Lewis Donald

A Thousand Words: The 2024 Carolina BBQ Festival

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Monk: This year’s Carolina BBQ Festival changed locations from Camp North End to Uptown and became part of the Charlotte SHOUT! annual arts and culture festival. And Speedy happened to be in town, so he and I hit up the festival courtesy of new friend of the blog, Chigger Willard of the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. Shout out to him as well as Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s BBQ, who puts on the festival every year.

Our favorite bites will be featured in an upcoming issue of The Smoke Sheet, but for now, here were some of the bites we tasted including whole hog from Elliott Moss and pork spare rib from Bryan Furman,.

Plus hash and rice from the recently-named James Beard finalist, Robbie Robinson. I chatted briefly with Robbie and he was understandably excited to have just been named a finalist three days prior. The winners will be announced June 10 at a ceremony in Chicago, which will be livestreamed on Eater.

Some of the faces serving barbecue on the day:

The typical Jon G’s line plus the Lincoln log cabin of beef rib bones.

No seriously, it was a gorgeous day:

Did you make it out to the Carolina BBQ Festival this year?

Linkdown: 9/20/23 – The Two-Meat Plate Edition

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Monk: Robert Moss dropped his annual top barbecue joint list for Southern Living, and of the 50, eight were North Carolina barbecue joints while another nine were from South Carolina. The North Carolina joints were:

  • Prime Barbecue, Knightdale
  • Barbecue Center, Lexington
  • Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge
  • Sam Jones BBQ, Winterville
  • Stamey’s Barbecue, Greensboro
  • Grady’s Barbecue, Dudley
  • Lexington Barbecue, Lexington
  • Skylight Inn, Ayden

Even with some decent representation from the Carolinas, there were a few I felt could’ve made the list based on what Robert Moss had written previously; Jon G’s Barbecue and Lawrence Barbecue in particular.

A Texas barbecue joint made the #1 spot on the list, and while I won’t spoil just who it was just know it is a very familiar joint to most. You just know that Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn would have to gloat:

Have you read the list yet? Who else should have made it, be it from North Carolina or elsewhere?

Native News

Mike D’s BBQ Smokehouse & Retail in Durham is one of Eater Carolinas’ hottest restaurants in September

Meet Sweet Lew next Monday through Unpretentious Palate

Robert Moss stopped by Prime Barbecue recently for some lechon whole hog

Do you know the difference between western and eastern NC barbecue?

Non-Native News

J.C. Reid on the two-meat plate

John Tanner has some thoughts on the recent Southern Living Top 50 List

Congrats to Lewis Barbecue Greenville on 1 year open

The origin story of Fox Brothers Barbecue, who recently celebrated 22 years

Sweet Lew’s BBQ Remains Ever Dependable

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Monk: While I’ve certainly stopped into Sweet Lew’s BBQ several times since our somehow only official review from opening day in December 2018, I recently made a quick week day stop for lunch to check out how things are going.

To avoid overeating on a workday, I went with the chopped pork sandwich combo which comes with one side and a drink for $14. The chopped pork sandwich itself is a mountain of smoky pork on a potato roll and can be topped with your choice of slaw and sauce (red slaw and vinegar for me, respectively). You could probably get two respectable sandwiches out of the amount of pork so $14 is a better value than at first glance.

They didn’t have rice at that moment for what would have been my preferred side of hash and rice so I went with barbecue potatoes, an item I hadn’t had at Sweet Lew’s before. While they may look plain in the pictures they were packed with flavor from a broth of pork. Would definitely order again.

Sweet Lew’s BBQ is an ever dependable barbecue joint in the Belmont neighborhood just outside of Uptown Charlotte that is worth a stop in if it’s been awhile. They’ve also got a great covered patio for the warmer weather coming up. I’d recommend you check them out if liked me it’s been a while. I’ll certainly be stopping in short order for a full re-review.

Have you checked out Sweet Lew’s BBQ lately? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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