NC

Whole Hog #3: Here We Go Liveblog

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Monk: As an elder millennial raised on Bill Simmons liveblogs in the early 2000’s, it’s hard to believe I haven’t done one myself on Barbecue Bros. What better reason to remedy that than to document my third whole hog cook, which I recently did in mid-October. And here we go…

9/29

Place an order for a 130 pound pig from Frontier Meats out of Waxhaw. They’ve been in business since 1975 and I’ve used them each of the now 3 times that I’ve cooked a pig. From my research, they have the best price per pound in the Charlotte area and their pigs are fresh and never frozen. They will butterfly and can remove the feet and head if you want. Highly recommend them.

10/10

Call Frontier Meats back and up the pig to 150 pounds because whoa, the guest list is now up to 340 total guests.

10/16

9:57 AM – Get a half cord of firewood delivered to the site where I’m cooking the pig. In terms of firewood, I’ve been happy with Quick’s Firewood out of Monroe for the three times I’ve cooked pigs as well as the times I’ve gotten firewood delivered for my fire pit. Plus, they deliver for free. T-minus 30 hours until the Pig Roast.

3:00 PM – Pick up the pig cooker from my neighbor Lawrence and set it up at my neighborhood pool. Lawrence has graciously allowed me to use it for no charge the past two years. It’s a beautiful BQ Grills trailer that he recently got repainted so it looks brand spanking new. He regularly lends out to his friends and local Boy Scout troops for their annual barbecue fundraisers, so I count myself fortunate to have access to a legit pig cooker.

Word on the street he may be restarting his Fire of Coals blog and web store later this year, so keep an eye out for that so you can support him. I’ve used his rubs in the past and I even bought my current burn barrel from him (which is how I first met him).

4:30 PM – Pick up the pig from Frontier, which is about a 50 minute drive on a Friday afternoon from my house in South Charlotte.

6:50 PM – Start the fire in the burn barrel on a toasty 80 degree night. My wife and youngest show up shortly after and then friends of the blog Z and Dabo arrive to hang out an hour or so later. The cook officially begins.

8:00 PM – With Mrs. Monk and two buddies, get the pig from the back of my wife’s SUV on to a tailgate table and then flip onto the grill. Quite impressive when you consider the various ailments between myself, Z, and Dabo (tennis elbow, bum shoulder, burnt hand).

8:20 PM – I shovel the first of many coals into the bottom chamber of the grill. The tunes and beers are flowing as more friends of the blog start to arrive. Matty Ice arrives and brings with him 4 bottles of very nice bottles of bourbon.

11:00 PM – A golf cart with more neighbors arrive just as the Appalachian State football game ends (W over Coastal Carolina) and all of a sudden we’ve got 15-20 of us hanging out by the pig. I now begin to worry that a nearby neighbor who likes to complain about noise will call the cops on us. Thankfully, my worries never materialize.

10/17

1:00 AM – People start to filter out but a few still remain to keep the party going. Whispers of late night Door Dashing begin.

1:30 AM – Z pulls the trigger on a McDonald’s order, reminiscent of last year’s 3 AM order. We eagerly anticipate our burgers…

2:00 AM – The McDonald’s arrives but immediately something is amiss. Two of our Big Macs have a combined one burger patty and we are missing a Cheeseburger. Epic fail by McDonald’s but don’t worry, Z is able to get a full refund.

2:45 AM – Z is the second to last to depart, leaving just me and Dabo. Dabo somehow convinces me to have one more beer before he is to leave.

3:20 AM – Dabo has departed and I climb into a sleeping bag on a camping mat in the back of my car to get a little nap before I add more coals. I add wood to the burn barrel and set an alarm.

4:30 AM – The overnight rain has started and I wake up to add more coals to the pig. I throw a few more logs into the burn barrel and head back to sleep.

5:30 AM – Rain continues and rinse/repeat with the coals and wood.

6:30 AM – I wake up to find that an angel has left me a Gatorade and bottle of water. That angel turns out to be Handsome Russell who checked on me at 6am and decided to let me sleep. However, the fire in the burn barrel is almost completely extinguished because of the rain, so I get to work to get the fire restarted. With a faint flicker amongst the wood, I decide to run to the nearby Harris Teeter to get a bag of charcoal and some fire starter.

6:45 AM – I return to find that the burn barrel has roared to life in my brief absence. We are so back!

7:30 AM – Handsome Russell arrives with a couple of clutch McDonald’s biscuits. I happily accept them. The rain is just about done and I get back to work.

8:30 AM – Tennis buddy Wally brings me some coffee and Bojangles and I count myself fortunate to have such nice people in my life. Here’s a few photos he snapped:

9:00 AM – But wait, there’s more! Friend of the blog Brafford comes to give me a chance to take a shower and also sleep in my own bed for a few hours. I get a couple of hours of sleep before I return right before noon to continue. Big ups to Brafford.

