A few weeks back on the last weekend of Summer, Charlotte held the Southern Sauce BBQ Festival in the shadows of BB&T Ballpark. The festival was a first time event combining two previous events – Blues, Brews & BBQ and the Charlotte Beerfest. A small-ish affair, it was mostly confined to Romare Bearden Park (where a stage with blues bands competed for a spot in a Memphis blues competition) and the stretch of Mint Street between the park and the minor league ballpark. There were a couple of the old standby barbecue food trucks – Boone’s (with a cool sign giving us a shout out!), Moe’s, Sauceman’s, Smoke & Go – along with some newer trucks I hadn’t seen before. While it would be unfavorable to compare it to the Q City Charlotte Barbecue Championships (which was held roughly on the same weekend the past couple of years but was a much bigger affair), it definitely was a nice way to spend a few hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
–Monk