An easy to read post for Friday morning: four belated pictures from Spring barbecue celebrations, the first two from the Cuegrass event at The Pit in Raleigh and the second set at customer appreciation day at the Backyard BBQ Pit #1 in Durham.
Filed under: 'Cue Culture | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Events, Festivals, Raleigh, Wake County | Leave a comment »
Angier & Driver Streets, Durham, NC
919.201.7676
Website
Hours: Usually Thu-Sat 11:30 a.m.. to 3:00 p.m. (or until sold out)
BBQ Jew’s Grade: B+
Porky Says: “This pork on wheels is the real deal.”
Drive-Thru BBQ
The name Mama Jean’s Bar-B-Q Shack is, in fact, a misnomer. This joint is no shack. Far from it, as this joint isn’t a joint at all. It’s a BBQ truck. Specifically, it’s a truck where you order barbecue that is cooked next to the truck on a large charcoal and hickory chip fueled cooker. Although Mama Jean’s is far from trendy–in the best possible way–it is part of a growing trend in the food truck rich Triangle area, where everything from juice to burgers to tacos to crepes is hawked out of mobile restaurants on wheels. And Mama Jean’s serves some of the best barbecue I’ve had in the Triangle, whether the ‘cue is on wheels or not.
Truck, Storefront, Whatever
According to Antonio Hill, Mama Jean’s owner and pitmaster, Mama Jean’s will be opening a regular sit down restaurant soon on the same street where he sets up his truck. But for now, while he puts together the final pieces needed to open the storefront, he’s pretty happy selling his food out of his “BBQ shack on wheels.” Really, I could care less about where he sells his food. He can cook and he does it with charcoal and wood chips, which is close enough to traditional wood-cooking for me. Heck, if it continues to taste good he can sell his ‘cue out of the back of a Ford Fiesta for all I care.
Mama Jean’s Grub
There is no obvious menu posted on the food truck. Actually, I didn’t see a menu at all. Continue reading
Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Wood-cooked | 10 Comments »
Over the weekend The Rib Rabbi and I, along with our accomplice Nate “Ol’ Hickory” O’Keefe, volunteered at a barbecue-themed fundraising event. More on the event soon, but that’s a separate post. While at the event, we “discovered” a local BBQ joint we’d never heard of: Mama Jean’s Bar-B-Que Shack (as is common with barbecue joints, alternate spellings abound, with “Mama Jean’s BBQ Shack” and “Mama Jean’s Bar-B-Q Shack” also featured in their marketing materials). Better yet, Mama Jean’s operates out of a truck, which as far as we know is unique for BBQ in food truck-rich Durham; other examples exist elsewhere in NC, such as Fatback’s BBQ & Rib Shack in Fayetteville.
Despite being set up squarely in the middle of a long row of BBQ cooking teams, the guys from Mama Jean’s caught our attention because they were the only ones using charcoal and wood instead of propane. Of course, they also had that BBQ/Bar-B-Q/Bar-B-Que truck of their’s doubling as a hard-to-miss billboard.
Alas, we arrived at the event too late to sample Mama Jean’s cooking but we vow to check it out soon and report back. We did get a chance to chew the proverbial fat with the Mama Jean’s crew. They were nice guys who clearly care about ‘cue and were proud to be cooking over wood/charcoal. They told us that they are working on opening a permament brick and mortar location soon, but for now you should be able to find their bar-b-bus parked near the corner of Angier and Driver Streets in Durham a short drive east of downtown. They also would be happy to help you with catering your next event. See their website for details and stay tuned for our patented BBQ Jew’s View review coming soon.
Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Mobile food truck, Wood-cooked | Leave a comment »
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.
Filed under: Hog Happenings, Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County | 1 Comment »
It’s been a rough few weeks for NC barbecue lovers (and friends). Between the rash of closings, fires and even a proprietor’s death, it appeared things had hit rock bottom for NC barbecue restaurants. But now there’s more.
Bullock’s Bar B Cue in Durham is being investigated for a salmonella outbreak, according to an article in the oh-so-creatively named Food Safety News. The barbecue sandwich pictured in this article is covered in a thick tomatoey sauce and undoubtedly has never been within 500 miles of Bullock’s, but the salmonella outbreak was real. Note that more recent media reports indicate that the food that contained the salmonella was a takeout order, indicating that perhaps food safety was compromised after the order left the restaurant.
Thought it was safe to eat some Brunswick stew while debating whether there is salmonella in your BBQ sandwich? Think again. The FDA has recalled 414 pounds of Brunswick stew from Louisburg-based Murphy House Barbecue. The recall stemmed from the stew containing undeclared potential allergens of… wait for it… wheat and milk. Okay, not quite as gross as salmonella, though one wonders what business wheat and milk have hanging out in a bowl of Brunswick stew.
Filed under: BBQ in the News | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Franklin County, Louisburg | 3 Comments »
2816 Cheek Road, Durham, NC
919.530.1839
No Website
Hours: Mon-Fri 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
BBQ Jew’s Grade: C
Porky Says: “Noah’s Temple didn’t make me a believer.”
“Worth Your Time to Find”
I’m embarassed to admit that I first heard of Byrd’s Barbecue fewer than 6 months ago. Byrd’s–with the motto “Worth Your Time to Find” etched onto its rooftop sign–is located in Durham within 20 minutes of my house. And it was founded over 50 years ago. (According to a recent News & Observer article, Noah and Michelle Temple bought Byrd’s in 2005. Noah used to work at Danny’s Bar-B-Que in Cary, which we’ve yet to visit but have poked fun at.) How could I have not know about Byrd’s sooner? And was it worth my time to find after all these years living in the dark?
