NC BBQ

We're moving to NC next month and I was wondering if anyone could recommend the best place to go. We're looking from anywhere from Statesville down to Charlotte. (We're moving right smack in the middle.)
We have been to Allen & Son in Chapel Hill and we're looking for a place like that.

quote:

Originally posted by lyndsay

We're moving to NC next month and I was wondering if anyone could recommend the best place to go. We're looking from anywhere from Statesville down to Charlotte. (We're moving right smack in the middle.)
We have been to Allen & Son in Chapel Hill and we're looking for a place like that.

I have never found any outstanding Q in either Statesville, Charlotte or anywhere along I-77. However it is a short distance to the many good places in Greensboro, Salisbury and Lexington (the best being Wayne Monk's "Lexington # 1", and second best "Stamey's" in Greensboro) along the I-85 corridor and "Bridge's" in Shelby.

Here's a link to East Carolina bbq, like the Allen & Son style. http://www.newsobserver.com/front/columnist/story/1485813p-7636619c.html Maybe a bit too east from the area you mentioned. Lexington #1 and Stamey's are West Carolina, a little different, but IMHO better. And, for you, closer.

quote:

Originally posted by GordonW

Here's a link to East Carolina bbq, like the Allen & Son style. http://www.newsobserver.com/front/columnist/story/1485813p-7636619c.html Maybe a bit too east from the area you mentioned. Lexington #1 and Stamey's are West Carolina, a little different, but IMHO better. And, for you, closer.

This article lists Wilber's in Goldsboro as the top vote getter for Eastern que. I posted in another thread a couple of weeks ago that I went there on the way home from vacation and I'll have to say I agree. It's hard to imagine finding better pork anywhere.

Lexington...Lexington...Lexington. Need I say more.

Lexington #1. I am from NC and it's the most outstanding in the state for Western NC Q. You will love it. You can also scoot over to High Point while you're there and get new furniture for the new digs!

We just got home from our short trip to Lexington - and the BBQ was great. We ate in four joints in two days. Lexington #1 is good, I really liked their thin vinegary dip, but we made a mistake and ordered the sliced pig when obviously the chopped meat was the way to go and we failed to remember to ask for "outside brown" . Well, there will be a next time...

Our favorite was Smokey Joe's, the meat was nicely chopped and had a nice mix of inside and outside brown and the dipping sauce was great -more tomato than at Lexington #1.

Jimmy's was across the street from our motel, so we had to give it a try. It was very good with a sauce a bit more spicy than Smokey Joe's.

Our last stop was at Cook's, a place south of town that had been recomended to us. Again we loved the BBQ, it was smokey, moist and tender and the sauce was very good.

Everybody seems to have a slightly different take on their slaw. We
did not have one that was less than great. Some were redder than others, some were a bit more vinegary, some a little sweeter, and some were chopped finer than others, but they were all excellent.
Also, we never had anything but great sweet tea in any place we visited.

Hush puppies were a disappointment in every place but Cook's - there they were little round, slightly sweet, perfectly cooked nuggets of pure cornmeal goodness. The Hush puppies in some of the other places seemed like they might have been produced in a factory someplace and just warmed up in the kitchen.

We had a list of 26 BBQ's to choose from but only had room and time for four. We plan to get back there again sometime soon to find some of the other places people on these forums have suggested.

Lexington is a wonderful small town with really friendly outgoing people. The service in the four places we visited was prompt, efficient, and friendly.

For breakfast at Jimmy's I had my first taste of Livermush. It is very much like Scrapple, which I have always loved- in fact i could see no difference between livermush and scrapple...

After Lexington we drove on down to Asheville where we had an excellent hot dog "all the way" at Duke's - a place run by a recent refugee from Newark NJ, and we enjoyed very nice chicken dinner and blackberry pie on the little patio at Picnic - a place recommended to us by several Roadfooders. Picnic is run by a mother and son team who are very warm and welcoming and also very helpful to first time visitors to their place which is basically set up for take-out.

Last night we stayed in Harrisonburg, Va and had a great pizza at
The Woodfire Pizza. We talked to the owners, a very nice young couple who have just opened their third restaurant in Harrisonburg.
We recommend that place if you ever find yourself looking for a meal along that stretch of I-81.

For lunch today we stopped at Funck's Family Restaurant in Indiantown Gap where I had two delicious breaded and deep fried pork chops - those Pennsylvanians sure know how to cook pork!

Cheers, John

You got to know that Lexington BBQ is the real deal.

A few months back, government air quality testers determined that Lexington had unsatisfactory air quality, this in a town in central North Carolina, with just about no industry. It seems that the monitor machine was just down wind of one of the BBQ places. All parties agreed to move the machine and try again.

