Northern Barrell — Restaurant in Town of New Scotland

The location is nice and the atmosphere is more lively than in other places (this is mostly because it only recently opened). My family and I had an assortment of meals including burgers, chicken strips, and a salad. They were decent, although similar to most other items you'll find on the menus of nearby restaurants. I wanted to begin with the positives. Now for the rest. I don't mean any offense to anyone. For my own taste, the burgers were excessively greasy (I took it to go and when I opened it back up, it seemed more like a soup). The chicken strips and salad were good though. I know everyone's thinking this, but they're too scared to say it: the food is overpriced. For a burger and fries, it is almost $17. You can go to any nearby restaurant and get the same food with larger portions (I can't forget to mention that the portion size is smaller than you would imagine for the price you pay) for a lot cheaper. It's good to support a local business, especially when it just opened up, but overcharging isn't the way to go about it. No wonder why more and more people have stopped going there (all around Guilderland and Voorheesville people have criticized the restaurant). I feel bad for the employees there too. I was talking to one of them, and after researching online, I was able to confirm that full-time workers were making $9 an hour. How do they expect people to live in this day in age (with inflation) at this rate? Just saying, it's not the best place to...

Southern BBQ is difficult to replicate and rarely translates well in the North East, but Northern Barrell is a breath of fresh air. The atmosphere Is friendly, the open air bar gave off a cookout vibe, and the kitchen's smoker was in plain sight.

I was lucky enough to know the chef, and he gave me the grand tour. What stood out the most was the kitchen's indoor smoker. It takes a skilled chef to master slow cook or smoke pig parts. Precision in thus context created absolute perfection:

The jalapeño rail spikes were bullets of flavor; loaded with sweet pulled pork, wrapped in a savory crispy bacon jacket, spinning a spicy chamber of a classic pairing of slight chard, bitter pepper and pork. It was like a playing Russian roulette with my tongue. The cheese stuffed inside tempered the heat really well.

The 2nd course was thier Pulled Brisket Pile. In true southern fashion, smoked brisket tender enough to cut with a plastic spoon. To separate the meat with my fingers felt as satisfying as peeling off a mozzarella stick; smooth, clear striated line, and moist.

I'd would love to see ribs on thier menu, and maybe a few mustard and vinegar based sauces. But overall, Northern Barrell created a nice blend of Memphis and North Carolina style BBQ. As someone who was born and raised in the belt buckle of the Bible belt, Northern Barrell does Pork better than any other Faux-BBQ joint in NY's...

Well firstly, my friend and I sat at the bar and it took several minutes before the bartender had greeted us, and their personality was very dry and impersonal almost disconnected, (not warm and welcoming like someone you'd expect to be tending a bar) I had asked for a food menu which I had to remind the bartender again for. We put in an order for an appetizer and then an order for a burger (rare) and my friend ordered their chicken strips... Then we were told we had to move a few moments late,, because they were having trivia that night and we had to go sit outside... The food took a while to come out, in fact they completely forgot about my friend's order, so they just asked for it to go instead... I honestly didn't really think the food was all that great for the price that it was, and the whole experience seemed rather unorganized/chaotic... I mean I get it some people have "off days" and maybe this place is so new that they haven't really gotten into thier "groove" yet so to speak... Maybe ill give it a couple months and try again, because I really would rather support local restaurants then those...