Social Media Barbecue Brawl: Detroit BBQ Company vs. RE BBQ

Detroit BBQ Company. [Photo: Facebook]

Last night an online brawl broke out between Tim Idzikowski of Detroit BBQ Company and RE BBQ on Facebook, over a photo that RE BBQ posted that Idzikowski claims was stolen.

The fight included name calling, cursing, threats, and commentary from RE BBQ fans, culminating in RE BBQ posting a screen shot of Idzikowski's threat and boasting that the Detroit BBQ Company was scared of the competition.

It all began when RE BBQ posted a picture of ribs in a smoker to their page, with an announcement that they would be "throwing down Pig & Whiskey style on Friday and Saturday at the 9 & Hilton Market with lots of BBQ and over 200 whiskeys in the store." They are not participating in the Metro Times' official Pig & Whiskey event, but they're doing their own BBQ and booze event at the market concurrent with the other, much larger, event.

Idzikowski, who is actually participating in the official Pig & Whiskey event, spotted the photo and launched an attack in the comment section, and RE BBQ's response quickly escalated the situation:

RE BBQ. [Photo: Facebook]

The argument continued, with Idzikowski demanding to know which RE BBQ event the photo came from. RE BBQ posted a picture of the (empty) smoker, saying that it was in fact theirs, and therefore their photo. Idzikowski stopped responding at that point, and hasn't posted anything to the Detroit BBQ page or to his personal page regarding the incident.

RE BBQ has used the online brawl to drum up some publicity for their own event, publicly putting down the Detroit BBQ Company:

RE BBQ. [Photo: Facebook]

As for the photo being stolen or not (the whole supposed reason for this public fight) a search of the Detroit BBQ Facebook page photos, Idzikowski's personal Facebook photos, and Instagram shows lots of ribs and smoker photos, but no photo that resembles the picture posted by RE BBQ. The picture in question appears to have been first posted by RE BBQ on June 8th, with the caption "A whole lot of St Louis ribs taking their time in the belly of The Beast." ("The Beast" is the name of their smoker). It remains unclear how RE BBQ could have stolen the photo if it isn't readily available on social media, but in the digital age, almost anything could be possible. So is this a real brawl or just a well-timed publicity stunt? Sound off in the comments.
· RE BBQ Official Page [Facebook]
· Detroit BBQ Company [Facebook]
· 7 Hot Places To Grab BBQ in Detroit [-ED-]