ROBERT Pearson passed away a few weeks ago. Who was Robert Pearson? He was the ‘best pit master north of the Mason Dixon Line’ according to his obituary in The New York Times, and he was the first to bring Texas style BBQ to NYC. Why are we discussing him in a website about Long Island City? Because he opened his first NYC restaurant here.
Pearson led a very eclectic and accomplished life, but I’ll leave that part of the story up to the obit linked to below. What intrigued me was his time here in LIC.
After a decade in Stratford, CT honing his craft and developing a following, in 1992 he moved his bbq restaurant, which he eventually called Pearson’s, to a location around 5-16 51st Avenue in Hunters Point. I say ‘around’ because the actual location may have been here or next door in either direction.
Upon reading said obituary one morning in bed, it led me down a rabbit-hole to find that location, and the many iterations that succeeded Pearson’s in that approximate location. Pearson’s would leave Hunters Point at the end of 1998 due to a combination of smoking/smell complaints from the neighborhood, and a landlord who lived next door who wanted the space and may have used those complaints to take over the local bbq racket. I believe that landlord may have joined the two spaces to create the 4-5 story fortress-like structure that now houses Gamehaus.
Yet as anyone in the neighborhood knows, there have been a number of concepts tested here in the 21st century. The first came from that prior landlord, when he opened ‘Philly’s Smoke House’ in 2002. Somewhere in the late aughts came ‘Smokey’s 11101,’ followed by Alewife in 2011 and GameHaus in 2022.
Rabbit hole aside, Pearson really did lead a very interesting life (all good), and I’ll reiterate my recommendation to read his obit below and in doing so come to the appreciation of his casting his glow on Long Island City many years ago.
//HEY TEA is coming to 42-20 27th Street in Queens Plaza! Despite the bubble in bubble tea, the first NYC outlet of this chain from China opened just south of Times Square in December and has been jam-packed every hour of every day since due to it’s unique specialty of ‘cheese’tea.’ Given that LIC is getting location #2 is further affirmation of the Asian influence in our town, or maybe it’s the other way around?
//THERE’S a new Indian restaurant in Hunters Point called ‘Oh Calcutta’ Well actually it’s the third Indian restaurant in the past few years to try to make a go of this location at 10-57 Jackson Avenue. Sounds a little like the Pearson’s trajectory, no? Similarly, a reader shares that “Chef Papa, a well-reviewed Vietnamese restaurant near Flushing, is taking over the Knock Knock space (in Court Square). The father and son owners, both named John, are targeting to open the end of August. They are from Vietnam.” Finally, Bianco Latte has opened at 45-02 11th Street across from Murray Park, serving both breakfast and lunch items including quiches, egg sandwiches on croissants and other sandwiches on baguettes.
Robert Pearson, Hair Stylist Turned Acclaimed Barbecue Chef, Dies at 87
Neighborhood Report: Long Island City; After a Slow Burn, Foes Cheer Barbecue Pit’s Departure
Chinese Cheese Tea Chain ‘Hey Tea’ to Open It’s First U.S. Location in Manhattan – back in December
konyc says
August 2, 2024 at 2:02 amStick To Your Ribs is what alerted me to LIC’s existence. A friend and I went in August ’92, and as we walked back to his place in Sunnyside i asked why I’d never heard of the neighborhood or known anyone living here. His dual response: no housing. When I got the chance to move into a place on 45th Avenue with co-workers a year later I took it.
Pearson’s later decamped for a sports bar in Jackson Heights, and there may also have been an outlet on E.83rd near Third.