Linkdown: 1/12/22

For Monday night’s College Football Championship game, the governors from each state made a bet of barbecue, with Kay Ivey from Alabama wagering Dreamland Barbecue against Brian Kemp’s bet of Fox Bros BBQ. Which, must be said, is a Texas-style barbecue joint. Perhaps Georgia should have come up with Fresh Air Barbecue or Paul’s BBQ or Hot Thomas; you know, something a little more in line with Georgia-style barbecue. Never heard of it? Here’s an impassioned primer from our friends at Marie, Let’s Eat!

Native News

The BBQ Lab‘s upcoming North Hills location has started construction in Raleigh

Vote for the best barbecue in Charlotte in Charlotte Magazine’s BOB Awards

Non-Native News

PSA: Franklin Barbecue may have shorter lines during colder weather

Matt Horn‘s fried chicken restaurant is open in Oakland

Fort Worth is where it’s at for barbecue now

Linkdown: 6/9/21

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Southern Living Magazine, their barbecue editor Robert Moss, Home Team BBQ, and Swig & Swine recently announced the Holy Smokes barbecue festival in Charleston this November. The pitmasters are still to be announced, but expect folks from South Carolina, California, Georgia, New York, North Carolina and Texas are expected to be in attendance. Here’s hoping it becomes a fixture for years to come.

Native News

Congrats to Lyttle Bridges Cabiness of Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby for her induction into the Barbecue Hall of Fame

Mac’s Hospitality Group, parent company of Mac’s Speed Shop, adds Rare Roots alum Jay Spungin as Director of Operations

Ayden, NC, home to Skylight Inn and Bum’s Restaurant, chooses barbecue over collards for its future marketing campaign

Lawrence Barbecue finally opened at Boxyard RTP this past Saturday

Help name the new Sweet Lew’s Barbeque food truck

Non-Native News

Franklin Barbecue is reopening on 9/1

Eater: “Why Barbecue Sauce is Essential to Black Barbecue”

Barbecue Bible on “Black Smoke”

Matt Horn is on a roll in Oakland

Linkdown: 4/21/21

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Kevin’s BBQ Joints out here again doing yeoman’s work. This time, he reached out to 158 restaurants (4 were added since this Tweet) across the country to get what a best first order would look like. From North Carolina, Black Powder Smokehouse in Jamestown, Lawrence Barbecue in Raleigh, Longleaf Swine in Raleigh, Noble Smoke in Charlotte, Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, Southern Smoke in Garland. Naturally, Texas represents a large portion of the list and a separate “Texas-only” list is located here.

Native News

Wilber Shirley is celebrated on the UNC Press Blog by reposting his interview with John Shelton Reed and his late wife Dale Volberg Reed from “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of NC Barbecue”

D.G Martin also remembers Wilber Shirley and thanks Wilber’s and other community-based restaurants for their hospitality in addition to their food

Smoke Show BBQ will be doing another pop-up at Crown Station in Charlotte

Jon G’s gets in the pit fabrication game

Non-Native News

Less than a week until Black Smoke comes out

John Tanner gets a dispatch on Salvage Barbecue from his “Senior South Portland (Maine) Correspondents”

Smoked wings are a big hit in Columbia

The Riverdale Park, MD-based 2Fifty Texas BBQ is opening up a D.C. location

Vegan Mob was started in 2019

Linkdown: 3/24/21

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In the latest sign that we’re slowly coming out of this pandemic, the BBQ Fest on the Neuse, “home to the largest whole hog cook-off in the world”, returns this May to Kinston, NC. This is on top of Governor Cooper announcing yesterday that as of this Friday restaurants can open at 75% capacity indoors and 100% outdoors. While this doesn’t mean that everything going’s to snap right back to how it was, things are definitely trending upward.

As for the BBQ Fest on the Neuse, the event hopes to be back in downtown Kinston but if they aren’t able to procure that permit they will go to the Lenoir County Fairgrounds. The barbecue competition will have less competitors, there will be less vendors, and the amount of bands and stages will also be smaller. Despite all this, hopes are high for “Kinston-Lenoir County’s signature event.

Says Joe Hargitt, Visit Kinston Chairman: “We want the overall feel to be a coming out party, after COVID, for the city of Kinston.”

Native News

Charlotte-based Mac’s Speed Shop eyes growth across the Southeast in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Florida

Jon G’s has a new convert

Non-Native News

Houston-based Blood Brothers BBQ, which fuses Asian flavors with central Texas barbecue, will open a location at the upcoming Resorts World casino on the Las Vegas strip in May

Ahead of his upcoming book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue (out April 27 on UNC Press), Adrian Miller shares a few insights with Daniel Vaughn on his barbecue travels

Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ is on Eater’s list of noteworthy new cookbooks

More on that beer collab between La Barbecue and Zilker Brewing

Get brisket tips from Evan LeRoy; a video is available for Patreon members

Steve Raichlen has some brisket tips of his own over at Barbecue Bible

…and so does Jess Pryles. Must be something in the water.

Tips on fire maintenance

Sounds like my kind of place:

Robert Sietsema tries the brisket sandwich at four new NYC-area barbecue joints: Virgil’s Real Barbecue, John Brown BBQ, Izzy’s BBQ Smokehouse, and Hudson Smokehouse

Rest In Peace to Dorothy King of Everett & Jones Barbeque in Oakland