taco at Suenos, ribs at Hurricane Club, lamb chop, beef brisket, and uh…2 more samplings of the pork shoulder again (heehe). I was pretty full before we even got to our 12^th sample.
But as the clock struck 1, the sun became downright brutal and unfortunately the majority of the lines had you waiting in its path. Organizers should have really considered placing the tents directly under the sun and leave the shaded areas for hungry guests to stand and wait, as opposed to getting fried.
We ended up just sitting around in the tent next to the fiji station for a good hour or so just to recuperate. I did however get a chance to sneak pictures with Jonathan Waxman and Patrick Connolly — so that was pretty cool.
We attempted to cash in our last tasting around 3 at one of the bbq stands — unfortunately they ran out of food and turned everyone away. We decided to call it a day at that point. We saw all of the poor souls still in line checking it at that point. I feel horrible now that we didn’t warn them about the food running out. I didn’t think it was that severe because we had only been shot down by 1 booth.
Experience was fun to try out, but I don’t think I’d go back.

In addition to the great location, I also had some fantastic tastings (ilili lamb taco, barbuto chicken, china grill ribs, and meatball shop were my favs). However, the lines were ridiculous, and they didn’t at all seem to be a reflection of the quality of the food at those stalls. The crowd was so prohibitive that we were only able to complete about 6 of our allotted 9 tastings (if the tickets hadn’t been free we would’ve powered through all nine). There were too many people, too few shaded seating areas, and not enough garbage cans. Also, it being such a hot day, and ticket prices being so high, water should have been free for everyone, not just the high rollers. Julian M. also had a philosophical problem with the presence of the chipotle stall. his reasoning was that having chipotle there illegitimized the whole event for various obvious reasons.
Some high points worth mentioning: composting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen composting available on such a large scale. that was really cool. The location; I just loved having an excuse to get over to historical Nut Island. And the food, which was generally very good, and served in generally good sized portions (except for little owl’s delicious, but offensively small amuse bouche)

i’m taking a break from the boring home run hitting contest this year to tell everyone that meatopia sucks. so when this time rolls around next year, i’m sure this festival will have a good amount of negative reviews to hopefully sway you from not going.
plus i wanted to add to my one star reviews. giving shitty reviews makes me feel like skip bayless. a hater for the sake of being a hater.
you probably heard it all already from the other Unilocalers. a very unpleasant experience. it was hot and humid (not their fault) but that only added to the bad day. the lines were long, the tastings were very small, the price was was expensive ($ 25 for 3 tastings, $ 45 for 6, $ 85 for 9 tastings and unlimited water and guaranteed seating). OOOOOHHHHH GUARANTEED SEATING. big f’in deal. when did offering seat become a luxury. i came to a food festival starving only to find out food was scarce. THEY RAN OUT OF FOOD. THEY EFFIN RAN OUTTA FOOD… AT A FOOD FESTIVAL. i still had numerous tastings left on my ticket. after waiting a long while on line, they informed us they ran out of food. this was about 3. a full 90 minutes before the festival was scheduled to end. and what i did taste wasn’t even special. bison burger felt rushed, very little portion, chipotle (really chipotle?) and some crappy tongue. yes i made out with a dead cow.
so let me quickly recap. overcharged for tiny little tastings, long lines, RAN OUT OF FOOD, hot weather and mediocre food. i’m sorry, i can’t get over the fact that i couldn’t get food at a food festival. and it wasn’t exactly convenient to get to. had to go to brooklyn to take the ferry. brooklyn. i hate brooklyn.
but i did to experience governor’s island for the first time. reminded me of m. night shamalan’s the village. also did i mention that i didn’t pay for the ticket? yeah i ran into my friend and she gave me hers since she couldn’t use all the tastings. sup athena. had i paid, i’d be pretty pissed off. nevertheless i could imagine paying for this and getting screwed.
screw you meatopia. awful first year. may you roast your bbqs in hell. 1 star, avoid next year. RAN OUTTA FOOD!!!

