Southern Living's Top Ten Carolina (North and Lesser) BBQ joints

[FSUTribe76]

I was glad to see they had my personal favorite BBQ place of all time Red Bridges in Shelby first on their list (my extended family who lives near Shelby prefers Alston Bridges or "regular" Bridges, but we visit Red Bridges on the weekends as Alston Bridges is only open M-F). My personal favorite East Carolina style joint (aka just vinegar and pepper flakes) are missing as I like Wilber's and Bill Ellis for that variation. And the list is definitely missing Sweatman's the only Lesser Carolina place that matches up to the better North Carolina joints imo.


Here's the list for your consideration

1.) Red Bridges Barbecue: Lodge Shelby, NC
704/482-8567
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Order the sliced pork tray with red slaw and hush puppies, or get a chopped pork sandwich with plenty of "outside brown" (the smoky outer bits of the shoulder) on a warm toasted bun. Wash it all down with a glass of sweet tea.

2.) Lexington Barbecue: Lexington, NC
336/249-9814
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Since 1962, Wayne Monk has been a master of the town's signature style, cooking pork shoulders directly over glowing oak coals inside enclosed brick pits. The meat is chopped and dressed in the classic Piedmont vinegar-and-ketchup sauce.

3.) Barbecue Center: Lexington, NC
336/248-4633
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
At the Barbecue Center, pit-cooked pork shoulder is chopped, coarse chopped, or sliced-and you can order it on a sandwich, on a tray with red slaw and hush puppies or rolls, or on a plate with fries. The famous banana split is a multi-scoop concoction-a nod to the restaurant's start as an ice-cream parlor.

4.) Stamey's: Greensboro, NC
336/299-9888
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Chip Stamey carries on his grandfather Warner's tradition, cooking pork shoulders over all-hickory coals. You won't find ribs, chicken, or Brunswick stew here-just chopped or sliced pork plates and sandwiches, fries and baked beans, and Stamey's famous peach cobbler.

5.) Allen & Son Barbeque: Chapel Hill, NC
919/942-7576
Sauce Style: Vinegar & red pepper
Allen & Son bridges the Eastern and Piedmont styles of North Carolina barbecue. Owner Keith Allen cooks pork shoulders Lexington style over hickory coals in closed brick pits and serves it with a basket of hush puppies. But the white mayo-based slaw and spicy, tomato-free vinegar sauce are more Eastern in style.

6.) Skylight Inn: Ayden, NC
252/746-4113
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper
The self-proclaimed "barbecue capital of the world" is run by the Jones family, whose minimalist method hasn't changed since 1947: Whole hogs cook all night in open brick pits fired with shovelfuls of oak coals. The finished meat is seasoned with salt, cider vinegar, and Texas Pete hot sauce as it's chopped, and the skin is added for a little crunch. The only accompaniments are white slaw and a square of cornbread.

7.) Grady's Barbecue: Dudley, NC
919/735-7243
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper
A huge pile of split oak and hickory logs sits under a tin-roofed shed behind Stephen Grady's pit room, where he cooks whole hogs and chickens overnight on open brick pits. His wife, Geri, makes all the sides from scratch, including cabbage, collards, and black-eyed peas. A tender, smoky chopped pork sandwich with coleslaw is the way to go.

8.) Scott's Bar-B-Que: Hemingway, SC
843/558-0134
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper
At his family's country store, Rodney Scott cooks barbecue the old-time, labor-intensive Pee Dee way. He reduces white oak and pecan to embers in a giant burn barrel and uses them to fire open cinder block pits, where whole hogs roast slowly, skin-side-up, for 12 hours before they're flipped and mopped with a pepper-laced vinegar sauce. Pulled into long shreds, the tender, smoky pork is so spicy it will leave your lips tingling.

9.) Hite's Bar-B-Q: West Columbia, SC
803/794-4120
Sauce Style: Mustard-based
More meat market, Hite's in West Columbia is a weekend-only takeout spot. Hite and his on David burn two cords of oak and hickory wood in the pit room behind the main building, and you can taste the wood in every smoky bite of their chopped pork and ribs.

