Last weekend was 75 degrees and sunny, and we may not see warm temps like that until next year. It was a great excuse to grill meat by the river.

Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, pictured below, is located right on the East River and has the most amazing view of downtown Manhattan. The borough just built a sports complex and a picnic plaza with tables and barbecue pits for public use. It’s an awesome location to set up a casual weekend meal with friends and watch joggers and children run by and ferries and helicopters take off and cruise across the river. E and I, along with our friends Graham and Sasa, agreed to meet there for sunset dinner.

Barbecues are supposed to be no fuss—a cooler filled with cold beverages, plastic utensils and cookware, red Solo cups and fresh meat and veggies. I planned to make a steak and a pork loin sandwich, while Graham brought oysters. We seasoned our basic meats and shellfish with custom condiments, topping Graham’s oysters with chili herbed butter, homemade chimichurri sauce for the steak and homemade blackberry BBQ sauce for the pork, which I adapted from a basic recipe online.

(I didn’t have the same forethought about marinating the pork, though. I used what I had on hand at the pier—pineapple, parsley, white wine vinegar, black pepper–because I forgot to do it earlier. The steak, however, I did marinate at home.)

In between rotating corn, meat and buns on the grill, we chatted about upcoming vacations, how to entertain Graham’s relatives visiting New York for the first time, and if we should feed the puppy shuffling around next to our table any leftover steak (we didn’t). The sun went down, our bellies were full, and joggers and children were still running down the pier. I hope the weather holds out so we can do this one more time before it starts to snow.

Below, the recipe for the pork sandwiches. Tomorrow, I’ll post the steak sammie.

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