Lexington style | BBQ Jew

BBQ Jew’s View: Whitley’s Bar-B-Que

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

315 Beechwood Blvd (Hwy 11), Murfreesboro, NC
252.398.4884
No Website
Hours: Thu – Sun only
BBQ Jew’s Grade: C-
Porky Says: “Eh.”

Barbecue on a Sunday
As a devout BBQ Jew, I typically steer clear of BBQ joints that are open on Sundays. They tend to be second rate, though there are some very notable exceptions to this rule (e.g., Lexington #1). On this particular Sunday, I was driving back from a day of canoeing at Merchant’s Millpond State Park in northeastern NC, a place well worth visiting. A few hours of paddling in an alligator-filled swamp had me hungrier than a crocodile, and my buddy and I were happy to find that Whitley’s was open on Sundays.

This guy could put away a lot of 'cue.

Sauce Unfit for a Gator
Whitley’s offers an impressive looking Sunday buffet of barbecue, chicken, other main dishes, a wide variety of sides, and dessert. However, at $14 a person–far and away the most expensive NC BBQ buffet I’ve ever encountered, and in rural Murfreesboro of all places–I hesitated. Between the price and plans to check out a couple of other BBQ joints on my ride home, as well as my general distaste for eating ‘cue off a steam table, I chose to order from the menu.

The $14 buffet would've been good for $8.

The barbecue plate I ordered came with corn sticks, an Eastern NC delicacy with which I have relatively little experience given how common hush puppies are. I was happy to get a chance to eat some corn sticks, though I found Whitley’s to be on the dry and unflavorful side. Unfortunately, Continue reading →

Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Eastern style, Gas/electric-cooked, Grade C, Hertford County, Lexington style, Murfreesboro | 4 Comments »

BBQ Jew’s View: Grandpa’s Kitchen

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

149 E South Main Street (Hwy 158), Littleton, NC
(252) 586-3211‎
No Website
BBQ Jew’s Grade: C
Porky Says: “Where Would Jesus Dine?”

When Pigs Fly
As I near the aptly named little town of Littleton, the speed limit on Highway 158 drops from a generous country road limit to a stingier limit befitting the bucolic setting. As I reach the edge of a small historic (or at least old) business district, a sign catches my eye: “Grandpa’s Kitchen, Area’s Finest BBQ.” Also the area’s only barbecue, I think to myself, but no matter. An unpredictably flashing neon sign spells out “Bar-B-Q” and, as if by instinct, I steer my car into the small parking lot. A hand carved wooden pig with eagle wings greets me outside the front door. I have arrived.

If pigs could fly, they'd wallow in the mud in the sky

Grandpa’s Kitchen is one of those places that is a pleasure to dine at, even though it’s barbecue is nothing out of the Continue reading →

Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Eastern style, Gas/electric-cooked, Grade C, Halifax County, Lexington style, Littleton | 1 Comment »

East v. West Continued

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

Here’s yet another chapter in the neverending debate about the relative merits of Eastern-style ‘cue versus Lexington/Western-style ‘cue. Make sure to check out the many reader comments, which are at least as fun as the dueling articles. As for the articles themselves, editor Matthew Eisley wins the best quote award with this gem:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, understood as a child, thought as a child, and naively ate tomato-based barbecue as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish sauces and embraced the unadulterated ambrosia that is North Carolina’s sacred, primordial and peerless eastern-style barbecue.”

As someone who genuinely likes both styles, I’ll stay out of the fray. For an overview of Eastern- vs. Lexington-style BBQ, check out a recent guest post I wrote for the News & Observer’s Mouthful blog here.

Filed under: 'Cue Culture | Tagged: Eastern style, Lexington style | Leave a comment »

All Aboard for The Barbecue Festival

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

Just a friendly reminder that this coming Saturday is The Barbecue Festival in Lexington, NC. If you are looking to make a day of it–heck, why not?–consider riding Amtrak to and from the event. It’s the one day a year that Amtrak stops in Lexington, which is pretty cool. Riding the train commits you to a roughly nine hour stay in Lexington, which is just enough time to eat a BBQ breakfast, lunch and dinner. Choo choo!

