Linkdown: 7/26/23 – The Barbycu Edition

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Monk: Congrats to Joseph Haynes on the release of his latest barbecue history book
“From Barbycu to Barbecue,” now available from the University of South Carolina Press.

The central premise of Haynes’ book is that the barbecue methods were not imported from the Caribbean but instead were a collaboration “between Native Americans, Europeans, and free and enslaved people of African descent during the seventeenth century.”

While I’m somewhat familiar with Haynes’ work online, I have not ready any of his books to date. The release of his latest book is reason enough to check him out.

Native News

Digging this new Sam Jones BBQ tee

This week Jon G’s will be at Super Abari Game Bar on Wednesday, 7/26

Noble Smoke has a “Two Napkin BLT” on the menu for the summer

A belated happy birthday to “Papaw Keith” Smith of Bar-B-Q King

Non-Native News

Agreed – this is too pretty not to share

John Tanner welcomes the sight of direct heat true ‘cue in Virginia at Two Drummers Smokehouse in Toano (whole hog coming?!)

A photo of City Limits Barbeque’s sides

Any suggestions?

ICYMI, Franklin Barbecue is taking a well-earned vacation

Linkdown: 6/7/23 – The Agent ‘Cue Edition

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Monk: Queen City Nerve goes deep on the roots of the newly opened Firehawk Brewpub in Mount Holly. While I haven’t made it out there myself (and couldn’t make the media opening due to family commitments), I do plan to make the trip very soon. After reading this article about the barbecue restaurant/fish camp/brewery, I’m even more excited.

Native News

Dana Hanson is a Meat Scientist at NC State and runs their annual barbecue camp, modeled after Texas A&M

Sweet Lew’s BBQ and The Smoke Pit are two vendors for this weekend’s Taste of Charlotte

Looks like Christopher Prieto and Prime Barbecue will be on UNC-TV soon

New Sam Jones BBQ merch just in time for Father’s Day

Non-Native News

John Tanner enjoyed Randy’s Ribs , a carry-out place on Route 5 in Maryland

Fresh off retirement from the competition circuit, Melissa Cookston weighs in on 14 barbecue myths

Congrats to Kevin Bludso on the James Beard win for his latest cookbook;

No barbecue pitmasters or chefs won this year and the Carolinas were also shut out, but here’s the full list of winners

Our Favorite Posts from 2022

Monk: 2022 marked the ten year anniversary of the blog and its gone by in a flash. We’re going to take the rest of the year off in order to come out strong in 2023, but before we do we want to 1) wish you all a happy holidays and 2) spotlight one last time some of our favorite original content from 2022.

Without further ado…

Original Content

My summer kicked off with a weekly recap of all 8 episodes of the third season of “BBQ Brawl.” While I was happy to get through those two months mostly unscathed, I also checked out a few other barbecue streaming shows throughout the year featuring notable barbecue personalities like Michael Symon’s “BBQ USA,” “World of Flavor with Big Moe Cason,” and the third season of “BBQuest” which added Hardcore Carnivore’s Jess Pryles as a co-host.

We’ve done some updating of our Lexington rankings sadly due to closures but I already know I need to get back to Lexington to try Cafe 71 Smoke House BBQ, which opened this fall in the old Rick’s Smokehouse space.

I also am trying a new post format with the “best barbecue within an hour of [insert major city here].” I’ve started with Charlotte but will work on posts for both Raleigh as well as the eastern part of the state.

We also went to a few festivals this year! May was a busy month in Charlotte with both the Smoke & Grapes event at the Charlotte Wine & Food Festival as well as the successful first annual Carolina BBQ Festival hosted by Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s BBQ.

In November, I went to Charleston for the second annual Holy Smokes Barbecue Festival and had a grand time in the lowcountry.

I can’t wait to see what festivals I’ll make it to in 2023.

Reviews

We’re up to 327 reviews on the site now, and in 2022 we added 23 more. Not quite our most productive year, but still an average of nearly 2 per month.

Rudy got to finally try Noble Smoke in Charlotte in February, and left pretty impressed with a 4.5 hog review.

Speedy loved pretty much everything about the relatively new Bringle’s Smoking Oasis in Nashville, from the space to the bar to of course the food (in particular the beef rib and the brisket). Another 4.5 hog meal.

But from the looks of it, Speedy’s favorite meal of the year was at Prime Barbecue in Knightdale when he was back in North Carolina this summer. He gave it our prestigious 5 hog rating, the first since our most recent Jon G’s Barbecue review from 2021.

I got in on the 4.5 hog action with a couple of joints in the Carolinas: Lawrence Barbecue in Durham and Palmira BBQ in Charleston. At Lawrence, in addition to the fun atmosphere at Boxyard RTP and the Lawrence Barbecue-inspired beer from Trophy Brewing, the pork and brisket were highlights of the meal. At Palmira, I got to chat with owner and pitmaster Hector Garate and both the whole hog barbecue and hash and rice shone through.

And last but not least, I can’t forget my mini whole hog barbecue tour in eastern North Carolina in the spring, where I visited B’s Barbecue, Skylight Inn, and the original location of Sam Jones BBQ.

I did a brief writeup for The Smoke Sheet, which a version of showed up on the site as well.

With that, the 2022 posts are done for the year. But we’ll be back in January with all new content.

Happy Holidays and see you all in 2023!

Linkdown: 7/20/22

Featured

Monk: A fairly wide-ranging state of NC barbecue from News & Observer writer Drew Jackson, who has been very ably covering the barbecue scene in and around Raleigh for the past few years.

Despite the invasive species of brisket coming into the state, there are still a number of places clinging to the NC barbecue tradition, be that eastern whole hog or Lexington-style shoulders (though this story focuses on places east of Durham. Wyatt Dickson, Matt Register, Ronald House (night pitmaster at B’s Barbecue), and Ryan Mitchell are all quoted in the story but of course Sam Jones has the money quote:

“The hard lines that used to exist, that barbecue was either this or it’s not barbecue — that’s over. It used to be, for people in North Carolina, it was either whole hog, or it ain’t (expletive). For 10 million Texans, it’s brisket. As times go on and we’re so much more transient as a society, those lines are blurred.”

Sam Jones

Read more at the link:

Native News

Lewis Donald is no longer involved with Dish and will be focusing his efforts on Sweet Lew’s BBQ and the Carolina Barbecue Festival going forward

Axios Raleigh releases their Triangle barbecue list

Barbecue Center in Lexington is closing for a week later this month for some hard earned rest and relaxation, so plan accordingly

Hillsborough’s Hog Day festival is the oldest barbecue festival in Orange County and this year will officially be part of the Whole Hog Barbecue State Championship

Jon G’s makes the Yelp Charlotte Top 25 Places to Eat along with…JD’s Smokehouse in Rutherford College near Morganton?

A behind-the-scenes follow-up to Jeremy Markovich’s story on B’s Barbecue in Our State Magazine from 2016

Non-Native News

A couple of recent stories where Adrian Miller was interviewed:

Little Pigs BBQ is on this Eater essential restaurants list for Myrtle Beach

Feges BBQ hosted Premier League champions (ugh) Man City on their pre-season US tour

Barbecue sauce beer? Barbecue sauce beer.