I’ll agree with much of what was said above, but only add that the organizers were still selling tickets after 2pm, when it was clear that the food was already starting to run out. This is sleazy at best, if not borderline fraud. I wouldn’t trust these folks with my money ever again. It’s one thing to run out of food early at a picnic, but to run out of food at a _​food_​festival is unforgivable.

A. The $ 45, 6 bbq/​meat tasting option was the deal of the day
B. The $ 5 beers, which was supposed to be only consumed within the roped-​off area (but people didn’t comply), was a terrific way to get REALLY de-​hydrated in the blaring 100 deg heat
C. The free tastings, which I got since I arrived way early at 11am, made the day (I saw lines of like 50 people by late afternoon)…by the time it was all said and done, I got stuffed on 10 tastings (I only paid for 6) of awesome fare (f’n Hurricane Club ribs killed)
D. People were mad friendly at the start… asking you where you got what you were eating, if it tasted awesome, some couples sharing bites with me, etc… turned into a grab-​fest when vendors ran out of meat… it was epic… I even saw lines coming in at 3pm and I should have warned those poor souls that there were massive lines once they entered and much less vendors at that time, as I was stumbling to the ferry
E. I really enjoyed the conversations with strangers about their proclivity for meat flavor… and of course, eating shirtless
I hope they have this again next year, I’m so down.

I had high expectations for this Governor’s Island one of a kind experience and did not hesitate to purchase the $ 45 ticket (good for six 2 – 3 oz tastings) — but my boyfriend and I were sorely disappointed for many, many reasons. Meatopia’s advertised start time was 11 a.m. One would assume there would be plenty of food to go around for a mid-​festival 2 p.m. arrival. Totally not the case. On top of the exceedingly long lines (at least 30 minute wait time for a miniscule sample of meat), nearly ¹⁄₃ of the vendors had run out of food by 2 p. m! Conclusion: Meatopia 2010 = epic fail. Save your money and grab lunch somewhere else as there are plenty of other fun things to do in the city …
Pros:
1. Most of our samples were tasty.
2. Great location, albeit crowds were a bit packed into a relatively small area of Governor’s Island.
3. Friendly people
Cons:
1. Epic lines
2. Poorly organized event
3. $ 45 tasting ticket — waaaay too expensive for the small portion of food.
4. Rude beer staff
5. Music — the event advertised music, but where were all the musicians? The only blue grass to be found was below our feet…
6. Lack of food.

2 stars.
A. It was poorly planned.
B. Most of the Chefs were out of food by 2:30pm.
C The Six Point Beer Girls Were screaming at people to tip them.
D. The lines took about an hour each. Many with over 50 people in them.
E. People were asking for their money back at the end of the day because they spent 45 dollars and only got to try two or three «tastings.» Sorry I don’t consider a single rib a tasting.
The things that saved it from being only one star:
A. The Meatopia staff tried to be helpful.
B. While there wasn’t much structure, the mayhem was occasionally amusing.
C. It was the first year. So I’m expecting people to Learn from their mistakes.

I agree with Miguel S, great location, poorly planned. Me and my boyfriend were able to use 8 of 9 tastings but can’t say it was fully worth the money paid. We got there around 12:30 too, had 2 short line tastings and a beer before the wait started getting ridiculous. We were on 2 long lines where the food ran out. There were a lot of pissed off people.
If an event is going to tout 5000 people on their website and is advertised to go until 5pm, you’d think they’d have a good idea how much food to make and NOT start running out of tastings by 2pm.
Also, their email confirmation and e-​ticket said to take the ferry on the Brooklyn side from Dumbo but their site says from Pier 6, which is correct. Fortunately, I knew where to go from my last visit to Gov’s Island!
Sidenote, Meatopia’s Six Point beer was a nice brew, Barbuto’s chicken and Smokin Joe’s roasted pig were delicious. Abe & Arthur’s, Mile End, Porterhouse and La Esquina were OUT before we had a chance.