It’s no surprise that North Carolina has multiple art museums, history museums and children’s museums. Heck, we even have the Country Doctor Museum, not to be confused with the Mint Hill Country Doctor’s Museum, as well as the Railroad Museum, the Textile Heritage Museum, the Mountain Farm Museum, and the Scottish Tartans Museum. Our state also features the Presidential Culinary Museum (in Grover, NC, also known as “The City that Never Sleeps Except at Night and Isn’t Really a City Anyway”). Is that not enough for you? We also have the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, the Richard Petty Museum, the Sparta Teapot Museum, the JAARS Museum of the Alphabet, the NC School for the Deaf Historical Museum, and many more museums than you could ever imagine.
Yet North Carolina has not a single barbecue museum. Not one. Zilch. This sad fact seems like a missed opportunity to me. Stay tuned for a future post on what I think a BBQ Museum might include, what it should be called, where it should be located and, of course, who should operate its museum cafe.
Filed under: 'Cue Culture | Tagged: Museum |
BBQ Jew 
As an Eastern aficionado, I think the museum should be located at the site of the no-longer-standing Bob Melton’s BBQ in Rocky Mt. Most folks consider that the first true sit-down BBQ restaurant in the state’s history.
Granted, since the old establishment was destroyed by flood in ’99, it would be prudent to move it far enough away from the Tar River to keep that from happening again. If it can’t be put on a flood-safe spot on Melton’s property, that may be a deal-breaker.
I’m sure the Lexingtonites will have something to say about it, though.
That sounds like a shot across the bow, J. Curle. But a well placed one, I’d say…
I think the idea of a NC barbecue museum (with smokehouse attached, naturally) is inspired. But the museum should be founded here in the Triangle, close to the capitol of the Old North State and centrally located between the Piedmont and the East so that it can readily draw on the best of both traditions.
Plus, then I could frequent it frequently. 😉
Dave’s on to something…
There was talk in Rocky Mount a while back about erecting a statue of Bob Melton and dedicating a park to the state’s first sit-down barbecue restaurant, but nothing ever came of it. Of course, a better memorial would be to erect a decent wood-cooking sit-down barbecue restaurant.
[…] few weeks ago I wrote about the numerous museums in North Carolina, which celebrate everything from teapots to textiles. Yet there is no barbecue […]
[…] few weeks ago I wrote about the numerous museums in North Carolina, which celebrate everything from teapots to textiles. Yet there is no barbecue […]
I agree, we should have a BBQ museum. This is a no brainer. The hard part will be getting all parties to agree on anything. We argue over location, temperature, sauce, method, and meat. The only way this concept will come together is if we can celebrate difference. We should celebrate more than what has already been accomplished. We need a museum to spark the interest of what is yet to come.
The old established BBQ joints are living museums of a sort. Deep history adorns many of the walls, … take a tour of the pit.. see the wood pile…. talk with the owners… take a souvenir pound home with you.
A good place for the official museum would be in the town at the start of the NCBBQ trail..