If you were wondering about the recipe behind its success, the answer lay in a 12-hour smoked brisket, caramelised onions, blue cheese, pickles, and buttery sourdough.
Owner Daniel Meredith said the combination would please even people who don’t like blue cheese.
“We’ve had a lot of people come in that don’t like blue cheese, that love that toastie,” Meredith said.
“It’s just the balance between the smoked brisket, the sweet onions and the sharp blue cheese.”
The Smokey Blue collected 207 public votes and 2239 points, with customers rating each toastie they voted for.
Competition organiser Deirdre Dawson said Black Betty led the People’s Choice leaderboard throughout the event.
The feedback was enthusiastic.
One customer wrote, “Never eaten anything like it. I’ll think of it on my deathbed.”
Another said the toastie had converted them from disliking blue cheese, while another called it “addictive”.
Meredith said head chef Blair Glenny came up with the winning combination, after the team trialled multiple versions.
“There’s quite a lot of engineering that goes into making a toastie,” Meredith said.
“But the brisket is definitely the star of the show.”
The onion jam and blue cheese sauce are made in-house, while the sourdough is sourced locally. The $25 toastie is served with crinkle-cut fries.
Black Betty BBQ has been entering the competition for several years and previously reached the finals in 2021 with its Cornstar toastie, which became a permanent menu item.
Winning the People’s Choice Award left Meredith feeling “proud”.
“To see a small business from Hawke’s Bay on the number one leaderboard of a nationwide competition … it’s cool, man.”
Black Betty usually changes its special each week, but Smokey Blue appears to be here to stay.
The only casualty may be the old Cornstar, which could make way for its newly crowned replacement.