Port-A-Pit BBQ

119 Marshall Forest Lane, Statesville, NC - (704) 872-9778

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Posted By Michael Stern on August 5, 2001 6:33 AM

Word of warning: Port-A-Pit is open only on Wednesday and Friday from 11am to 7pm. During those precious hours, it can get mighty crowded.

A strange, warehouse-like place where most of the rest of the week is devoted to cooking pig either on premises or elsewhere for large events and parties, you enter it through an inconspicuous door in back where arriving customers are greeted by a lady who asks, “Do you’all have a call in?” If the answer is yes – meaning you have already phoned in your order – you are directed to one area of the building to pick it up. If no, you are pointed to the cash register, where you choose from a wall-mounted menu. When your number is called, you pick up what you’ve ordered, all neatly packed, then go somewhere to eat it. There are no seats here, inside or out.

We sat in our car and very much enjoyed a chopped pork sandwich, which comes wrapped with a cup of sauce on the side. Pre-sauce, the meat has a nice fresh, slightly smoky flavor but it is dry. The sauce makes this pork blossom. In addition to chopped pork, we savored a nice barbecued chicken upper (the term for a breast and wing), crusty pork ribs, and a cup of delicious Brunswick stew, loaded with vegetables and vigorously spiced.

Those who are snack-food devotees will be pleased to note that Port-A-Pit offers six different flavors of pork skin, sold by the bag. It is hard to describe the irresistible appeal of pork skin, except to say it is something like a very piggy potato chip, and it is every bit as addictive. Port-A-Pit offers skins in these flavors: Plain, Cajun, Sour Cream and chives, Vinegar and Salt, Barbecue, and Cinnamon and Sugar.

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Posted By Karyl Howard on July 11, 2011 5:53 PM

We were lucky enough to be traveling through the area on a day when the restaurant was open. The food was excellent and the staff was very helpful with letting us know how to order. My only concern is that there wasn't a public restroom facility and the ones at the closest service stations were disgusting beyond description.

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chopped pork

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