Charlotte Barbecue News from the Final Months of 2022

Monk: The biggest news from a mostly quiet past three months was the reopening of Bubba’s Barbecue in north Charlotte after 2+ years closure due to the pandemic. It technically opened over the summer, but that was a quiet reopening and it wasn’t publicized until October.

As noted in the article linked below, the restaurant first opened in 1963 as Jackson and Spoon’s Barbecue (later just Spoon’s Barbecue) on South Boulevard. In 1987, owner Ralph Miller purchased the restaurant and the original recipes. He later renamed the restaurant Bubba’s Barbecue and moved it to Sunset Road, where it has been serving Eastern North Carolina-style barbecue since 1994.

I’ll have a report back in a few weeks, but in the meantime it’s good to have a classic barbecue restaurant back in operation.

October

10/7 Bubba’s Barbecue quietly reopened over the summer, reports the Charlotte Observer

10/9 Jon G’s Barbecue collaborates with Lawrence Barbecue on a taco pop-up in Raleigh at Trophy Brewing

10/11 Mac’s Speed Shop’s latest location in Concord will also feature live music

10/18 Local coverage from WSOC TV on Phar Mill Brewing & BBQ‘s expansion into Concord

10/23 Courtney’s BBQ in nearby Clover opened a brewery that is open every day the restaurant is

November

11/7 The Smoke Pit wins Best Soup for its Smoked Chicken and Dumplings in the 17th Annual Soup Sampling by Cabarrus County’s Meals on Wheels

11/17 Jon G’s Barbecue collaborated with Virtuoso Bread in Waxhaw by smoking a bag of rye berries for 4 hours “in a way that the flavor would come out gentle and not too intrusive”

11/30 The NC F&B Podcast publishes its podcast visit to Jon G’s Barbecue

December

12/19 Midwood Smokehouse’s Raleigh location (opening this month) will have some different items than their current stores, including what looks to be a crunchwrap-type item

12/28 Mac’s Speed Shop has new menu items until the end of February, including this beef rib

Linkdown: 12/7/22 – The Rodney Scott and Eric Church Joint Venture Edition

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Monk: Country music star (and NC native) Eric Church has shared the first digital renderings of Chief’s, his upcoming venture with Rodney Scott. Not content to have just a honky tonk joint with great whole hog barbecue, the building will also house a studio for live broadcasts (such as Church’s SiriusXM show).

Chief’s will open in downtown Nashville in 2023.

Native News

More pink barbecue merchandise now available at Clyde Cooper’s in Raleigh

A short profile on Buxton Hall Barbecue‘s executive chef Nick

The Cheef will be at Oskar Blues Brevard’s 10th anniversary party this coming weekend serving tacos and sandwiches

Midwood Smokehouse, Mac’s Speed Shop, and Noble Smoke are options in Charlotte to bypass Christmas cooking

Midwood Smokehouse‘s upcoming Raleigh location will be more Tex-Mex

Non-Native News

Hogs for the Cause announces its 2023 lineup

Barbecue historian Joe Haynes has a new barbecue book out, just in time for the holidays

John Turner’s been making the rounds at your favorite places in Texas:

City Market in Luling

Smitty’s Market in Lockhart

Terry Black’s in Austin

Valentina’s in Austin

Pinkerton’s in Houston

And finally, Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que in Brownsville

Defining east vs central Texas barbecue, Open AI chat bot style

Linkdown: 10/12/22 – The “Noted North Carolinian, Texas Pete” Edition

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Monk: Fascinating story first brought to our attention by the excellent NC Rabbit Hole newsletter by Jeremy Markovich. And relevant because Texas Pete has a long history with NC barbecue: “[The history section on the Texas Pete website] goes on to say that basically, during the depression, the Garner family wanted some spicier sauce to serve at their barbecue stand. The sauce outlived the stand.”

Also fascinating: Jeremy first brought this to our attention (culling information from a publicly available lawsuit, but still) but has since been aggregated out of credit. He breaks it down in the following Twitter thread.

The story has since been picked up by The Huffington Post, USA Today, Business Insider/Food Insider, and the Nexstar-owned news stations like High Point’s Fox 8.

In any case, I urge you to support Jeremy and NC Rabbit Hole for not only this but lots of other fascinating, NC-focused stories.

Native News

The last bit on Texas Pete (for now), an Our State Magazine story on its history from 2017

Mac’s Speed Shop’s latest location in Concord will also feature live music

A short video on Cook Out from Food Insider

The Barbecue Festival is coming up on October 22

Non-Native News

John Mueller’s barbecue joint at the Granary didn’t come to fruition before he passed, but his friend Jeff Ancira is keeping his memory alive with BBQ at the Granary

Heirloom Market is still found on Eater Atlanta’s 38 Essential Restaurants lis

The Houston Chronicle Top 100 List features several barbecue restaurants, including Brett’s BBQ Shop

Voting Ends later today in this poll from City Limits Barbeque

Charlotte Barbecue News from the Fourth Quarter of 2021

Monk: We enter the new year with cautious optimism, both on the real world as well as barbecue world fronts. My hope for 2022 is that we can regain any Charlotte barbecue momentum that has largely been on pause for the past two years and see some new players enter the game.

Bring it on, 2022.

October

10/12 At Mac’s Speed Shop, beef ribs and bacon-wrapped jalapenos are two of the prep-intensive items that are being taken off the menu for now

10/21 Jon G’s was featured in the Fall 2021 Issue of QC Exclusive

10/28 Lewis Donald and Sweet Lew’s BBQ raised funds to help the family of a young girl who tragically took her own life at the age of 11

November

11/8 Mac’s Speed Shop is closing its Cornelius restaurant but opening a new one in Mooresville

11/8 A new live-fire cooking restaurant called Cinder is opening in Charlotte from Husk veteran Duke Kroger (who identifies himself as a pitmaster in his Twitter profile)

11/17 After announcing that its Lake Norman location was going to close, Mac’s Speed Shop announced plans for the restaurant to stay open as a smaller location after an outpouring of love from the community

11/29 Jon G’s Barbecue and Salud Beer Shop team up for a pizza collaboration for the month of December

December

12/6 Sweet Lew’s BBQ celebrated 3 years open

12/8 Jon G’s Barbecue is named “Barbecue Restaurant of the Year” by Eater Carolinas

12/9 Tony Salerno Named Vice President of Operations for Mac’s Hospitality Group

12/13 Local coverage of Jon G’s being named “Barbecue Restaurant of the Year” by Eater Carolinas

12/13 With it’s upcoming stall at Optimist Hall, Noble Smoke is one Charlotte-area restaurant in expansion mode in 2022

12/29 Jon G’s and Salud Beer Shop announce they will continue their pizza collab in the new year for the first part of January