12:00 – 4:00 PM – I continue cooking the pig while starting to set up for the party, with the help of various folks.

4:05 PM – The pig is served until it runs out a little more than 2 hours later. People seem to be enjoying it along with the beautiful fall weather that came in on the back of the overnight storm as well as the 90’s and 2000’s jams from the cover band I hired for the party – 90’s Kids/Y2K Kids.

7:15 – 8:30 PM – Break down the party with the help of many others and head home.

8:45 PM – A celebratory glass of bourbon is in order.

9:30 PM – Crash for the next 12 hours and then finish cleaning and returning the trailer.

As always, there are lessons learned each time I cook another pig and this time was no different. I can’t wait to run it back next year!

What I Did (or Didn’t Do) Differently For Whole Hog #2 (RE-HEAT)

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It’s that time of year again: I’m going to be cooking for roughly 350 people in my neighborhood for the Annual Pig Roast. I’m going to run back the same approach as last year, from the smoker to the hog to the catered sides. And this year, I’m going to try and finally get the skin crispy. Wish me luck…

Monk: Last month, I cooked my second whole hog for my neighborhood swim club event to close out the season. In case you missed my post leading up to it, here’s a link to refresh your memory on what I thought I would do differently for this hog cook:

Seven Things I’m Going to Do Differently when I Smoke My Second Whole Hog This Fall

Utilizing our patented 5 hogs scale, I’ll rate how well I changed up each thing for hog #2 and total it up at the end. Let’s see how I did:

Thing #1: I’m going to use a pig cooker (a BQ Grill, specifically)
Verdict: 5 hogs

I’m fortunate that a neighbor 1) owned a BQ Grill pig cooker and 2) let me borrow it for free. And boy, was I glad that I had that instead of having to haul the cinder blocks to and from the swim club parking lot. There isn’t a super steep learning curve to the BQ coming from a cinder block pit and the BQ drew a lot of positive attention from the crowd. I can’t wait to borrow it again.

Thing #2: I will get a bunch of wood coals going before I start the cook
Verdict: 3 hogs

That same neighbor who let me borrow the pig cooker is the one who I bought a burn barrel from several years back. I finally got a chance to use that burn barrel and built up a good base of coals for about an hour plus starting at 10pm that Friday night before I finally put them into the cooker. I did a decent job with this part but found myself without coals at times and having to play catch up. Once again, I went through a half cord of wood and then some.

Thing #3: I’m going to crisp up the skin and chop it into the pork
Verdict: 0 hogs

I said earlier there wasn’t a steep learning curve to the BQ Grill but I really should have said “other than the deflector plate.” I had a vague understanding of how removing it would crisp up the skin at the end but no real sense of how mechanically to do that considering how heavy and hot it was. I will have to do more research ahead of time next time but for this time around I made a business decision not to mess with it in case I messed up the pig right before the party start time.

Thing #4: I’ll probably throw some pork butts on (just in case)
Verdict: 4 hogs

I got a little bit bigger pig this time around – 157 pounds vs 126 pounds – but was also feeding a much larger crowd (~350 vs 100). I ended up only grabbing two extra pork butts but the crowd ate every last bit of the pork that was available, with only a half full gallon Ziploc bag remaining after the party.

Thing #5: I will try the head this time
Verdict: 5 hogs

I most certainly tried (and started) the cheeks from the head and absolutely found them to be extremely tender and flavorful. From this point on, I will definitely not be wasting the head.

Thing #6: I will not waste any pig this time around
Verdict: 5 hogs

As a reminder, last time close to a quarter of the pig fell onto the ground of the cinder block pit due to carelessness on my part, although I was able to salvage most of what fell. Thankfully, that did not happen this time around but next time I will use the grated screen next time so I could cook the pork butts on that instead of resting in the cavity of the pig. The consistency of the butts didn’t quite come out the way I wanted.

Thing #7: I’m going to recruit a crew to not only help out but enjoy the cook
Verdict: 4 hogs

I had a crew of folks hanging out for the start of the pig cook with a couple of guys even making it until about 3am and helping me flip the pig before they went to their respective homes. And not only did they help flip the pig but they came through in the clutch with a late night McDonald’s order of cheeseburgers. Then, in the morning, my neighbor came back out for an hour or two to see where he could be of help. And then, of course, I have to mention the guys helping me serve the crowd.

Final Tally: 26 hogs (out of a possibly 35)

The main thing for next time is figuring out the best way to crisp up the pork skin. The pig turned out amazing but that will be next level for me. Until next time!

