Why New Yorkers Are Skewering Smarter This Fall—And Ditching Mixed Kebabs

On a brisk Tuesday evening this week, the scent of charcoal and spice drifted down from a rooftop in Astoria, where chef Ramzi Haddad was prepping for his seasonal grilling class. The lesson of the night? Keep your kebabs separated—literally. Haddad, like a growing number of city grillmasters, swears by the rule: never skewer meats and vegetables together.

The logic is simple and brutally practical—especially in a city where precision is everything. “Chicken thighs and zucchini just don’t cook at the same rate,” Haddad explained, deftly threading cubes of lamb onto their own skewers while sweet peppers and onions waited their turn. “If you try to do both at once, something’s going to burn.”

This fall, with backyard and rooftop grills still firing in every borough, the debate over kebab technique is as alive as the flames. At the Turkish-owned Doy Doy on East Houston, servers have started offering single-ingredient skewers by request. Over in Sunset Park, home cooks at the 8th Avenue night markets have set up DIY skewer stations, letting customers customize their own—meat on one stick, veggies on another.

New Yorkers have a way of making any culinary rule their own. On the Lower East Side, artist Gina Torres has been adding apple slices to her pork skewers, but always cooks them separately. “It’s about control,” she laughed, fanning the flames outside her gallery after hours. “In this city, you don’t leave things to chance—not even your kebabs.”