10.) Jackie Hite's: Leesville, SC
803/532-3354
Sauce Style: Mustard-based
Jackie Hite's is an ideal place to sample Midlands-style hash and rice: pork and onions simmered slowly in a giant iron pot, the meat pulled by hand into long strands, then simmered with plenty of mustard till it dissolves into a gravy-like concoction. The buffet features barbecue pulled from whole hogs cooked over hickory embers on cinder block pits. It's served with the Midlands' signature tangy yellow mustard sauce.

 

[goldmom]

My Mother is from Ayden, but I've never been to the BBQ place there - but I have been to Pink Hill BBQ in Pink Hill.

Mother almost wouldn't stop there because she said Pink Hill was named that way because it was the town known for "bad ladies" but that BBQ was good. You had to sit on the porch and eat off a paper plate with wax paper on top, pickle and slaw on the side and only soda was RC in a bottle. I still think about how good it was.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Originally posted by goldmom:

My Mother is from Ayden, but I've never been to the BBQ place there - but I have been to Pink Hill BBQ in Pink Hill.

Mother almost wouldn't stop there because she said Pink Hill was named that way because it was the town known for "bad ladies" but that BBQ was good. You had to sit on the porch and eat off a paper plate with wax paper on top, pickle and slaw on the side and only soda was RC in a bottle. I still think about how good it was.

It's not the only choice, but I can't picture myself wanting to eat NC BBQ without a bottle of RC, Cheerwine or Sundrop. Even though Pepsi is also a NC product to me it was always the "Yankee" soda. It's really tough to beat a pulled pork Sammy with red slaw on top with banana pudding or a banana moon pie on the side with some Cheerwine to wash it down.

 

[goldmom]

Originally posted by FSUTribe76:

Originally posted by goldmom:

My Mother is from Ayden, but I've never been to the BBQ place there - but I have been to Pink Hill BBQ in Pink Hill.

Mother almost wouldn't stop there because she said Pink Hill was named that way because it was the town known for "bad ladies" but that BBQ was good. You had to sit on the porch and eat off a paper plate with wax paper on top, pickle and slaw on the side and only soda was RC in a bottle. I still think about how good it was.

It's not the only choice, but I can't picture myself wanting to eat NC BBQ without a bottle of RC, Cheerwine or Sundrop. Even though Pepsi is also a NC product to me it was always the "Yankee" soda. It's really tough to beat a pulled pork Sammy with red slaw on top with banana pudding or a banana moon pie on the side with some Cheerwine to wash it down.

Love a BBQ Sammy with slaw on top. Mmmm.

 

[TC Nole OX]

Originally posted by FSUTribe76:

2.) Lexington Barbecue: Lexington, NC
336/249-9814
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Since 1962, Wayne Monk has been a master of the town's signature style, cooking pork shoulders directly over glowing oak coals inside enclosed brick pits. The meat is chopped and dressed in the classic Piedmont vinegar-and-ketchup sauce.

This place is great.

Tribe....do you have a good recipe to make this style of bbq, or have any experience making it? I have a few recipes bookmarked but haven't tried them yet.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Originally posted by TC Nole OX:

Originally posted by FSUTribe76:

2.) Lexington Barbecue: Lexington, NC
336/249-9814[/URL]
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Since 1962, Wayne Monk has been a master of the town's signature style, cooking pork shoulders directly over glowing oak coals inside enclosed brick pits. The meat is chopped and dressed in the classic Piedmont vinegar-and-ketchup sauce

This place is great.

Tribe....do you have a good recipe to make this style of bbq, or have any experience making it? I have a few recipes bookmarked but haven't tried them yet.

Yeah, I make it all the time. It's never quite as good as places like Red Bridges as theyve had decades to perfect their recipes down to the ounce while I make it once a month at best. My homemade variation uses Virginia shagbark hickory syrup which you need to order on line but I'll look around and see if I can find the recipe I based my version on (I started with an online recipe and then kept tweaking it until I was happy).

