{"id":143284,"date":"2025-06-18T21:44:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T01:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143284"},"modified":"2025-06-18T21:44:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T01:44:16","slug":"friends-of-the-allentown-parks-sponsors-successful-bbq-tasting-contest-at-blues-brews-and-bbq-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143284","title":{"rendered":"Friends of the Allentown Parks Sponsors Successful BBQ Tasting Contest at Blues, Brews, and BBQ Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>Featured Images: Rosaria Stoops,\u00a0Executive Director of\u00a0Friends of the Allentown Parks Presenting awards to &#8220;You Got Porkd&#8221; and &#8220;Lenwood BBQ&#8221; (from left to right)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Local organizations celebrate community spirit as contestants deliver exceptional food despite rainy weather<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>ALLENTOWN, PA \u2013 Friends of the Allentown Parks proudly sponsored the BBQ Tasting Contest at the annual Blues, Brews, and BBQ festival on June 14, bringing together local barbecue enthusiasts and food vendors for a day of exceptional competition despite challenging weather conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The judging panel consisted of five distinguished community members: Rosaria Stoops, CEO of Friends of the Allentown Parks; two additional Friends of the Allentown Parks board members; Katy Kresge, board member of the Allentown Chamber of Commerce; and Michelle, an Allentown native. Together, they evaluated entries from six different barbecue companies, carefully assessing each offering in a comprehensive side-by-side tasting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contest Results:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Best Meat &amp; Best Side:<\/strong> &#8211; Lenwood BBQ<\/li>\n<li><strong>Best Sandwich:<\/strong> &#8211; You Got Porkd<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cIt was hard to vote at first, but testing the food side by side really helped us make our decisions,\u201d said Rosaria Stoops, CEO of Friends of the Allentown Parks. \u201cIf you didn\u2019t have them all together, you would have found them all amazing \u2013 people really brought their A-game even on a rainy day!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contest highlighted the resilience and dedication of local food vendors who continued to deliver outstanding barbecue experiences despite the wet weather conditions. The quality of competition remained exceptionally high, showcasing the talent and commitment of Allentown\u2019s barbecue community.<\/p>\n<p>Friends of the Allentown Parks was honored to sponsor this community event, which brought together residents and visitors to celebrate local culinary excellence while supporting the city\u2019s vibrant festival scene.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues, Brews, and BBQ festival continues to serve as a cornerstone event for the Allentown community, combining music, local beverages, and exceptional food in celebration of the city\u2019s cultural spirit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Friends of the Allentown Parks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Friends of the Allentown Parks is dedicated to enhancing and preserving Allentown\u2019s park system through community engagement, advocacy, and support for recreational opportunities that benefit all residents. <a href=\"https:\/\/allentownparks.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/allentownparks.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nRosaria Stoops, CEO<br \/>\nFriends of the Allentown Parks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Featured Images: Rosaria Stoops,\u00a0Executive Director of\u00a0Friends of the Allentown Parks Presenting awards to &#8220;You Got Porkd&#8221; and &#8220;Lenwood BBQ&#8221; (from left to right) Local organizations celebrate community spirit as contestants &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143284\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Friends of the Allentown Parks Sponsors Successful BBQ Tasting Contest at Blues, Brews, and BBQ Festival<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5716,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allentown","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/bbq-awards.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/143285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}