Linkdown: 7/17/19

Required reading from John T. in this month’s Garden & Gun

Former Charlotte Observer food writer Kathleen Purvis also weighs in on the best new barbecue joints

From this Charlotte Observer article on Noble Smoke’s opening, I found out the interesting tidbit that Joe Kindred (of Kindred and Hello, Sailor) used to work for Jim Noble

He started getting serious about opening a barbecue restaurant around 2008, but he kept getting delayed. Joe Kindred, a former intern for Noble who has since opened his own restaurants, remembers going all across the state with Noble and stopping at barbecue places along the way.

Daniel Vaughn says the best thing on the menu at Franklin Barbecue is the beef rib

A recap of last weekend’s Tex-Mex BBQ Block Party at Houston’s St. Arnold Brewing

L&L B&M incoming:

Howard Conyers on his recent visit to Jones Bar-B-Que in Marianna, Arkansas, which has been open since 1910

North Carolina barbecue is spreading to Orlando via New York-based restaurant, Brother Jimmy’s

An excerpt from Jim Auchmutey’s book Smoke Lore is up on BarbecueBible.com

Heads up, Denver:

The 11th Annual Bedford Blues & BBQ Festival will take place in Bedford, TX during Labor Day weekend 2019. For more information, please visit their site.

Linkdown: 8/19/15

– Charlotte restaurateur Jim Noble is getting into the barbecue business and while its still a ways off (no name or location yet), I’m very much encouraged

First, he needs to secure a Charlotte site that’s close to Interstate 77 with easy access. Most importantly, the restaurant needs to be in a space that allows the barbecue to be slow-cooked over wood, Noble adds.

– Jim Noble had previously mentioned the upcoming barbecue venture in an interview in Food Republic in April from friend of the blog Sarah Crosland, stating “[b]arbecue is a passion with my heart”

– Robert Moss has details on the upcoming Durham barbecue restaurant Picnic  from Wyatt Dickson (the barbecue man) and Ben Adams (the chef)

-A review of Moss’s latest barbecue book, Barbecue Lover’s The Carolinas

– Barbecue beer pairing: Charlotte Five (well, really OooWee BBQ) says IPA’s in the fall/winter and pale ales in the spring/summer

– Barbecue beer pairing, pt 2: Garden and Gun has suggestions from several southern bottle shops including a scotch ale,  a smoked porter, an amber, and a brown ale

“Most people will suggest a smoked beer. I find that the pairing of smoked beer and smoked meat works for about three bites, and that is not how I or any normal person eats ribs or pulled pork. I like to introduce softer, maltier beers that can balance the salt and set up a nice platform for the smoke to dance on.”—Brandon Plyler, Charleston Beer

The 112th Charlotte Picnic is this Friday and features hickory smoked chicken and pork, but that’s Charlotte, TN not Charlotte, NC

-From an earlier issue of Garden & Gun earlier this year

 

– Press release on the special train stop on October 24 for the Barbecue Festival

 

Linkdown: 3/25/15

– The “Elite Ate” of Garden and Gun’s Barbecue Bracket has been posted; in the Mid Atlantic region Skylight Inn has been eliminated by Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge and faces Lexington Barbecue. The rest of the bracket is located here and voting ends Thursday at 10pm

– Speaking of brackets and barbecue, Red Clay Soul’s Georgia BBQ Bracket Challenge is also down to its “Great Eight”

– Last week, Robert Moss took a deeper look at barbecue spaghetti in Memphis

– Marie, Let’s Eat! stops at Hodges Bar-B-Que in Decatur, GA and Blue Sky Barbecue in Woodstock, GA in two of his latest chapters

– The pitmasters for the 2015 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party have been announced, and Ed Mitchell is not attending this year

– Another reminder that the NCBBQA cooking and judging school is this Saturday, March 28

– Aaron Franklin is a James Beard finalist for Best Chef: South

– If, like me, you are less than familiar with Alabama and Georgia barbecue, here’s a primer

When it comes to regional barbecue, some people claim that neither Georgia nor Alabama has a distinctive style. We say, think again.

Sure, you can find everything from Texas brisket to Memphis ribs in Atlanta, but on the two-lane highways, a definite Georgia style emerges. Pork shoulders or hams are cooked over hickory and dressed in a thin tomato-and-vinegar sauce. They’re served with Brunswick stew, a hearty combination of chicken, beef, or pork (or all three) simmered with tomatoes and corn. Some of these elements carry over into Alabama—chopped pork dressed in tomato-and-vinegar sauce, plus a somewhat thinner Brunswick stew. But there’s too much variation to identify a single Alabama style. Sauces range from ruddy, tomato-based mixtures to thick mustard-spiked concoctions. Most distinctive is Alabama’s mayonnaise-based white sauce. Some are traditional, others more modern, but one element unites: They’re all delicious.