The summer is flying by & the number of Cha Cha Hut Picnic! events is quickly dwindling. Here is our schedule for the remainder of the summer:

July 31: Picnic! at 1758 County Highway 41 Roxbury – 12pm until we run out of food

August 7: No Picnic! this weekend

August 14: Picnic! On The Road at Andes Community Day. We’ll be setting up in the parking lot of Hogan’s General Store (our future new location) & selling sandwiches, sides & pig wings. Stay tuned for details…

August 21: Picnic! at 1758 County Highway 41 Roxbury – 12pm until we run out of food

August 28: Picnic! at 1758 County Highway 41 Roxbury – this may be our final Picnic! of the summer so we’re considering a special evening grill/BBQ fest. Stay tuned for details…

September 4: Pork War – just a little idea we have. Might happen – might not. We’ll see…

As the weather has turned out hot but rain free, we’ve decided to stay open a bit later. Will be hanging out at Picnic! until at least 7pm.

There are only 5 Picnics! left this summer & this Saturday is one of them. We’ll be here serving all our the usual BBQ goodies plus debuting a new menu item: Pig Wings. Bite size pieces of porky goodness, these come in two sizes:

PIG WINGS
Small (5 – 6 pieces) …… 4.50
Large (10 – 12 pieces) ….. 8.50

Like our ribs, we’ll have a limited amount of Pig Wings this weekend as we try this new item out.

Looking forward to seeing the BBQ faithful at Picnic!

We’re bringing Picnic! back to the Hut’s HQ – 1758 County Highway 41, Roxbury – this Saturday July 17th. We’ll have all the Picnic! goodies you’ve come to expect including 8 racks of ribs. As the ribs have been selling out quickly, we suggest you order early if you want ribs this weekend. Call ahead & we’ll guarantee your order.

UPDATE: We’re going to be serving up a new menu item today – Pig Wings. Stop by for a sample.

Looking forward to seeing all our regulars & a few new Hut fans this Saturday.

When: Saturday July 10
Time: 5:30 to 8PM
Where: The Roxbury Arts Center, Vega Mountain Road, Roxbury

We will be interrupting the usual Picnic! in front of Hut HQ & taking it on the road this Saturday serving BBQ at African Day at The Roxbury Arts Group. We will be serving a limited menu for this event & will not be cooking ribs this weekend.

THE MENU
Sandwiches: Pulled Pork, Beef Brisket & Smoked Turkey – Smoked Mac & Cheese – Catskill Stew – Sweet & Sour Slaw

While it is not necessary to buy a ticket for the event to buy BBQ, we’ve worked out a deal with The Roxbury Arts Group to offer Cha Cha Hut fans a discount.

Bring a print out of the invite below or this page & you will get $2 off your African Day ticket – ticket includes the movie and the concert.

DOWNLOAD THE CHA CHA HUT AFRICAN DAY INVITE (PDF, 60k)

Saturday, July 10
AFRICAN DAY: Its all Zimbabwe!
Reservations: 607.326.7908
$15/12 srs for film and concert
The Roxbury Arts Center
Vega Mountain Road, Roxbury

5:30 to 6pm Reception Under the Tent

6pm screening of ¡Themba!
film about a band of Zimbabwean musicians – followed by a discussion with 2010 Academy Award winning producer Elinor Burkett. 

8pm Concert
The Shona Mbira – Music, Ancestry and Artistic Symbolism
performed by Solomon Murungu

Sculptures of Zimbabwean artist Arnold Dube will be on exhibition.

And don’t forget!
12 Noon : Saturday July 10 : Mbira Workshop – FREE
led by Solomon Murungu at Pakatakan Farmer’s Market.

In this show-and-tell demonstration, the artist will exploit multi-media technology to show the basic elements of the mbira and explain its relevance.  (Please stop by and participate!)

DOWNLOAD THE CHA CHA HUT AFRICAN DAY INVITE (PDF, 60k)

UPDATE
Our Picnic! permit arrived in the mail yesterday – so it is officially ON! Rain or shine we’ll be dishing up great BBQ starting at noon on Saturday June 19th at 1758 County Highway 41 (Cha Cha Hut World HQ). Probably going to keep the cook small-ish for the first outing, so call this week if you want to reserve an order. Yes – we will be making brisket, mac & cheese & ribs.

Beginning June 19th & running every Saturday during the summer, we’ll be risking our lives & house to bring you the return of The BBQ Too Dangerous For Bridge St.!

The Cha Cha Hut BBQ Picnic! will be a weekly rain or shine outdoor BBQ on the front lawn of Cha Cha Hut World Headquarters. That’s 1758 County Highway 41 Roxbury, NY (1/2 mile past our original location). Every Saturday at noon through Labor Day Weekend, we’ll start serving up our famous beef brisket, pulled pork, smoked turkey, ribs, our legendary smoked mac & cheese, BBQ beans & some sort of slaw. Of course, we’ll also have many of the house made sauces you know & love. There will even be meat by the pound & a limited number of BBQ feasts. Check out our Picnic! menu for the summer selections.

