Lechon Latin BBQ makes Eater Carolinas’ latest Heatmap
Spectrum 1 checks in on Barvecue
Non-Native News
King BBQ from the owners of Jackrabbit Filly will offer “Chinese-style barbecue with a heavy influence of North Carolina”
World of Flavor with Big Moe Cason premiered on National Geographic this past Monday and the first episode takes place in Charleston and features visits to Rodney Scott’s BBQ and Lewis Barbecue as well as Moe cooking at last year’s Holy Smokes BBQ Festival
Congrats to Palmira BBQ on one year
Robert Moss reviews Palmira BBQ for the Charleston Post and Courier
Scotty’s Whole Hog Barbecue, which smokes eastern NC whole hog, is featured in this feature on Minnesota barbecue from Texas Monthly
Adrian Miller checks in on Jones BBQ for what is likely the last time in the Jones sisters era
BBQuest is coming back for a third season
Congrats to Panther City BBQ on their recent Guinness World Record
Monk: The Charlotte barbecue scene, along with the entire restaurant industry, remains in flux. Longtime Belmont staple Buddy’s BBQ closed in February after 25 years. A second location of Noble Smoke opened in Optimist Hall. The Carolina Barbecue Festival was announced for May and has a chance to put Charlotte on the map. However, no barbecue boom appears on the horizon for Charlotte anytime soon. Here’s a roundup of news from the past 3 months.
January
1/2 Big Tiny’s BBQ expands its hours in the new year
1/3 By popular demand the pizza collab by Jon G’s Barbecue and Salud continued into January
1/4 Noble Smoke is the only barbecue restaurant on Charlotte Magazine’s annual list of the 50 best restaurants in Charlotte
1/10 RayNathan’s celebrates 3 years open
1/20 Garren of Jon G’s Barbecue profiled on the Ministers of Smoke Instagram page
1/21 A fun story from Charlotte Magazine on how Chapel Hill-born fashion designer Alexander Julian got paid in barbecue for designing the original Charlotte Hornets jerseys
February
2/7 Buddy’s BBQ in Belmont closed after 25 years
2/9 Cornelius-based Barvecue has raised $600 million thus far
2/9 The latest barbecue list from Only In Your State includes Jon G’s Barbecue
2/23 Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s BBQ announces the Carolina Barbecue Festival to be held May 22 at Camp North End in Charlotte
2/27 Congrats to Garren and Kelly from Jon G’s, who 2 years ago on this date closed on the former Barbee’s Barbecue location, which they would open in June 2020 just a few months into the pandemic
March
3/12 Actor Eric Wareheim made it all the way from LA to Jon G’s Barbecue for a Barbecue Saturday
3/14 Noble Smoke‘s second location at Optimist Hall opens; it was originally scheduled to open on 3/2
3/22 Noble Smoke is involved in a bit of controversy when a miscommunication between its landlord and a neighboring business kicks off a brouhaha
3/24 Noble Smoke and Jim Noble’s official response. As of this writing I have not seen whether an agreement has been reached.
The latest barbecue list from Only In Your State includes Jon G’s Barbecue
Some video behind the scenes at the underrated Rick’s Smokehouse outside Lexington
The 37th Annual Pigskin Pig-Out will take place April 8-9 and “will again feature a weekend of barbecue with the famous pig cookin’ contest, tailgating with friends and family, 1st Annual Pigskin Car Show, live music and carnival fun for all ages”
Lawrence Barbecue and Boxyard RTP remain on the Eater Carolinas Heat Map for the Triangle
Barvecue has raised $600 million thus far
ICYMI last year, the origin of hushpuppies
Non-Native News
RIP Ray Ramirez of Los Angeles’ Ray’s BBQ
Cobos Que bringing the heat: brisket boudin mac-and-cheese quesadillla
Burgers are the new sausage in Texas
Barbecue historian Robert Moss’ latest book is on the lost southern chefs
Diva Q has barbecue sauce hitting the shelves soon
Huge donation from Hogs for the Cause to Our Lady of the Lake
Monk: If there was an overarching theme for Charlotte barbecue the past three months, it would be expansion. In the second quarter roundup, I had hoped for new concepts and expansion. While we didn’t necessarily get new concepts (yet), we did get quite a bit in the way of expansion. Mac’s Speed Shop, Midwood Smokehouse, and Noble Smoke all announced new locations, (although only one of which is in Charlotte), and rumor has it another Charlotte barbecue joint may be expanding as well.
Not to mention, Phar Mill Brewing in Harrisburg expanded in a slightly different way. Pharr Mill BBQ is utilizing a Jon G’s barbecue pit and they typically serve some combination of brisket, ribs, and pork Thursdays through Saturdays.
July
7/3 Pharr Mill BBQ starts smoking on their Jon G’s barbecue pit at Phar Mill Brewery in Harrisburg
7/10 Noble Smoke celebrates 2 years in business
7/22 FS Food Group announces a Midwood Smokehouse location for Raleigh later his year
7/29 Smoke Show BBQ pivots to Tex-Mex barbecue
7/31 Charlotte-raised Bryan Furman returns to Charlotte and brings his Bryan Furman BBQ pop-up to Sweet Lew’s BBQ
August
8/9 In a nice nod to its employees, all Mac’s Speed Shop locations closed for the day to fight employee burnout
“Our people have been going way above and beyond to make our carry-out, eat-in and delivery business grow by leaps and bounds”… “I’ve never seen a team so dedicated to bringing fun and good food back into the lives of people pent-up by the pandemic.”
Mac’s President Shang Skipper
8/10 Sweet Lew’s Barbeque introduces the “Carolinas Frito Pie”: Carolina bbq hash, warm pimento cheese and jalapeños
8/14 Mac’s Speed Shop is expanding to Fort Mill
8/26 Secondhand Smoke takes over the Pete’s BBQ legacy in Fort Mill
8/27 Jon G’s gets the Axios Charlotte bump
8/30 The 91st Mallard Creek Barbecue is postponed yet another year
September
9/8 Indian Trail’s 100 Main Beef and Barbecue gets featured in Spectrum News for being both a barbecue restaurant and a country store
9/10 Barvecue, the wood-smoked plan-based barbecue company out of Cornelius, is rolling out to 12 colleges and universities and just signed a deal with Sprouts Farmers Market
9/9 Jon G’s Barbecue make this list of “Best New Barbecue Joints in the South” from Southern Living
9/16 Noble Smoke announced its second location will be a stall at the Optimist Hall food hall
9/16 More coverage on the stall from Axios Charlotte
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