Filed under: Hog Happenings | Tagged: Davidson County, Lexington, Lexington style | 1 Comment »

Advance Warning: The Barbecue Festival is Coming

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

Consider this post fair warning that The Barbecue Festival, far and away NC’s largest and most porktacular barbecue event, is coming up in October. Be there. Or don’t.

With or without you, there will be plenty of people descending on uptown (yes, they actually call it that) Lexington on Saturday, October 24th. In the past crowds have been reported to be as high as 100,000+. That’s a lot of folks to feed, so if you do head to Lexington, I recommend you skip the ‘cue sold on site and instead visit one of the nearby BBQ joints. The BBQ Center is a short walk from the festival, and several other worthy joints are within a long walk/short drive. The food they serve is much better than the stuff that gets thrown together for sale at the tents.

I’ve been to The Barbecue Festival a few times before and it is always a good time. Honestly, it is pretty much just a super-sized arts and crafts fair, but it is set in the heart of Lexington and there are some BBQ-friendly elements, from the food to the annual pig-themed sand sculpture. Also, note that The Barbecue Festival is the culmination of Barbecue Month in Lexington, and there are quite a few events leading up to the actual festival. Among my favorites are the “Tour de Pig” bicycle event (sponsored, appropriately enough, by a cardiology clinic) and the “Hawg Shoot” air rifle competition held at Lexington Senior High School.

Filed under: Hog Happenings | Tagged: Davidson County, Lexington, Lexington style | 1 Comment »

BBQ Jew’s View: Little Richard’s

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

4885 Country Club Road, Winston-Salem, NC
336.760.3457
Website
Hours: Mon – Sat 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
BBQ Jew’s Grade: A-
Porky Says: “Really smoking.”

Good Golly, Miss Molly
From the vintage metal advertising signs on the walls to the traditional wood-cooked pork to the location just down the street from Vinegar Hill Road (too good to be true but it is!), Little Richard’s feels like it has been around as long as the “other” Little Richard. But the joint, named after owner Richard Berrier, wasn’t around in the early years of rock ‘n’ roll. In fact, the joint only opened in 1991, making it a young’un by barbecue standards. Still, over the past 18 years, Little Richard’s has established a well-deserved reputation as a purveyor of authentic Lexington-style pork.

I call this picture "barbekudzu."

No Tutti Frutti, Just Tobaccy
It’s fitting that in Winston-Salem, one of North Carolina’s proudest tobacco towns and inspiration for two of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s flagship cigaratte lines, cooking pork over smoky wood remains in style. And on the day I visited Little Richard’s, the pork wasn’t the only thing smoking. At a table next to a wall covered with vintage tobacco advertisements sat three Continue reading →

Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Forsyth County, Grade A, Lexington style, Winston-Salem, Wood-cooked | 7 Comments »

Make Slaw Not War

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

I recently attended a potluck that had barbecue as the main course (not really a pig pickin’, nor did it claim to be,

Classic mustard & mayo slaw for those down east

so I’m refraining from using that sacred term). I decided to bring coleslaw to this event because :

1) Slaw goes with ‘cue like french fries with a burger or chocolate with bacon (pretty well, actually, as I found out at the potluck).

2) It’d been a long time since I last made slaw.

3) The pre-packaged slaw sold at grocery stores is often truly vile stuff.

4) I’d been looking for an excuse to try out some slaw recipes from Holy Smoke.

Oh yeah, and, 5) I am cheap and so is slaw (especially when vinegar and mayo are treated as staple foods and always kept on hand). A quick trip to the grocery store to buy two heads of cabbage and I was ready to make slaw. Continue reading →

Filed under: Cooking | Tagged: Eastern style, Lexington style, Recipes | Leave a comment »

BBQ&A: Sean Wilson (aka Hogwash, The Beer with the Taste for ‘Cue)

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

working-image-small

[Note: Follow this link-Wilson BBQ&A-for an easier to read, .pdf version of the interview.]

