Highland Parker to run barbecue contest — the city’s first — at local Oktoberfest

Highland Park’s fourth annual Oktoberfest will kick off this weekend with something new: the city’s first barbecue contest.

Keith Brin, a barbecue enthusiast, contestant and judge, said plans are in place for at least 10 teams of local amateur barbecuers to meet in Jens Jensen Park in Highland Park at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20, to compete for the competition’s ultimate bragging rights. 

The teams, which must consist of contestants without professional experience, can enter four different categories: ribs, chicken, vegetarian or Oktoberfest. To enter the contest, teams pay $150, which covers for a rack of ribs teams will cook over coal or fire over the course of the day’s festivities.

“We just think it would be a great opportunity for people who have cooked ribs and chicken and other inventive things on smokers in their backyards for years,” Brin said, “and have bragged to their friends about how great their stuff is, that this is their chance to compete along with other amateurs — to put up or shut up, so to speak.”

Brin said he became involved in barbecue competitions 10 years ago after joining a group of friends who compete in amateur contests. He’s since gone on to become a certified judge, inspired by both his appreciation for the food’s taste and its unique history.

“While barbecue is certainly not an American-only thing, America has in some ways adopted it and regionalized it and made an art of taking pretty garbage cuts of meat and the combination of heat and smoke and seasoning — just creates a magical cuisine and I’m in love with it,” Brin said.

Ahead of this year’s Highland Park Oktoberfest, which will feature beer, food, live-music, dancing, and other friendly competitions (including a stein-holding contest), Brin started talking to a local business owner about the possibility of launching a barbecue contest.

That business owner, former Councilmember Jeff Hoobler, then connected Brin with Noah Plotkin, another local event organizer who was interested in helping make the contest a reality at the Ravinia District’s fall event, Brin said.

Soon, he was in talks with city staff, too.

The barbecue contest will start early in the day to leave ample time for cooking, Brin said, so that the competition will be largely complete by the time bands roll around. Entrance into the additional categories besides the main ribs-event is free. 

While Brin has extensive experience in barbecue contests, he won’t be competing or judging the submissions himself. 

Instead, he crowdsourced 8 to 12 volunteer judges who, in the spirit of the competition’s amateur ethos, will consider the final products by tenderness, taste and appearance but no strict standards like those applied by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. 

All in all, Brin emphasized that he felt Highland Park was a perfect place to host a barbecue contest given its “neighborhood feel.”

“Highland Park is a wonderful place to live and to raise your family and to enjoy the best of what is the North Shore of Chicago,” Brin said. “I love it and I love barbecue and I think there are lots of others in Highland Park who also feel the same way.”

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