1.5 hogs

Lexington Style Trimmings – Lexington, NC

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Name: Lexington Style Trimmings
Order: Large chopped tray with red slaw, hush puppies, and Cheerwine (link to menu)
Pricing: $

Monk: Since last fall, it has been my pet project to finish trying every Lexington area barbecue restaurant. As of February, I was making good progress and had just one or two more to try…before COVID 19 hit and shut the country down. Like a lot of things, my quest fell by the wayside.

As North Carolina entered phase 2 in late May and restaurants were slowly allowed to reopen with reduced capacity, I knew that it didn’t have to be too long before I was able to try the next restaurant on my list: Lexington Style Trimmings (although they closed for about a month between mid-June and mid-July due to a kitchen fire). Other than the name, I didn’t know too much about LST and even after doing research afterwards detail are a bit hard to come by other than it is a “longtime” barbecue restaurant at the same exit as the Bob Timberlake Gallery exit in Lexington.

Regardless, on first glance, Lexington Style Trimmings fits the bill of a Lexington joint. It sits at the end of a small strip mall, has car hop service (even pre-pandemic), and is a diner-style restaurant that serves barbecue in addition to other southern foods in two small, no-frills dining rooms.

However, the barbecue didn’t live up to Lexington standards. The chopped pork was mushy and had a rather unappealing texture. Not to mention a disappointing lack of smoke. For one of the last joints on my Lexington barbecue quest, this was quite a letdown and only made me want to revisit the better joints on the list post haste.

The red slaw was standard and while the hush puppies were a bit overdone and perhaps a tad too crispy, they were slightly sweet and by far the best part of the meal.

There is now one more joint to try – the newly discovered Blazin’ BBQ and Kickin’ Chicken in downtown Lexington – and there are some joints I need to revisit in my Tier 1 of Lexington joints (like Speedy’s and Smiley’s, which I last visited in 2012), so I’ve still got just a little more work to do. As for Lexington Style Trimmings, now that I’ve punched this one on my card I think I’m good.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 2.5 hogs
Pork – 1.5 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 1.5 Hogs

Dan Good Que (food truck) – Charlotte, NC

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Name: Dan Good Que
Date: 4/21/17
Order: Pulled pork barbecue plate with coleslaw and baked beans (link to menu)
Price: $9.50

Monk: When we started this blog almost 5 years ago, the original intent for me and Speedy (when he was still living in town) was to find the best barbecue in Charlotte once we realized we were each too much of a barbecue snob to depend on suggestions from Yelp. In the time since, I’ve had some very good barbecue in Charlotte and I’ve had some that is not so good – all in the name of being as exhaustive and thorough as possible.

I do try to be as positive as possible when reviewing barbecue, focusing on other more positive aspects to the experience (plus, Speedy is better at being snarky than I am). Our friend Grant at Marie, Let’s Eat! is a really good example of focusing on the positive, but then again his posts aren’t reviews as much as they are chapters within a larger, ever-continuing story.

Dan Good Que is a new-ish food truck that’s begun popping up in Charlotte and I tried it at the same weekly food truck festival where I tried Rocky Top BBQ Company a few weeks earlier. I may have been a bit harsh on Rocky Top and in the spirit of continuous improvement, let me simply say that I was disappointed in the lack of smoke in the chopped pork on this day from Dan Good Que. The cole slaw and baked beans were middling and while this may seem a little bit of a backhanded compliment, I imagine mixing all 3 would have created a perfectly acceptable barbecue sundae.

I am open to giving Dan Good Que another try at a later date but will be sure to give them enough time to work out the kinks. Here’s hoping they do.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – N/A
Pork – 1 hog
Sides – 2 hogs
Overall – 1.5 hogs

Dan Good Que
Dan Good Que
Dan Good Que

Bobbee O’s BBQ – Charlotte, NC (RE-REVIEW)

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Name: Bobbee O’s BBQ
Date: 5/24/16
Address: 9401 Statesville Rd, Charlotte, NC 28269
Order: Brisket and ribs combo platter with a side of pulled pork, hush puppies, and slaw (link)
Price: ~$18

A few months back, I mistakenly thought that Bobbee O’s BBQ had closed after driving by their original location and seeing a “for sale” sign. I later realized that it had actually not closed but rather relocated to a larger spot just a few miles away sometime last year. By coincidence, on the birthday of the blog I decided to check out their new space and see how it measures up 4 years later.

