Dickey’s Barbecue Pit at DFW

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

Lord, forgive me for I have sinned.  Consider this post a confession more than a review. 

I was flying from the east coast to the left coast and had a layover at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) airport.  As I walked from one gate to another, I spotted a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit.  “What a coincidence,” I thought, “to find BBQ right in front of me while traveling.”  (I found out later that DFW features, count ’em youself if you don’t believe me, three Dickey’s locations so spotting one may have been less coincidence and more inevitable.).  Since I knew that Dickey’s was founded in Dallas I decided to try it.  I figured I could more easily live with myself eating Dickey’s ‘cue at an airport in Texas than not far from my house in North Carolina.

Knowing that Dickey’s is from Texas and made its name there, I ordered the sliced brisket sandwich.  It was on the dry side and a bit lacking in flavor but it was okay, especially for airport fare.  Heck, even mediocre ‘cue is better than most things.  Dickey’s menu also features links, turkey, ham, chicken and “Southern Pulled Pork,” among other dishes. 

I suppose I should try the pulled pork just to complain about it, but it just doesn’t seem right to do that in North Carolina, even though there are a couple of Dickey’s in NC and five more on the way.  Maybe next time I am travelling through DFW.  Until then, Lord, I’ll stick to local barbecue joints.

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Garden & Gun & Swine

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

As summer beckons yet again, it’s the perfect time to read this article from Garden & Gun magazine, in case you missed it last year when it was published.  It’s one of the best written articles I’ve seen in terms of capturing the spirit of NC’s barbecue culture, and the accompanying photo gallery is outstanding.  The author takes us readers on an Eastern-style barbecue pilgrimmage, visiting places like Grady’s, the Skylight Inn and the Nahunta Pork Center.  Just to whet your appetite, here’s my favorite passage from the article:

“If you chase barbecue dreams, someday, somewhere you’ll find yourself this way, too, sitting on a rusty folding chair in a town you’d never driven through before, eating vinegar-drenched lukewarm meat and sweet fried hush puppies from a foam tray. There’s no music. There’s no beer. But you take another bite with your plastic fork and think, damn, this is good.”

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BBQ Jew’s View: Whole Foods BBQ Bar

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

81 South Elliott Road, Chapel Hill, NC
919.968.1983
Website
Hours: Sun-Sat 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
BBQ Jew’s Grade: C-
Porky Says: “Whole Foods serves BBQ?!”

There’s a Whole Fool Born Every Minute
I hope you are seated as you read this next sentence.  Whole Foods serves its own, house-cooked barbecue.  And I actually worked up the nerve to try it. 

I know, I know, eating barbecue at Whole Foods seems about as wise as a barbecue joint offering tofu on its menu.  But I am an intrepid soul when it comes to barbecue and I’ll do nearly anything for the sake of a blog post.  Plus, Whole Foods is based in Austin, Texas, which even this Carolina boy admits is pretty serious barbecue country.


No Foolin’
It pains me to admit this, but the NC-style pork barbecue at Whole Foods was not bad.  Not real good and certainly not great but okay, adequate, passable, just fine, thank you.  I was expecting a gussied up dish that bore little resemblance to real NC BBQ but the pork was rough chopped to a nice consistency, moist despite being on a steam table, and served with a simple Eastern-style vinegar and spices sauce.  The pork even contained some outside brown meat, firmer and more flavorful than the rest.  Most importantly, the barbecue contained no unwanted additions: no chunks of organic kumquat fruit, no sauce made with locally-raised fig compote, and no free-range kale juice used as seasoning. 

Whole lotta pork.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are relatively few barbecue joints I’d pass up in favor of Whole Foods, but if you find yourself (as I did) needing a quick NC BBQ fix you could do worse.  (As an aside, I had the beef brisket too and it was awful.)  If you find yourself in that weak position, do what I do and recite the following prayer for strength:

“Yea, though I walk through the parking lot in the shadow of Whole Foods, I will fear no tofu: for thou art with me; thy pork and thy sauce they comfort me.  Thou preparest a Cafe table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my tongue with vinegar; my iced tea cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the church of ‘cue forever.”

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Notes from the Underground (aka Unhinged Ramblings from a Real New Yorker)

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

I recently received an email from a reader, Aaron Weiss of… ahem, cough, cough… New York.  As you might have guessed from his name, Aaron is a fellow BBQ Jew.  He visited North Carolina recently and gave me a full run down on the rather substantial BBQ-related portion of his itinerary.  Check out Aaron’s reviews of The Pit and Allen & Son’s below.  Note that I edited his report slightly just to remove some non-BBQ commentary that diluted from the pig-centric focus of this website.  Once you’re done reading Aaron’s interesting report, check out his other writings here.

——–
As I prepare to head back to NY in the morning after being here in the Durham area this week, I wanted to share my experiences. In a perfect world, I would have eaten at a dozen bbq places and be able to write a comparative tome.  [Editor’s note: In a perfect world pig grease would heal the sick and give sight to the blind.  And maybe it does.]  But unfortunately I can’t eat like that anymore.

Last year we’d been here on our first trip to the area and had eaten at the Barbecue Joint in Chapel Hill and also Allen & Son. At that time we really liked the Barbecue Joint. I know you gave it a lackluster review, and I certainly would not pretend to disagree with your wisdom [Editor: They don’t have sarcasm in New York, right?]. I do think their pork was quite good on our particular visit (in fact, we went there twice on that trip). When we hit Allen & Son that time, I think we were a little porked out. I remember liking it, but didn’t remember coming away from it wowed (although I did remember being wowed by the pecan pie).