Not much good barbecue in this area. (I live in Huntersville) In Statesville, give Carolina Barbecue at try. They used to be a real log-burner and fairly good. I haven't been in several years. Also in Statesville is Little Pigs. They are still a log-burner but only cook 1 or 2 days a week. It's good if you get it fresh, otherwise, don't bother. Forget Port-A-Pit, also in Statesville. Skip Greg's, Sweet Fire, Lancaster's, Sonny's and Glenda's in Mooresville. All cook with either gas or electricity. Not REAL barbecue. There are no barbecue joints, real or bogus, in Davidson, Cornelius or Huntersville. Charlotte is a largely barbecue-free city. (Thanks largely to emissions regulations and large numbers of new residents who don't know what real barbecue is...)The only place that still produces real, i.e., wood-cooked barbecue is The Hickory House on North Tryon St. It's OK if you're in the vicinity, but not worth a special trip. As previous posters have noted, there is plenty of GREAT barbecue in the region, just not in our immediate area.

Had lunch at Stamey's in Greensboro last Thursday. This is a bbq palace compared to the place I remember from my last visit 30 years ago. A huge sandwich for like $2.25. The sauce packs quite a finishing kick. A best buy.

Stratford BBQ in King, N.C. or Pulliams in Winston-Salem

Went to Amhurst VA on Sat and after prowling the Garlic festival there, found The Silver Pig BBQ restaurant. Must say the hushpuppies were pretty good but strange little shapes. Cue was ok though not very generous. There was no Texas Pete available but their own sauce that I didn't particularly care for. On Sunday, visited the Railroad festival in Appomatax VA amd had an excellent BBQ sandwich on a toasted roll - Big Jack's BBQ from Richmond, VA. It was eastern Carolina style with good cole slaw, their own vinegar hot sauce and Texas Pete. For some reason, I have to have Texas Pete on my BBQ!
Tried to find Big Jack's on internet but so far, no luck. I suspect this is an outfit that does festivals! Darn the luck!

To digress a bit: We enjoyed a very good BBQ at the Hickory Smokehouse on Rt 28 about five miles west of the Thruway intersection in Kingston, NY last week. The folks who run the place have been doing BBQ for about 25 years, but just last year opened their first restaurant - previously they just catered.

The pulled pork was sweet and moist and loaded with outside brown, topped with coleslaw, and served on a good quality roll. the house sauce served on the sandwich is good but has a bit more tomato than I prefer. Three other sauces were available at the table.
The sweet tea turned out to be raspberry sweet tea- it was OK - I understand that the flavor of tea changes from day to day.

North Carolina, watch out! some of our Yankees are learning to do very credible BBQ - like the place above and Dinasaur farther upstate. But, I've got to admit there's a certain southern ambience
missing in our joints.

Cheers, John

Had lunch today at a neat little bbq joint in Black Mountain, the place is Perry's BBQ. Been around since 1995, started by a guy (Perry) from Austin TX. Few years ago he left and sold to a husband & wife who kept the name and style intact. This place offers pork, beef and chicken Q. I had a pork sandwich, baked beans, slaw and a drink for $5. You can get with sauce or plain and add your own sauce.

I like Stamey's in Greensboro, and The Q Shack in Durham (although it's not typical NC BBQ).

Carlton,
Next time through Black Mtn try the German place. Second exit headed west on 40, head in towards town, go past the Bi-Lo grocery store and it's about another 75 yards on your right.

I saw the German place and it was tempting to stop but lack of time and a desire for some Q caused to stop at Perry's. I was really impressed with Perry's. Food was outstanding and the owner seemed like a sincere Q enthusiast.
I will take your suggestion my next visit. Thanks for the tip!

My wife and i ate in that "little German place" a couple of years ago when we were in Black Mountain and we liked it very much - the folks were very accomodating and the food was fine.

I'm sorry we never found Perrys BBQ in our several visits to Black Mounain. Give us the location so if we get back there we can try it - the only BBQ we found was a regional chain on the highway west of town (forgot the name) that we found to be pretty good but most of our BBQ maven friends seem to disdain.

Cheers, John

Perry's is on US Hwy 70 on the east side of town. The actual street address is: 400 East State St. Can't miss it. 828-664-1446, the owners are Jack & Susan Spencer. Nice people. The whole town is pretty small, but as like many of the small towns in east NC, very charming.

There's the most beautiful area just south of Black Mountain, on Rt 9. The towns of Bat Cave, Chimney Rock, and Lake Lure. I was so fortunate to get to drive through that area today. Just a spectacular drive. I stopped at a great little winery about 8 miles south of Lake Lure called The Rockhouse. They are one of two wineries in Polk County, but most of the other vineyards in the county sell their grapes to Biltmore.
Anyway, on Rt 9 from the winery to Lake Lure was an intersection with a wonderful little place called Sunny Mountain Fish Camp. It was very crowded (there's very little around it) at 2 p.m. I didn't have time to stop but will for sure my next visit to this area. Lake Lure is such a beautiful area.

http://www.hollyeats.com/NorthCarollina.htm