Bobbee O’s is still a counter service barbecue spot and the new location is a cavernous space probably 4-5 times larger than the old one which was more in the “hole in the wall” mold with maybe had 2 or 3 tables. It’s also much nicer and the owners have commissioned large murals of pigs to fill the tall walls. Above the registers was a painting of their motto “It’s All About the Sauce” – which is a worrying sign to me if the thing a barbecue joint is most proud about is their sauce.

Looking back at our original review, the pork seems to have more or less stayed the same. There was little smoke but it had a little kick due to the red pepper flakes in the vinegar sauce. From Big Wayner’s post a few years back, it seems as if they use a Cookshack smoker (not a brand I’m familiar with) but apparently don’t look to impart any wood smoked flavor into the meat. However, of the three meats I tried it was the best (“best” being a relative term, obviously).

I’ve learned quite a bit about brisket in the past four years, so to look back on our original review its a little embarrassing that we called this brisket the best meat of the meal. Bobbee O’s brisket is overcooked to the consistency of roast beef and then oversauced with a heavy, sweet sauce.  It really shouldn’t be called brisket in my opinion and I wouldn’t recommend it if you prefer a central Texas style.

The ribs may be boiled at Bobbee O’s since they came clean off the bone with little effort. In keeping with the brisket (of which they were only slightly better), they were sauced with a heavy sweet sauce.

Our complaint last time around was that they didn’t have hush puppies. While they have rectified that, they are the basic frozen variety which is always disappointing to see. None of the sides were really worth going further into.

Having given Bobbee O’s BBQ a rating of 2.5 hogs in that first review, with 4 years and well over a hundred reviews under our belt I can confidently say that in my opinion it is below average barbecue.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 2.5 hogs
Pork – 2 hogs
Brisket – 1 hog
Ribs – 1.5 hogs
Sides – 2 hogs
Overall – 1.5 hogs
Bobbee O's BBQ Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Bobbee Os

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Carolina Ribs on the Run – Mooresville, NC

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Name: Carolina Ribs on the Run
Date: 7/12/14
Address: 858 N Carolina 1100, Mooresville, NC 28117
Order: Pulled pork sandwich with hush puppies and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $7.17

Usually, I am pretty good at researching and finding worthwhile joints to try when I’m in an unfamiliar area. I thought I did the due diligence for Mooresville (in which I happened to find myself after dropping off Mrs. Monk for her cousin’s baby shower), but as I pulled up to an empty restaurant at 11:30 on a Saturday I immediately knew I had made a huge mistake. I even double checked to see if it opened at 12 on Saturdays but nope, it opened at 11. I contemplated going back in the car and going somewhere else, but I figured I was already there so I’d give it a shot.

And yea…I should have just turned back around. Everything about the meal was below average. I bit into the pulled pork sandwich and…nothing. Blandness. The pork was moist but had no smoke, as if it was cooked in a crock pot (I wouldn’t be surprised if this was actually the case). The slaw on top of the sandwich tasted like a commercial mayo coleslaw. The hush puppies also tasted commercially bought and originally frozen. And to top it off, they asked what sauce I wanted for my sandwich so I ordered the “hickory BBQ” sauce on the side. Thankfully I did because you guessed it, it was a commercially made sauce. Perhaps I should have gone with the ribs, being that they are in the name and all, but I can’t see how they would have been too much better based on the pork. Plus, they use the same sauces.

As you will see in another review later this week, I ended up going to another place immediately after because I was so disappointed with Carolina Ribs on the Run. I hate to be too negative but based on this meal I feel as if they aren’t really trying. Avoid. (Update: As of August 2, enough people had avoided that they apparently have closed.)

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 1.5 hogs
Pork – 1.5 hogs
Sides – 1.5 hogs
Overall – 1.5 hogs
Carolina Ribs on the Run on Urbanspoon
Carolina Ribs on the Run on Foodio54
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