{"id":217266,"date":"2025-09-11T04:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/217266\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T04:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:20:22","slug":"old-school-kosher-barbecue-pop-up-opens-in-kemp-mill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/217266\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Old School\u2019 Kosher Barbecue Pop-Up Opens in Kemp Mill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company)<\/p>\n

Zev Zalman \u201cZ.Z.\u201d Ludwick is used to crafting and repairing violins, but the Kemp Mill luthier also has a lifelong passion for cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] started out when I was a little kid, and I was enamored by the family barbecues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A fish allergy kept Ludwick from pursuing culinary school, so he began barbecuing as a hobby, serving up meals for friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just turned 62, so it\u2019s been a long time I\u2019ve been cooking for people,\u201d Ludwick said. \u201cI just took my barbecuing to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company)<\/p>\n

This \u201cnext level\u201d is The Pit Barrel Poultry Company<\/a>, a business Ludwick recently founded and owns in the Kemp Mill area. He said he expects its grand opening to be Sept. 21: the day before Rosh Hashanah.<\/p>\n

The business is currently is available for catering and private parties in addition to its pop-up takeout restaurant in Kemp Mill.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chicken hangs from stainless steel hooks in the Pit Barrel Cooker. (Courtesy of Z.Z. Ludwick)<\/p>\n

Ludwick\u2019s journey began when he discovered a product known as the Pit Barrel Cooker<\/a>, reminiscent of a \u201c55-gallon oil drum\u201d with fire inside the barrel, heating the meat that hangs from stainless steel hooks at the top. Though the Pit Barrel Cooker works with most any grilling needs, Ludwick has found the most success with chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the juiciest chicken I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What sets Ludwick\u2019s chicken apart from that of other barbecuers? As the chicken drips down onto the fire below, steam rises and moistens the meat: \u201cIt\u2019s like self-basting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pit Barrel Cooker\u2019s closed lid ensures that the chicken is cooked from all 360 degrees at a temperature regulated by a damper on the bottom. Ludwick learned how to strategically open and close the damper to either increase or decrease the flame.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was a learning curve, but once I got it dialed in, I was repeatedly just cooking the most amazing chicken, and I was sharing it with my neighbors and my friends and family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It was one of Ludwick\u2019s neighbors who, in May, floated the idea of starting a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018This is phenomenal. Everybody is raving about it. Why don\u2019t you think of selling your chicken?\u2019\u201d Ludwick said.<\/p>\n

The first step for Ludwick was to contact the Vaad HaRabanim of Greater Washington, which he expected at time of writing to provide the business with a kosher certification on Sept. 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important for this to be strictly kosher,\u201d said Ludwick, who is a Breslov Hasidic Jew. \u201cI\u2019ve gone to a lot of kosher restaurants in the last 24 years, and there\u2019s no one doing a pit-style barbecue, so it was important for me to fulfill a need for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, the business is Ludwick and a full-time working mashgiach who helps with the cooking.<\/p>\n

Their menu is in its early stages with two food items: an applewood-smoked pulled chicken sandwich and an applewood-smoked chicken carcass, the latter used to make soup. The sandwich comes with homemade coleslaw, a bag of chips and bottled water.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Applewood smoked pulled chicken sandwich (Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company)<\/p>\n

The hours of preparation paired with the cost of kosher meat makes the $20 cost of the sandwich more than worth it, according to Ludwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very time consuming to produce the meat itself, then we\u2019re putting a large amount on a challah roll with homemade coleslaw, coming with a bag of chips and something to drink,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ludwick hopes to add other menu items once his business gets off the ground, but for now, he\u2019ll stick to the basics.<\/p>\n

Ludwick described his approach as \u201cold-school, cowboy style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a traditionalist, and that comes from the way I run my violin shop,\u201d said Ludwick, the owner of Ludwick\u2019s House of Violin in Silver Spring. \u201cI do it the same way they did it back in the 1500s, 1600s. \u2026 That\u2019s part of my persona. So I wanted to carry that over to my cooking, to have a really authentic barbecue experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pit Barrel Poultry Company is a way for Ludwick to give back to the community, as well. Having worked for 18 years at Nut House Pizza in Silver Spring, then Goldberg\u2019s Bagels, Ludwick said he experienced the kindness of the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a hippie heavy metal rocker working at the kosher pizza shop, and the observant community really \u2026 embraced me as one of their own,\u201d he said. \u201cI had long hair and earrings, and I didn\u2019t look like one of them and I didn\u2019t act like one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He plans to donate at least 10% of his profit to Yad Yehuda of Greater Washington, a volunteer organization that serves as the local Jewish community\u2019s \u201cfinancial safety net,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

Though religion plays a deep role in what Ludwick does \u2014 \u201cI believe this is God\u2019s company. He just allows me to run it\u201d \u2014 his goal is to show people that \u201canyone can eat kosher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf food is good, that\u2019s all people care about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company) Zev Zalman \u201cZ.Z.\u201d Ludwick is used to crafting and repairing violins,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[26874,118624,27814,210,32989,50398,118625,20204,50400,118626,728,50,1182,46528,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-217266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-barbecue","9":"tag-chasidic","10":"tag-chicken","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-jewish-community","13":"tag-jewish-food","14":"tag-kemp-mill","15":"tag-kosher","16":"tag-kosher-food","17":"tag-kosher-restaurant","18":"tag-local-news","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nutrition","21":"tag-silver-spring","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115183748770478083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}