BBQ King

The Five Best Bites from the Carolina BBQ Fest Kickoff

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Monk: While I wasn’t able to attend the full Carolina Barbecue Festival this year due to parental duties on Saturday, I wanted to be sure to check out the kickoff on a beautiful Friday night at Victoria Yards in uptown Charlotte. In-between bites I was able catch up with Garren and Kelly from Jon G’s, Chigger from the Low and Slow Barbecue Show, and Rodolfo and Craic representing Southern Smoke Barbecue. Hopefully next year’s timing works out for me to go to to the main event on Saturday.

That said, here are the best bites from the Friday kickoff:

  1. Brisket and Sausage link from Union Barbecue – perhaps not the prettiest plating but excellence as usual from Union Barbecue.
  2. Brisket Bun from Improper Pig – this was the biggest surprise for me from a barbecue place who’s most recent restaurant opening was in the former Pizza Peel location in the heart of Plaza Midwood. Maybe I should give them and their asian-influenced barbecue another chance in their new digs.
  3. Double Smoked Burnt End Street Taco from Midwood Smokehouse – it was close between this and the bun from Improper Pig bun this still had great flavors in an easy to eat package.
  4. Chopped Pork Tray from BBQ King – the lone pork offering from the kickoff, this was a typical tray of barbecue from the ever-dependable long-time Lincolnton restaurant.
  5. Brisket, queso fresco, and street corn salad (no tostada) from Mac’s Speed Shop – the tostadas were gone by the time I had my sample and I would’ve loved the crunch from the crispy tortilla. Great flavor from what was served, though.

Bonus bite: banana pudding ice cream from Golden Cow Creamery. I love banana pudding and this ice cream version of it from Golden Cow Creamery was so, so good with large chunks of vanilla wafers and bold banana flavor. Also, a special shout out to the youngest Monkette for being my hand model for the night.

Charlotte Barbecue News from the First Quarter of 2023

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Monk: Most of the first quarter of 2023 was on the quieter side in the land of Charlotte barbecue. It was not until the end of March where a new restaurant was announced (the promising-looking Firehawk Brewpub in Mount Holly) or a restaurant announced closure (the land around BBQ King off Wilkinson Boulevard was put up for sale for $4.2M). Will that be a sign of things picking up – hopefully more on the positive side of things? I’ll be keeping my eye out over the next few months.

January

1/9 – Gastonia’s Ray Nathan‘s celebrated their 4 year anniversary in early January

1/27 – The stacked pitmaster lineup for the second Carolina BBQ festival from Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s BBQ is announced

February

2/8 – Actor Eric Wareheim recently filmed at Jon G’s Barbecue for an upcoming project; Jake Wood of Lawrence Barbecue was also in the house

2/25 – Robert Moss reports that the chopped pork trailer that sometimes resides outside Jon G’s Barbecue is “absolutely splendid”


2/28 – Big Tiny’s BBQ in Mooresville gets the Only in NC treatment

March

3/7 – Midwood Smokehouse is doing their spin on birria tacos with pork

3/14 – Noble Smoke‘s Optimist Hall location celebrated one year open in March

3/16 – Firehawk Brewpub, a brewpub with a True ‘Cue barbecue joint attached, is announced to be coming to Mount Holly in early April

3/18 – Fumar comes back from an extended hiatus

3/21 – The land where BBQ King in Charlotte sits is up for sale for $4.2M

Linkdown: 3/29/23 – The Top Piedmont Barbecue Restaurants Edition

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Featured

Monk: With the recent closures of Richard’s Bar-B-Que in Salisbury and Rick’s Smokehouse as well as Smiley’s BBQ in Lexington, John Tanner shares his updated list of top 10 Piedmont barbecue restaurants.

Off the top, I haven’t tried Dickie Do’s in Haw River or Real Q in Winston-Salem (though I should remedy that), so can’t comment on those. But the rest of the joints on the list I have no qualms with, though while I enjoyed both I was surprised that he liked Clark’s Barbecue in Kernersville and College Barbecue in Salisbury so much.

The qualm that I do have is the lack of inclusion of The Barbecue Center in Lexington, though John acknowledges he may be in the minority here and links to his story for reference on his experience and thinking. Regardless, John Tanner is a well-trusted source on barbecue and NC barbecue in particular, so head on over and check out his list.

Native News

The land where BBQ King in Charlotte sits is up for sale for $4.2M

The latest Jon G’s pop-up is today at Vaulted Oak Brewing

Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s BBQ is one of the pitmasters at the Pinehurst Barbecue Festival

Leroy’s Taco Shop, the taco concept from Jake Wood of Lawrence Barbecue, opened this past weekend

Non-Native News

Houston’s best barbecue restaurants near NRG Stadium for Final Four attendees this weekend

Two big barbecue festivals this weekend: the Houston BBQ Festival and Hogs for the Cause in New Orleans

The history behind Hogs for the Cause, which turns 15 this year

Hurtado Barbecue is bringing brisket birria tacos to Texas Rangers stadium

News you can use: don’t serve a pork butt sitting out accidentally for 12 hours

Robert Sietsema enjoyed Boots and Bones in Jersey City, which features the first pitmaster from Blue Smoke

Buc-ee’s gets a fossil named after it

Linkdown: 4/27/22

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Native News

At Port-A-Pit BBQ in Statesville, they serve the public as well as help the community fundraise

BBQ King gets a segment on Spectrum News 1

Old Colony Smokehouse looks like it should be added to my list

The Smoke Pit is one of the recommended places to eat when in Concord just north of Charlotte

The best barbecue places in Eastern NC according to WNCT’s analysis of TripAdvisor data

Get tickets to the Carolina BBQ Festival while you can

Non-Native News

The first in a series of articles from the great Hanna Raskin leading up to the Southern Foodways Alliance Fall Symposium on Barbecue. Can’t wait to read the rest.

John Lewis has brought “border food” to the lowcountry with Rancho Luis

I know nothing about any of these restaurants in NoVa, but here you go

Another national list

The famed Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ celebrated her 87th birthday last Thursday