 

[bear1claw]

Originally posted by TC Nole OX:

Originally posted by FSUTribe76:

2.) Lexington Barbecue: Lexington, NC
336/249-9814
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Since 1962, Wayne Monk has been a master of the town's signature style, cooking pork shoulders directly over glowing oak coals inside enclosed brick pits. The meat is chopped and dressed in the classic Piedmont vinegar-and-ketchup sauce.

This place is great.

Tribe....do you have a good recipe to make this style of bbq, or have any experience making it? I have a few recipes bookmarked but haven't tried them yet.

Agreed, this is where I stop anytime I'm going up to Greensboro or Winston-Salem.

 

[FSUTribe76]

So here's a pretty standard Western/Piedmont/Lexington style sauce/"dip". You don't use it on the meat until after its cooked, so it's not some thickly sweet Alabama style red sauce crusted on the ribs. While the eastern NC and lesser NC usually use whole hog, in Western/Piedmont/Lexington Style it is always just the shoulder. So after you cook the shoulder (a lot of places just use salt and maybe some red pepper flakes as the rub while a smaller percentage of the others have a fancier rub (as do I as I usually make a clone of the Memphis dry rub from Rendezvous)), you let it rest until the juices stop flowing but it's still a little warm and then chop it or hand pull while sprinkling in healthy doses of the sauce/"dip". In all Carolina styles, the sauce is there to bring out the pork flavor and NOT to cover it up like the Memphis, KC and other styles of bbq.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/05/sauced-lexington-dip-barbecue-sauce-recipe.html

How I have tweaked it over time is to replace half of the dark brown sugar with about twice the amount of shagbark hickory syrup. I also add in about a half teaspoon of Vegemite although Marmite will work and add in a couple of twists of mixed peppercorns (the white, red and black varieties), and pestlegrind three or four anise seeds, two or three coriander seeds, and about a quarter teaspoon of dried thyme.

 

[FreeFlyNole]

I've been to Lex BBQ and Scotts, I can't believe Griffin's didn't make the cut. I'd put in on there for their hushpuppies and gravy alone.

 

[TC Nole OX]

Other than using the wrong slaw, this guy looks to get a lot right. I have heard that Wayne Monk's Lexington BBQ only uses salt, and maybe pepper, on the pork when it is smoked. This guy just uses salt


http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151525

 

[FSUTribe76]

Yeah that basically looks right other than the slaw. To make the "red slaw" all you do is relatively finely blend or shred up some white cabbage and soak it in the same sauce you use for the pork. Then when you make the sandwich, the slaw gives you a little bright crunch and some more of the vinegary punch to go with the fatty/juicy and meaty but soft pork. Regular cole slaw on a bbq sandwich is I suppose better than nothing but you do NOT need the mayo. The pork has plenty of fat to go around. You want the red slaw to cut into yet accentuate the fattiness of the pork not just meld with it in a gloopy mess like his version.

 

[Finance85]

There's some very good pork shoulder in NC, but I just don't like the sauce. I much prefer Memphis style or KC style. I've never really like the taste of vinegar. The other thing about NC is they put cole slaw on everything. I just don't get it. Let the flavor of the meat stand on it's own.

To each his / her own.

 

[billanole]

Lexington BarBQ is a long time good spot, but I often have stopped for a quick "fix" at a joint south of town called Lexington Style Trimmings. The sides and atmosphere don't compare favorably, but I used to get a sack full of sammies at $1.25 a pop for the road....and reach and grab when the moment was right.
My godmother, Aunt Barbara, grew up off of Highway 8 south of town and is a serious old style NC Piedmont cook...find her simple recipe for slaw below. It is the bomb and goes with Q, burgers, or whatever. We wil often add some heat to it, such as Tiger Sauce, Tabasco, or you name it.

1 large head cabbage, shredded
1 cup sugar or 12 packs Nutra Sweet
1/3 cup (slightly more) Vinegar
1/4 Teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup tomato catsup (or more)
5 drops Tabasco Sauce

Mixed well, makes about 2 quarts.

