Posted on June 23, 2010 by Porky LeSwine
The unmistakable smell of pork cooking low and slow over hickory coals hits you as you pull into the parking lot. It’s certainly the first time you’ve salivated on the way to a museum. But this is no ordinary museum and it’s okay to drool. You are about to visit The Museum of North Carolina Barbecue. You stride swiftly from your car toward the museum’s front door, growing more eager to see what’s inside with each step you take. You pull the door open and… you wake up and realize it was a all a dream. But it doesn’t have to be.
A few weeks ago I wrote about the numerous museums in North Carolina, which celebrate everything from teapots to textiles. Yet there is no barbecue museum in the state, and as far as I can tell there is no such museum anywhere. Not in Kansas City, not in Memphis, not in mutton-loving Owensboro and not even in that big ol’ overconfident state of Texas. But why not in North Carolina? After all, we have the nation’s longest continuous barbecue tradition and Continue reading →
Filed under: 'Cue Culture, Porky's Pulpit | Tagged: Museum | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 24, 2010 by Porky LeSwine
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 | 10 Comments »
BBQ Jew 