Jimmy’s Smoke House continues the Lexington barbecue tradition in Welcome

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Name: Jimmy’s Smoke House
Date: 5/14/26
Address: 6043 Old U.S. Hwy 52, Lexington, NC 27295
Order: Chopped barbecue tray with fries, BBQ slaw, and baked beans with Cheerwine (link to menu)
Pricing: $

The building on Old US Highway 52 in Welcome, NC has gone through a bunch of changes in the past 3 years. After operating as Rick’s Smokehouse for about 7 years, that restaurant closed and Cafe 71 Smokehouse took its place in late 2022. While each operated under different ownership, I was impressed by the quality of both wood-smoked barbecue places in the Lexington tradition.

Cafe 71 abruptly closed before I published my review, so rather than focusing on the positive aspects of the barbecue, I attempted to read the tea leaves as to what went wrong. However, it did emerge that new owners Candy Martin and James Sink, Jr. were going to take the restaurant space over and operate as Jimmy’s Smoke House with the longtime cook from both Rick’s and Cafe 71 in the kitchen, Glenn “Speedy” Holbrook (yet another Lexington-area “Speedy” after Speedy’s Barbecue and Speedy Lohr’s). Three years later, I finally checked it out.

Martin and Sink named the restaurant for Sink’s father and opened the business in spring of 2023 and kept the same ethos when it came to the barbecue – wood smoked Lexington-style – as well as much of the same menu. One positive change she did make was moving to freshly made burgers instead of frozen patties, though I did not try it this time.

On this day, I was talked into the chopped barbecue tray. Speaking of which, they have also made the change to aluminum trays very much in the spirit of Texas barbecue. I’m on the fence as to whether this aesthetic decision is a positive change but it in no way impacts the quality of the food.

As for the barbecue itself, I did not enjoy it as much as I recalled enjoying the chopped pork at Rick’s and Cafe 71. The wood smoke pits were firing away at lunch time but for me the pork just didn’t have it on this day even after combining it with the slaw on a bun to create a sandwich with some dashes of Texas Pete thrown in for good measure.

Through some miscommunication between myself and the waitress, I got a bun on the side instead of hush puppies. I didn’t feel like waiting for an order of hush puppies but I’ve read that they switched to donut-shaped hush puppies instead of oblong. Next time. The sides I did get were standard issue crinkle cut fries, a BBQ slaw with a shade of deep red, and baked beans. Perhaps I was bummed because I didn’t get my order right but all were, let’s say, fine.

That’s not to say Jimmy’s Smoke House is not worth trying. It’s a family-owned business that by all accounts is doing things the proper way a restaurant should and thus should be supported by the community since we shouldn’t take these places for granted. I’m certainly willing to try them again the next time I find myself between Winston-Salem and Lexington.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 4 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 3.5 hogs
Overall – 3.5 hogs

Previously:

Rick’s Smokehouse – Lexington, NC
Cafe 71 Smokehouse Closed Abruptly Amidst Allegations of Mismanagement

Lawrence Barbecue is helping make downtown Cary a destination

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Name: Lawrence Barbecue
Date: 4/10/26
Address: 150 E Cedar St, Cary, NC 27511
Order: Sliced brisket, pulled pork, sweet n spicy collards, deviled egg potato salad, red slaw (link to menu)
Pricing: $$$

Monk: A favorite past time of the Monk family is me forcing them to eat barbecue while on vacation. For Spring Break 2026, we started with Green Street Smoked Meats in Chicago on a Monday before checking out Lawrence Barbecue in Cary on our way to Greenville for a gymnastics meet; they were spared from B’s Barbecue the next morning.

Lawrence Barbecue opened their in Cary location in September 2025, adding to what has become quite the bustling downtown scene. On this Friday night with some beautiful spring weather, after meeting some friends at nearby Bond Brothers Brewing we walked the two blocks to Lawrence Barbecue. Lawrence itself was also quite busy but we managed to to snag a table outside on the patio. Ordering was done via QR code and before not long the food came out.

While I still would have loved to see whole hog on the menu (as was initially the plan for the first location), but Lawrence Barbecue still does a great job with their pork they smoke on the Lang offsets. The pulled pork tasted fresh and flavorful at the dinner hour. The brisket was also another winner in terms of proteins. Next time I’ll try the ribs and the turkey.

Lawrence doesn’t slack on the sides either. The sweet n spicy collards were Mrs. Monk approved and the deviled egg potato salad captured the essence of its namesake. I would take a minor nitpick of the red slaw in that I would have preferred the cabbage to be diced a little more.

On the other hand, I had no nitpicks with the banana pudding, though. It was up there with the best banana puddings I’ve had in recent memory.

Jake Wood and the Lawrence Barbecue gang have consistently knocked it out of the park each time I have checked them out: my original visit to their previous Boxyard RTP location in 2022, the beef fat caramel wings at the Jon G’s Jubilee in 2024, and now my first visit to this downtown Cary location. Highly recommended if you’re looking for legit barbecue in the Triangle.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pulled Pork – 4.5 hogs
Brisket – 4.5 hogs
Sides – 4.5 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs