NY

Linkdown: 1/5/21

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Featured

My new year’s resolution: I will finally do pork steak’s in my backyard. Mark my word. Now, just to find a local grocery or butcher shop that has them or will cut them for me. -Monk

Native News

Congrats to Jon G’s Barbecue on their receipt of this award from Hometown Heroes of Union County

Three barbecue joints – Midwood Smokehouse, Sweet Lew’s BBQ, and Noble Smoke – make Charlotte Magazine’s 50 best restaurants in Charlotte list

Highlands Smokehouse has new ownership, and they aim to bring a beer garden vibe to the barbecue restaurant

Bib’s Downtown in Winston-Salem was the latest casualty of the pandemic right before the new year

Sweet Lew’s BBQ is the one barbecue joint on the list, but mmmm…pork and chicken skins

Apple City BBQ in Taylorsville introduces a few new menu items for 2021 that have a local bent to them: their hot links will be sourced from Chapman Cattle Company in Alexander County and their grits will be stone ground the old fashioned way at Linney’s Water Mill

Non-Native News

RIP to Mike Mills of 17th Street Barbecue, simply known as “The Legend”

So this happened

…which led to Texas Monthly’s Daniel Vaughn attempting to recreate

Donnie Harris Sr of Pack Jack Barbecue in Sebastapol has been smoking for 40 years

https://twitter.com/soulphoodie/status/1344475373791113217

Ribs n Reds is NC-born Chef Bryce Shuman’s pivot to barbecue

Kevin’s BBQ Joints with a couple of recent posts about the knives and sharpeners that barbecue joints use

5 lb barbecue cake

LOL

Linkdown: 10/6/20

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Featured

The Barbecue Center is often overlooked in the shadow of Lexington Barbecue but those who are in the know believe that it’s every bit as good as its more popular counterpart (perhaps better?).

The late Sonny Conrad started out as a carhop before purchasing the restaurant in 1967 (it originally opened in 1955) and his family has run it ever since, with sons Cecil and Michael taking over day to day activities since their father passed in 2013. More on their family story at the link below.

Next time you are passing through Lexington on Business 85, consider stopping at The Barbecue Center which is just two miles away from Lexington Barbecue off N. Main St.

Native News

More from Lexington: a profile of the city’s history with barbecue with some quotes from the Conrads and the Monks of Lexington Barbecue

Barbecue-gate for Democratic candidate for NC Senate Cal Cunningham, born and raised in Lexington of all places (yes, I’m aware of the more recent scandal)

Parker’s Barbecue in Wilson found itself in the news this week after a customer complained about employees not wearing masks.

I’m going to file this in the “Native News” section even though its from Texas writer J.C. Reid

Non-Native News

Robert Moss finds a mention of pork steaks in Charleston from a menu from 1851

That very same Robert Moss has an updated version of his book out now, and he spoke with The Smoke Sheet last week

Doveshack BBQ is well worth a stop-off from I-95 during the eventual back-up, writes John Tanner’s BBQ Blog

Kevin Bludso of Bludso’s Bar & Que and “The American Barbecue Showdown” talks to the Washington Post about the neglected contributions of black pitmasters among other topics

John Brown Smokehouse’s original location closed this past week, but it will be reopening in a new location this Thursday

Another hard lesson learned in the form of Prause’s Meat Market: don’t take your favorite classic barbecue joints for granted

Linkdown: 9/30/20

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Featured

ICYMI, check out our post this week where Garren and Kelly Kirkman of Jon G’s Barbecue describe what it’s like to open a barbecue restaurant in the middle of the pandemic

Native News

Charlotte-based Bojangles is adding barbecue to its menu for a limited time just in time for National Pulled Pork Day on October 12

Joe Biden made a stop at Mac’s Speed Shop while campaigning in Charlotte last week

Brisket is the order of the day in southeastern Virginia (with the best of the list actually coming across the border in North Carolina)

Non-Native News

Horn Barbecue hit a bureaucratic snag and hasn’t opened in Oakland yet, but when it does it may put Oakland barbecue on the map

Get to know Derrick Walker of Smoke-A-Holics BBQ

Seely’s Mil, the restaurant at the Beeman Hotel in Dallas, is getting serious about barbecue

Eater NY critic Robert Sietsema takes a bike tour of NYC brisket

Mmmm…brisket donut

Linkdown: 9/16/20

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Featured

Monk: When I moved to Charlotte in 2005, I was surprised at the lack of barbecue options in town. Though had I been paying attention then as I do now, it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. Mac’s Speed Shop was a fun option for awhile but eventually fell off a cliff after it jettisoned its original barbecue partner and began to expand too quickly. It wasn’t a few years living in Charlotte until I finally checked out Bill Spoon’s Barbecue on South Boulevard, and while the style of barbecue seemed out of place (eastern NC whole hog in the Piedmont?) it was clear to me that it was Charlotte’s classic barbecue joint.

Unfortunately, as of close of business today after 57 years in business, that will no longer be the case. It was announced on Facebook Monday by current owner Steve Spoon, who in 2006 bought it from his grandfather Bill and began operating the barbecue joint in much the same way he had since he opened it in 1963 (albeit in a different location than their current one on South Boulevard). Screw you 2020, and screw you COVID-19.

Kathleen Purvis summed it up perfectly with this poignant quote that doubles as a warning for us lovers of other classic joints: “If all the hard lessons of 2020’s season of terrible teaches us anything, it’s that: Those places don’t last, can’t last, if we don’t make sure of it.“

Charlotte Magazine’s Greg Lacour also pitched in, noting that the restaurant was struggling before COVID and had been operating in takeout only mode for the past few months

Sadly, its taken the restaurant closing for Charlotte to show up again

Native News

Seoul Food Meat Co will open a second location in the Optimist Park neighborhood (not NoDa as noted in their post) as part of an adaptive-reuse project called Lintmen’s

Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ is a small Connecticut chain that will open a Kansas City-style barbecue restaurant in Asheville’s South Slope

Non-Native News

Rodney Scott’s BBQ in Charleston has been getting a big bump from “Chef’s Table: BBQ”

Home Team BBQ’s smoked wings makes the list

The best barbecue options in Virginia, according to Virginia Living

Solinsky’s in the Catskills of New York is serving some “epic brisket”, says Eater NY critic Robert Sietsema

I like this guy’s style