This Echo Park barbecue joint will ruin all other BBQ for you

Barbecue you think about is good; barbecue you can't stop thinking about is better. 

In that vein, I want to put you wise to The Park's Finest in Echo Park, where chef and co-founder Johneric Concordia combines the best practices and flavors of Filipino and American barbecue culture into a finger-licking experience.

I was lucky enough to try some of his heavenly creations recently when he joined me on LAist 89.3’s AirTalk for a Food Friday segment. 

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This beef short rib with dry rub demands your attention immediately

Smoked, seasoned, meaty beef rib — no marinades necessary.

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Courtesy The Park's Finest

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The first thing you notice about this literal stick of meat is the lush layer of fat glistening on top like edible bling. Now, most barbecue you'll encounter in life has been drowned in sweet, sticky sauce. The Park's Finest proves that wet meat is not necessary when you know what you're doing. 

This hulking rib eschews marinades entirely, relying instead on a potent alliance of onion, garlic and various peppers that transform into roasted flavor crystals during the slow-cooking process. These tiny morsels of concentrated taste will settle into every corner of your mouth, establishing savory outposts that keep the party going long after you've meticulously stripped the last stubborn bits of meat from bone.

Oh my god, this cornbread

The cornbread is baked with butter on a banana leaf.

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Courtesy The Park's Finest

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Concordia crafts his cornbread with rice flour, cornmeal, coconut and cream, baked with butter on a banana leaf for 25 minutes, then sugared for another five.

He described it to me as "a dry, crispy crème brûlée with a four-stack of pancakes underneath," which sounds like the fever dream of a pastry chef raised on soul food. I could say more, but this bread really sells itself.

Experience mac and cheese like it’s the first time 

The "textural symphony" of The Park's Finest's mac and cheese.

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Courtesy The Park's Finest

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Concordia's affinity for texture doesn't stop at dishes typically relegated to the gummy mouths of America's youth. Boxed mac it is not. It's macaroni with creamy Gouda sauce, topped with cheddar, toasted parmesan and panko breadcrumbs — textural symphony that delivers stringy, sharp pulls with every forkful, punctuated by the satisfying crunch of perfectly toasted crumbs that know their place.

Some, or all, of these delights can be enjoyed alongside three signature sauces: the "Sal Saan" (vinegar, soy, garlic, chili with pronounced bite), his father's navy sauce (brown sugar, pineapple, tomato, coconut cream with "A1 heat"), and a horseradish crema he compared to "Arby's horsey sauce with wasabi."

Each sauce tells its own story. Together, they form a condiment chorus that elevates rather than overwhelms. You'll meet many plates of barbecue in your life, but if you want to spoon bread and ravenously tear smoky meat that draws on the styles and influences of a diverse Los Angeles and Filipino culture — an edible diary of Johneric Concordia's colorful and textured life — then you already know what's for dinner tonight.