Cha Cha Hut & Roxbury Fire Department Benefit

When: Sunday May 30th, 1:30pm – 4:30pm
Where: The Roxbury Arts Center, 5025 Vega Mt. Road, Roxbury
What: $10 suggested donation & picnic type dish to pass.
(Both are donations and no one will be turned away! )

Prior to the fire, we had been planning a major summer kick off party this Sunday to benefit the Roxbury Fire Department. No – the irony is not lost on us. On Wednesday – while still dealing with the shock – we began to cancel the various preparations for the event.

Then the most wonderful thing happened…

We got a call from Mike Mathis & The Roxbury Arts Group offering to pick up the reins & make the party happen at RAG. In addition, The RAG staff has transformed the event into a fundraiser to benefit both the Fire Dept & the Cha Cha Hut. We are hoping to gather a large crowd for this benefit to be held at The Roxbury Arts Center, 5025 Vega Mt. Road, Roxbury. The weather is predicted to be very beautiful so if you are able, please drop by to visit with your friends & neighbors while enjoying some great food, drink and entertainment. Please also help us spread the word by telling your friends & family.

The Horseshoe Lounge Playboys throw down a repertoire of original songs blended with material exhumed from musical tombs stretching from Appalachia to Memphis. This five piece band creates powerful vocals backed by guitar, mandolin, fiddle, acoustic bass & drums.

We are asking for a suggested donation of $10.00 per person & for attendees to bring a picnic type dish to pass. Both are donations & no one will be turned away! Beer, wine & soft drinks will be available for sale. Food and water will be free of charge

Special thanks to the RAG staff & several local people, including, but not limited to: Michael Mathis, Terry Doyle, Aree Bray, the volunteers & staff of the Roxbury Arts Group, Allen Hinkley & the Volunteer Fire Department.

Once we had the DOH permit in hand, we decided it was time to test out the cook house and the kitchen before actually opening for regular business. As we got approval on January 6, Saturday the 9th seemed like the perfect time for an open house. We’d take a couple of days to cook everything on the menu and then offer up a sampling plate for $15.

Rather than find ourselves overwhelmed via advertising, we chose to keep the open house event low key using only the Cha Cha Hut Facebook page, word of mouth among friends, a sign on the Hut’s door and the open flag hanging out front. We were pleased to have a turn out of 15 folks with about half being people we did not know.

The first Cha Cha Hut sale ever went to Eric, Roxbury Central School’s principal. While technically it was a take out – he had friends dining here bring it to him. Our first actual phone in take out went to Bob who called about half way through the evening.

We started the evening at 3:30 and closed at the scheduled time of 8pm. We had a great crowd and learned a lot of lessons – especially about the lack of proper take out containers. Then again – that was the point of the open house. In addition to giving people the chance to sample our menu, we were looking for issues to solve before our official opening. The evening did just that and we were better prepared for the Wednesday January 13th first official day.

What: Cha Cha Hut Open House
When: January 9, 2010, 3:30pm – 8pm (or we run out of food)
Where: 2310 Bridge St. Roxbury, NY (next to the Roxbury Motel)
Cost: $15 for full menu buffet (beverage not included)

You’re invited to drop by for our open house to sample all of our menu for one low price. This is not our official grand opening. It’s an event for us to work out kitchen issues before opening and for you to sample our menu in the new space.

Hope we see all of the Grill Club folks at this event or at the Hut in the near future. Sign up for the Grill Club to get the latest on this event and our upcoming Grand Opening.

We smoked Bambi!

Or at least Bambi’s ribs.

With the first real winter snow fall coating the valley, we fired up the smoker to take a run at 11lbs. of venison ribs. I had done a smoked venison roast and had grilled moose strip steaks, but smoking venison ribs was a new one for me. Not much online about doing this – other than most hunters choose to not take the ribs. So, I decided to treat them like grass fed beef and work from there.

When raw, the ribs are a dark dark red with basically no fat. That should have been a bit of a warning sign, but I missed it. I decided to go with the Cha Cha Hut BBQ rub – created for pork and chicken – but probably should have opted for the Brisket rub (a bit less spicy and suited to beef). With ribs prepped and the smoker up to 260 degrees, in went Bambi for the next three hours.

While the ribs cooking, we headed off to an open house at Hudsonpress Print Studio (777 Carroll Hinkley Rd. Roxbury NY 12474). The studio is owned by artists Gerda van Leeuwen and Peter Yamaoka. Absolutely wonderful pantings and pottery plus great food and conversation made for a nice way to spend time while Bambi smoked.

Returning home, we found the ribs done and ready for resting. Out of the smoker, into foil and into the cooler to rest for a bit. (Yep – coolers also keep things warm…) Cherie’s experiment for the evening was the latest in Cha Cha Hut baked items: a sweet potato biscuit. Like a denser buttermilk biscuit, one of the tasters for the evening called them “moist scones”. They went so fast we forgot to take a photo though the blurry pic at the right shows Sean eating one. (The photo is perfectly clear – it’s Sean that is actually blurry.)

All in all not a bad first run at both venison ribs and sweet potato biscuits. I’d give the ribs 6/10 and the biscuit 8/10. A bit more moisture in the rib cooking, less spice in the rub and a shorter cook time should do the trick with Bambi. Slightly smaller biscuits will make for biscuit perfection.

Good thing we have more venison ribs coming soon…