Today’s post deals with two things near and dear to my heart (and mouth), barbecue and beer. Several years ago Sean Wilson of Durham helped lead a well-orchestrated effort to overturn outdated laws in NC that prevented the sale of beer above 6% alcohol by volume (ABV). Two and a half years after its early 2003 formation, the Pop the Cap group Sean ran succeeded in passing new legislation to allow the sale of beer up to 15% ABV. This law overturned decades of conservative tradition in NC and opened up the state to a wealth of beers, including many classic American and international brews (double IPAs, various Belgian ales, and on and on). For that, Sean and other Pop the Cappers, including the good folks at All About Beer magazine, will always have my thanks. Having handled the NC legislature, Sean is now taking on another, even more entrenched NC tradition–sweet tea.

Sean Wilson founded Fullsteam Brewery and set his sights on “plow-to-pint” brewing that features local flavors. One of Fullsteam’s flagship beers is Hogwash, a brown porter made with hickory-smoked malts. As its name implies, Hogwash is designed to wash down barbecue–its flavor is tailored to complement ‘cue. It’s an interesting concept, so recently Sean and I sat down over a cold pint and a hot tray to talk beer and barbecue… Continue reading →

Filed under: BBQ & A | Tagged: Drinks, Durham, Durham County, Eastern style, Interview, Lexington style, Wood-cooked | 4 Comments »

Documuttonary Film School

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

As you, dear readers, are well aware this website has a narrow-minded myopic laser-like focus on North Carolina’s pork barbecue culture. Still, we cannot refrain from putting a plug in for a documentary film on another of America’s underappreciated forms of barbecue–Kentucky mutton. Mutton is one of just a handful of distinct barbecue styles in the U.S., and without a doubt it is the most obscure of the styles. A new (to us) documentary helps bring mutton the attention it deserves. (Disclaimer: I have not actually eaten mutton, so perhaps the film is bringing mutton attention it does not deserve.)

Um, no...

According to its website, Mutton: The Movie “takes you on a magical journey to the northwestern corner of Kentucky (Owensboro to be exact) where the descendants of the Welsh who settled the banks of the Ohio River don’t count sheep, they barbecue them.” Well put. Mutton is an informative, entertaining documentary and clocks in under 20 minutes long, so you really have no excuse to not watch it. Of course, we respectfully disagree with Owensboro, Kentucky’s claim to the title of “Bar-B-Q Capital of the World.” Heck, the people of Owensboro can’t even spell barbecue right! Still, in the interest of fostering good will among the barbecue-loving people of the world, we present this in-depth analysis of the common ground between mutton and NC pork barbecue:

Both mutton and NC barbecue are traditionally cooked over Hickory wood.
Both are sources of local pride and the products of hard work, sweat and tears beers.
Mutton is often cooked by Catholic churches as a fundraiser, while NC barbecue is a common part of fire department fundraisers. Catholics and firefighters fear hellfire and fire, respectively, yet have no qualms about Continue reading →

Filed under: 'Cue Culture | Tagged: Eastern style, Lexington style, Outside NC, Swine celluloid, Wood-cooked | 2 Comments »

BBQ Jew’s View: Stamey’s

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Porky LeSwine

2206 High Point Road, Greensboro, NC (2nd location here)
336.299.9888
Stamey’s Website
BBQ Jew’s Grade: A-
Porky Says: “Deserves it’s fame.”

Just possibly the classiest looking sign in all of NC BBQ land.

Location, Location, Location
Even if Stamey’s food was bad (and Lord knows it ain’t), I’d have to give them plenty of credit. The members of the Stamey family are legends of NC barbecue, and smart businessmen to boot. Their grand, lodge-style building right across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum, the site of dozens of ACC Tournaments over the past several decades, is evidence of that. What better place to sell barbecue, and to spread your reputation, than across the street from a huge arena that attracts hoardes of hungry hoops fans from across the state and beyond? The fact that the Coliseum opened six years after Stamey’s did shows either that the Stamey family was a bit lucky or they were really good businessmen.

C. Warner Stamey, the founder of Stamey’s and one of the godfathers of NC barbecue (heck, he even brought the hush Continue reading →

Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: Grade A, Greensboro, Guilford County, Lexington style, Wood-cooked | 6 Comments »

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