I still can’t figure out the answer to the first question, but maybe it has something to do with the answer to the second one: No. Although it is a decent enough place, Byrd’s is nothing special. It’s one of hundreds–or thousands–of mediocre barbecue joints in NC that long ago took the cheaper, easier path and stopped cooking over wood, in the process sacrificing quality, flavor and tradition.
Looks Like the Real Deal,
If you choose to ignore the propane tank that looms behind the building (which, of course, you should not), Byrd’s has the look of a gem of a BBQ joint. Located just outside the city limits, it occupies a rural setting that is appropriate to good ‘cue. The modest wood frame building looks the part too. And the parking lot welcomed a steady stream of Continue reading
Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Eastern style, Gas/electric-cooked, Grade C, Lexington style | 3 Comments »
[BBQ Jew’s note: Today’s post was written by Holy Smoke author and intrepid airplane passenger/swine taster John Shelton Reed.]
Yes. I know that both Porky LeSwine and H. Kent Craig have knocked Brookwood Farms grocery store barbecue, but when Dale and I found ourselves in the Delta terminal at RDU, waiting for a noon flight that served no lunch, we weighed the options and went for the stand that says “Brookwood Farms Carolina Pit BBQ,” and I’m here to tell you about it. (By the way, I gather that they’re also in the Charlotte airport.)
First, let me say that, to my mind, Brookwood is missing a great opportunity to educate outlanders, the way the Salt Lick outpost in the Austin airport introduces folks to the Texas product. I guess they’ve done the numbers, though, and decided that catering to travelers whose ideas of barbecue vary wildly requires them to take what I’ve come to think of as the “International House of Barbecue” approach: some of this, some of that, something for everyone, none of it great, but all of it, I guess, OK. For our part, we passed up the “Santa Maria tri-tip,” the barbecued chicken, and barbecued turkey, and went for the barbecue – that is, for the pork. Here the choice comes down to a $7.00 sandwich or a $10.00 plate. (Yes, those prices are steep, but this is airport food, after all.)
We decided to split a plate, which comes with hushpuppies and a choice of two side dishes. Since slaw and Brunswick stew were on offer, naturally those had to be the sides. Continue reading
Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Raleigh, Wake County, Wood-cooked | 6 Comments »
5122 NC Highway 55, Durham, NC
(2nd location at 3218 Guess Road, Durham, NC)
919.544.9911
Website
Hours: Mon – Fri 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sat 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
BBQ Jew’s Grade: B-
Porky Says: “Research Triangle Pork?”
BBQ in RTP?
It’s hard to believe that there is decent barbecue in the middle of Research Triangle Park (RTP), a science research park sitting in the middle of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, aka “the Triangle.” The Triangle in general has little in the way of good ‘cue–I call it The Bermudacue Triangle for the way barbecue traditions disappear inside it–and RTP is in the geographic heart of the Triangle. Worse yet, RTP is filled with sprawling office parks and crawling with white collar transplants from California and other places where barbecue is merely a misunderstood word that means “a cookout.”
You might think that ordering barbecue in the heart of RTP is as bad an idea as visiting a seafood market in Topeka, Kansas. Yet the owners of the Backyard BBQ Pit were smart enough to see an opportunity in an underperforming BBQ joint on the edge of RTP. With more than 50,000 employees in RTP, they must have reasoned that some of them would appreciate a nice plate of ‘cue. And since buying an old, so-so BBQ joint in 2007, the owners of the Backyard BBQ Pit have provided some pretty good ‘cue to RTPers. And they have done a bustling business, so much so that they opened a second location on the other side of Durham earlier this year.
Backyard BBQ Pit #2 on Guess Road
Isn’t It Good, RTP Wood?
Visitors to the Backyard BBQ Pit #1 (the original location in RTP) will notice Continue reading
Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Grade B, Wood-cooked | 8 Comments »
2419 Guess Road, Durham, NC
(2nd location at 2780 Durham Road in Roxboro, NC)
919.286.7447
Website
Hours: Mon – Sat 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“Closed Sundays for Worship & Family.”
BBQ Jew’s Grade: C-
Porky Says: “Is this hog heaven? No, it tastes like Iowa.”
Porkatory
Good (tasting) pigs go to heaven when they die, or at least to Grady’s, Lexington #1, and other such divine BBQ joints. Evil (tasting) pigs go to hell–or at least lousy BBQ joints–when they die. Despite the angel-baiting name, the pigs served at Hog Heaven aren’t nearly good enough to make it into the pearly gates. Neither are they among the worst pigs you can eat. Instead, Hog Heaven is a pork purgatory, where less-than-worthy pigs suffer eternal blandness.
From across the dining room.
Interestingly, Hog Heaven has won several reader’s choice awards for serving the Triangle’s best barbecue. Unfortunately, these awards show only that the masses don’t have much taste when it comes to ‘cue (and, alas, that there ain’t much good pork in the Triangle). Hog Heaven serves thoroughly mediocre pork that never cooks anywhere near a wood coal, and thus lacks in any authentic flavor. The tasteless pork is not helped by the thin but sweet and sticky sauce, which is a truly odd concoction. Since Hog Heaven is supposed to be an Eastern-style joint it is not surprising that the sauce seems ketchup-free, yet it is sweeter than all but the sweetest of the Lexington-style dips. It is sort of like syrup with a dash of hot pepper in it, and would not seem out of place at the Waffle House. I recommend you skip the sauce and simply douse your pork with as much Texas Pete as needed. To Hog Heaven’s credit, the pork is hand-chopped to order and that gives it a good, not-too-fine consistency, though it is a tad mushy for my taste.
Hog Heaven offers an admirably large menu of side dishes, in the Eastern-style tradition, as well as main course Continue reading
Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Durham, Durham County, Gas/electric-cooked, Grade C, Person County, Roxboro | 3 Comments »
BBQ Jew 