This post was edited on 2/18 9:19 AM by billanole

 

[rustyb93]

I have been to Shealy's BBQ in Batesburg/Leesville, SC, and it is among the best I have ever eaten. The restaurant probably seats 300 people, and is located in a town you wouldn't think could support a restaurant that size, and it is packed every day.

Their hash is excellent, and the vinegar based and mustard based sauces are great as well. I have tried to replicate both, and I can't even come close. For the last 3-4 years, I have their sauces shipped in and use them religiously when cooking.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Renegade 86]

9.) Hites is damn good!

 

[LBoogie28]

lost in all of this is that someone, besides my mother, reads Southern Living magazine.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Originally posted by LBoogie28:
lost in all of this is that someone, besides my mother, reads Southern Living magazine.

Nope, I just read an article on Fark ABOUT the list. Although I will say I've picked up their annual cookbooks at estate sales before for a buck or two and found some good recipes. The best is a fried oyster salad with red wine vinaigrette you can find online by googling southern living and oyster salad.

 

[LBoogie28]

Originally posted by FSUTribe76:

Originally posted by LBoogie28:
lost in all of this is that someone, besides my mother, reads Southern Living magazine.

Nope, I just read an article on Fark ABOUT the list. Although I will say I've picked up their annual cookbooks at estate sales before for a buck or two and found some good recipes. The best is a fried oyster salad with red wine vinaigrette you can find online by googling southern living and oyster salad.

wasnt really aimed directly at you, but nothing you have since offered takes away from my position. the magazine still commands readership (as it is still in circulation), some of their material is purchased at least two times in its life-cycle, and people read it on Fark. my mother will be happy.

 

[goldmom]

The magazine hasn't been the same since they stopped publishing recipes sent in by readers and identified as Mrs. John So and So from some small southern city.

Because that is how they were identified in the Junior League cookbooks, of course. But I will say that there were some great recipes in there for the four food groups of the South - sugar, fat, salt, and butter.

 

[larandtra]

When discussing Carolina BBQ you have to specify region. I was in hs eating eastern Carolina pulled pork. There was a little shack of highway 17 between jacksonville and new bern. Best east Carolina BBQ I've ever tasted
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[saenole]

I lived in Chapel Hill for most of the 70s, and it's certainly true that BBQ is different in different parts of the state. Although it seemed strange to me the first few times I tried it, I fell in love with the Eastern NC version...basically vinegar and red pepper...no ketchup. I had clients all over the eastern part of the state, and every town I ever visited had at least one good BBQ joint...Kinston, Goldsboro, Clinton, Greenville, Rocky Mount.

The really big treats, however, were the pig pickings. If you ever get the chance to attend one, do it...during the fall if you have a choice.

We've lived in Texas for almost 40 years, but we still do our best to create a passable version of pulled pork.

 

[FSU&WFU Grad]

Here is an interesting list as well.

From the previous list, I like Lexington BBQ and Stameys....but from this list, I absolutely endorse Bibs

http://scoutology.com/24-north-carolina-bbq-joints-to-try/

 

[FSUTribe76]

Originally posted by FSU&WFU Grad:
Here is an interesting list as well.

From the previous list, I like Lexington BBQ and Stameys....but from this list, I absolutely endorse Bibs

That list was obviously compiled by people who don't like Eastern or Western Carolina bbq. Most (maybe 75%) on that list are talking about and showing pics of rib racks, chicken, and brisket. That's not Carolina BBQ. That may be FROM bbq restaurants located in North Carolina but they are carpetbaggers not following the local styles. Carolina BBQ is pulled pork in sandwich form with coleslaw or just on a plate. Whole hog on the eastern half and just shoulder in the Piedmont and west.

And truthfully even though I spend more time in Asheville than at my property in Shelby as I really enjoy the beer and other food...the BBQ in Asheville is %*%* across the board. Just a bunch of nonlocal carpetbaggers bringing Texas brisket, Memphis ribs etc... It's not as good as real Texas brisket or real Memphis ribs from those regions perfected by decades of practice.