This year, things worked out a little differently. First of all, the Barbecue Joint is now closed. Apparently this just happened recently. Upon arriving in the area, we made our first stop at Allen & Son. Guess what? This time, we were wowed. Really, really wowed. I’m not saying the food was any different — maybe it was just as good last year and we Continue reading →

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Eat a Plate at Bullock’s Today

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

Sometimes bad luck leads to good news.  After hearing that the recent salmonella outbreak at Bullock’s Bar-B-Cue had put a serious dent in their business, despite the fact that the outbreak may not have been Bullock’s fault, area chefs have rallied behind the venerable Durham institution.  Join local chefs at Bullock’s for lunch at high noon today to show your support for the BBQ joint, which is Durham’s oldest and likely best known restaurant.

It’s also worth checking out the post on Bull City Rising–as an aside, BCR is well worth reading if you give even a pig’s patoot about Durham–and viewing the comments.  The line of thinking that Bullock’s business may be declining in part due to the restaurant’s own mediocrity and increased local competition may have some truth to it.   Nonetheless, it’s hard not to root for a restaurant with as much history and as many loyal customers as Bullock’s.

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The Barbecue Joint in Chapel Hill Kaput?

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

5/17/10 UPDATE: SEE COMMENTS SECTION!

A few alert readers have written in to let us know that The Barbecue Joint in Chapel Hill appears to have closed several weeks ago.  Since then we have been working hard–or at least hardly working–to confirm this rumor.  Sure enough, the doors to the restaurant are closed and there is a sign from the Sheriff’s department saying that anyone who enters the restaurant is trespassing, or something to that effect. 

Recently we heard from a highly placed source (given the Watergate-esque nature of this story we will refer to this source as “Hush Puppy” to protect his/her identity), who confirmed the joint’s closing.  Hush Puppy told us, “they’re flat out of business and the lock on the door is the landlord’s, for non-payment of rent.  Apparently they got over-extended… The scheme for raising money by offering $2,000 worth of future food for $1,000 now was made necessary by some major backers pulling the plug.” 

Bad news for The Barbecue Joint’s loyal fans, especially any who ponied up $1,000 or more to invest in the place when it announced plans to move to a larger location awhile back.   Allen & Son is now back to being Chapel Hill’s only NC barbecue joint.  As much as I love Allen’s, maybe this opens the door for a new barbecue joint in town?

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Accident Kills Whitley’s Restaurant Owner

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

Sad news from Lexington where Mark Thompson, the owner of Whitley’s Restaurant, died in a motorcycle accident on April 15th.  I did not know Mr. Thompson and only dined at his restaurant once but, as with most locally owned restaurants, Whitley’s was obviously a labor of love.  He was also a strong supporter of The Barbecue Festival, in which Whitley’s was a regular participant.  It is not yet clear whether the restaurant will re-open. 

My condolences to Mr. Thompson’s family and friends and to the loyal patrons who knew him through his restaurant.

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Fire at Holt Lake Bar-B-Q

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

After several recent restaurant closings due to the economy, there is even more bad news for NC barbecue fans: according to WRAL.com, a kitchen fire has temporarily closed down Holt Lake Bar-B-Q & Seafood in Smithfield.  Although I was underwhelmed by Holt Lake Bar-B-Q on my visit there, the joint has many loyal customers who will be much less happy at meal time in the coming weeks.  The good news for the joint’s customers and 20 employees is that it sounds like the owners will work hard to re-open as soon as they can. 

I wish Holt Lake Bar-B-Q all the best for a speedy recovery.  And maybe they will take the fire as a sign from above and decide to rebuild with the addition of some traditional wood pits so they can keep the fire outside the restaurant!

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Sweet Farewell to Short Sugar’s #2

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

More bad news from the barbeconomy.  Just a few weeks after Lexington institution John Wayne’s Barbecue rode into the sunset, we learn that Short Sugar’s has closed their downtown Reidsville location.  Short Sugar’s has been in business since way back in 1949 on the outskirts of Reidsville and had operated a second, downtown location since ’58.  It’s always sad to see an old time BBQ restaurant close, and in this case doubly sad to lose a restaurant in the heart of a downtown.  The good news is that Short Sugar’s original Scales Street location is still going strong.

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BBQ Jew’s View: Jack’s BBQ

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

213 W. Main Street, Gibsonville, NC
336.449.6347
Website
Hours: Mon-Tue, Thu-Fri 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Wed 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Sat 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.
BBQ Jew’s Grade: D-
Porky Says: “All pork with no taste makes Jack’s a dull ‘cue.”

Can’t We Do Better?
At this risk of sounding overly dramatic or harsh, Jack’s BBQ is emblematic of what is wrong with North Carolina’s dying barbecue culture.  It’s a charming and cozy little joint, complete with about a half dozen booths and an old fashioned (and just plain old, as Jack’s dates back 43 years) counter, plus a carry-out window.  The service is efficient and the staff couldn’t be nicer.  The customers look happy.  And so on.  But the barbecue is terrible.  If the place was called Jack’s Cafe, I’d be nice and leave them alone.  Hell, I’d even return for another (BBQ-free) meal.  Instead, I have to be honest and mean.

Not fit to be served

Home of the Big Boy
The barbecue seems like an afterthought on a menu that touts the “Big Boy,” a very large hamburger that the waitress told Continue reading →

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