Black Powder Smokehouse

Linkdown: 3/8/23 – The “Cooking with Gas” Edition

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Featured

Monk: Southern Living readers pick their favorite barbecue in each state in the South for the annual “Best in the South” issue. While Robert Moss provides a foreword, please remember that this is a reader chosen list and not his South’s Top 50 Barbecue Joints list. So address your ire at the masses and not Moss’ inbox.

Moss does note that half of the 14 are repeat, with the other half being new to the list. For North Carolina, the reader’s pick this year was Lexington Barbecue but it was not a repeat winner as last year’s choice was Buxton Hall Barbecue.

Check out the Southern Living reader’s pick at the link below.

Native News

Steve and Gerri Grady get profiled in the local paper, the Mount Olive Tribune

Eat Raleigh checks in at Longleaf Swine and they are also a fan

Congrats to Black Powder Smokehouse on their Asheboro location, their second store

Midwood Smokehouse is doing pork versions of birria tacos

Tickets are now on sale for the Pinehurst Barbecue Festival taking place Labor Day weekend

Non-Native News

Hector Garate of Palmira BBQ is headed to Austin later this month for a collaboration with Interstellar BBQ

Sweatman’s Barbecue in Holly Hill has made the switch to gas

Howard Conyers is hosting The Roots of BBQ Invitational Memorial Day weekend in Paxville, SC (ticket link)

NYC BBQ checks out the relocated Pig Beach in Queens and found that “the quality has not declined a bit even with the big changes the past few months”

Memphis in May will be back at Tom Lee Park for this year’s event

Linkdown: 3/1/23 – The “Cracker Barrel of Barbecue” Edition

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Monk: Dave Grohl has popped up once again in barbecue, this time cooking “ribs, brisket, cabbage, coleslaw, and beans” for a LA homeless shelter. He spent a whopping 16 hours cooking and serving and paid for all of the food himself according to this article from Uproxx. Grohl’s love of barbecue is well-documented but he had been somewhat quiet on the barbecue front the past few years.

The CFO of the Hope of the Valley homeless shelter Rowan Vansleve posted a photo of Grohl preparing food in the rain and wrote, “In the middle of the storms this week. This is Dave Grohl cooking over 500 servings of the best barbecue for those living in our shelters. That’s class.”

We don’t deserve Dave Grohl.

Native News

John Tanner stops by Skylight Inn for the first time in a while and while some things may have changed, the important things have not

Robert Moss likes what he tasted from the chopped pork trailer at Jon G’s Barbecue; best of all, no line

Lawrence Barbecue and Jon G’s Barbecue are collaborating with N. Sea Oyster Co on an oysters and barbecue party for St. Patty’s Day

Black Powder Smokehouse‘s Asheboro location is now opening next week on March 7

Not sure if being known as the “Cracker Barrel” of barbecue is a good thing, tbh but Mike D’s BBQ is coming to Easter Durham

Let’s hope Jimmy’s Smoke House, in the restaurant space formerly occupied by Cafe 71 Smokehouse and Rick’s Smokehouse, sticks around for awhile

Linkdown: 2/1/23 – The Barbecue in a Bowl Edition

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Featured

Monk: The second annual Carolina BBQ Festival is once again bringing some of the best and brightest pitmasters to the Queen City in early May. Lewis Donald has invited many of the same pitmasters from last year’s festival and added a few new faces: Jake Wood of Lawrence Barbecue, Keith Henning of Black Powder Smokehouse, Michael Letchworth of Sam Jones BBQ, and Tank Jackson of Holy City Hog.

The full list of pitmasters and chefs:

Tickets go on sale on Friday, February 10th. More information here.

Native News

Backyard BBQ Pit has received nearly $50,000 from its GoFundMe campaign and even got new kitchen appliances donated by an angel donor; now they are paying it forward to other local small businesses

It’s Brunswick stew season

In sad news, Clyde Cooper’s daughter Joyce recently passed but the occasion brought together is grandchildren and great grandchildren

Sweet’s Turkey BBQ is a Greensboro food truck serving chopped turkey barbecue, a healthier alternative to pork and beef

Midwood Smokehouse‘s Raleigh location has gotten their Oyler

Non-Native News

The James Beard semi-finalists were announced last week and pitmasters from Moo’s Craft Barbecue in LA, Heirloom Market BBQ in Atlanta, Tropical Smokehouse in West Palm Beach, Distant Relatives and KG BBQ in Austin, Goldee’s in Fort Worth, Curry Boys BBQ in San Antonio, Gatlin’s BBQ in Houston, and Burnt Bean in Seguin make the list

Charleston’s Swig & Swine BBQ is expanding to Myrtle Beach

Adrian Miller’s field guide to US barbecue

Bill Murray recently enjoyed a beef rib at Heritage Barbecue

30 pitmasters will be in Greenville, SC for Southern Roots: A BBQ Reunion on April 15

Episode 3 of Peacock’s “Poker Face” is brisket-focused and actually gets the specifics mostly right

Black Powder Smokehouse – Jamestown, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Name: Black Powder Smokehouse
Address: 302 E. Main St., Jamestown, NC 27282
Order: Three meat plate (brisket, pork, and sausage) with mac and cheese and collards (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Monk: A little over a year ago, Jamestown got a wood-fired barbecue joint of its own in Black Powder Smokehouse. Jamestown is the small town between the Barbecue Bros’ hometown of High Point and the larger city of Greensboro, and also where the Monks-in-Law (Monk In-Laws?) happen to live. Black Powder Smokehouse took over an old service station on Main Street and they’ve incorporated the service station details into their decor.

As is the case with a lot of new barbecue restaurants these days, it serves a little bit of everything but definitely has a Texas lean to it. While I wasn’t able to put my eyes on the smoker they use, I did visually confirm there was wood used in the smoking process. Now whether that was in a gas assisted or a full stick burner is to be confirmed at a later time. However, what they are putting out is pretty legit as evidenced by the above nice little platter shared by Mrs. Monk and me.

I forgot to ask for the pork chopped at the register so it came pulled instead. Not a big deal – and it was still smoky and had nice chunks of a peppery bark mixed in. Certainly not a NC-style pork (either region) but they of course do have a variety of sauces on the side to approximate it.

On this day, unfortunately the brisket was a bit overdone and also sliced a little too thin. This gave it a texture of roast beef but I will note that my mother-in-law stated that its been better on previous visits. Based on these brisket slices, I would definitely come back to give them another shot.

The jalapeno sausage had good taste and wasn’t too spicy. Not the standout of the meal, but solid. I’d love to come back and try the ribs. Both of our scratch-made sides of collards and mac and cheese passed muster.

Black Powder Smokehouse one-ups Sweet Old Bill’s in nearby High Point, which opened about a year before, in just about every way for best new-school barbecue. For barbecue in the greater High Point area, they are more than worth seeking out if you don’t want to make the trek to Stamey’s in Greensboro.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Brisket – 3 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Sausage – 3 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3.5 hogs