Texas Monthly

Linkdown: 9/15/21

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As of Monday, Robert Moss has officially launched his new digital publication Southeastern Dispatch, a “fresh look at food & drink in the Carolinas.” He has enlisted food journalists from both North and South Carolina, and so far posts have covered the Triangle and Charleston, with surely more cities and regions to be covered soon. I briefly spoke with him about this at Jon G’s Barbecue last month and have been intrigued ever since. I am curious what this mean’s for his weekly Cue Sheet barbecue newsletter, which took a brief hiatus but returned this week post launch.

Read more at SoutheasternDispatch.com.

Native News

Jon G’s Barbecue, Lawrence Barbecue, and Prime Barbecue all make this list from Southern Living

For his new Southeastern Dispatch, Moss also examines what happened to Raleigh’s barbecue boom?

Indian Trail’s 100 Main Beef and Barbecue is now both a barbecue restaurant and a country store

Barvecue, the wood-smoked plan-based barbecue company out of Cornelius, is rolling out to 12 colleges and universities and just signed a deal with Sprouts Farmers Market

A&G’s Barbecue & Chicken in Carolina Beach to close this week after 33 years in business as owner Angela Stainaker retires; the restaurant will be taken over by Tammy and John Sharpe, who will reopen the location as Butts ‘n’ Such

Non-Native News

The Washington Post is also featuring vegan barbecue

The Smoke Sheet interviewed Daniel Vaughn in last week’s issue

Now that’s a #woodpilewednesday

Charlotte Barbecue News from the Second Quarter of 2021

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Monk: In our first quarter wrap-up, I had optimism as things continued to move in a positive direction with vaccinations and the resulting re-opening of restaurants. That mostly continued, and while Charlotte lost a lot of its classic non-barbecue restaurants (Price’s Chicken Coop, Mr. K’s, Oakhurst Grill, Zack’s Hamburgers, etc), I only tracked one barbecue restaurant that closed during that time: the Tyvola Road location of the Sonny’s BBQ chain.

Charlotte barbecue even got some national attention, both of the good (Texas Monthly BBQ Editor Daniel Vaughn visiting and loving Jon G’s) as well as notorious variety (Charlotte as the #3 best city for barbecue according to chefspencil.com).

While we may never know about the barbecue joints that weren’t started during the past year, hopefully a corner has been turned (and the Delta variant of COVID doesn’t wreak havoc here like it has in other countries; get vaccinated people!) and the Charlotte barbecue scene can experience new concepts as well as expansion and growth of its existing ones.

April

4/9 Smoke Show BBQ is a new Texas-style barbecue pop up in the Charlotte area from transplanted Texan chef Brandon Belfer who has worked at fine dining spots The Stanley, Crunkleton, The Asbury, Kindred, and Hello, Sailor

4/12 Charlotte-based Mac’s Speed Shop finds itself coming out of the pandemic in a strong position for growth

4/13 Roddey’s BBQ has changed their lunch hours in Rock Hill to Fridays only

4/19 Jon G’s Barbecue gets in the pit fabrication game

4/26 K&N BBQ makes Axios Charlotte’s list of best food trucks; and they recommend you try the pork and brisket

4/26 Adam Richman (of Man vs Food fame) visits Midwood Smokehouse

4/30 In what was (somewhat embarrassingly) one of the oldest barbecue restaurant’s in Charlotte, the Tyvola Rd. outpost of the Sonny’s BBQ chain closed

May

5/7 Daniel Vaughn ends his NC barbecue trip at Jon G’s Barbecue, where I was fortunate enough to meet both him and Kathleen Purvis and also share a meal with him

5/12 Charlotte is obviously the number 3 Top City for BBQ in the US. No objection here.

5/19 Jon G’s Barbecue gets the highest of praise from the BBQ Snob himself, Daniel Vaughn; Noble Smoke also gets a mention for their brisket

5/25 Phar Mill BBQ introduces itself to the world and will be using a Jon G’s offset smoker

June

6/3 Sweet Lew’s Barbeque announces its new food truck

6/3 Noble Smoke announces details on its 2 year anniversary

6/8 Mac’s Hospitality Group, parent company of Mac’s Speed Shop, adds Rare Roots alum Jay Spungin as Director of Operations

6/19 Congrats to Jon G’s Barbecue on one year open

6/26 Charlotte-based EDIA Maps, makers of The Great NC BBQ Map, ends operations

6/29 And the name of the Sweet Lew’s Barbeque food truck is…Sweet Lucille

Linkdown: 5/26/21

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Featured

Based on the book of the same name by Jessica B. Harris, “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America” examines the contributions of African American cooking to today’s modern cuisine. The series is four episodes, each lasting roughly an hour, and while the fourth episode focuses on barbecue I won’t be skipping straight to it. This is definitely a series I want to watch as its presented in its entirety.

“High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America” is available to watch now on Netflix.

Native News

This is so cool to see: Jon G’s Barbecue getting the highest of praise from the BBQ Snob himself, Daniel Vaughn; Prime Barbecue and Noble Smoke also get mentions for their brisket

Woodard Family BBQ is a “Hidden Gem of Fayetteville” (though its closer to Sanford) in this new series from the Fayetteville Observer

Non-Native News

Everything old is new again

Home Team BBQ continues its expansion

Behold, the predecessor to True Cue

Linkdown: 5/19/21

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Featured

This latest piece of controversial barbecue list content from one “chefspencil.com” has been rightly getting roasted online since the weekend, but perhaps that was the intent all along? I mean, who had even heard of “chefspencil.com,” an Austrialian website, before this list?

The list allegedly uses data from TripAdvisor and phew buddy TripAdvisor is not happy about any connection to th list and its backlash.

New Orlean’s at number 1? Red flag. No Texas cities on the list? Red flag. As for Charlotte’s rank of 3 on the list? I say this as a Charlotte resident, but red flag. I’m not the only Charlottean who feels this way. Enter Kathleen Purvis:

Let’s declare a moratorium on any further discussion or outrage on anything “chefspencil.com” related, particularly when it comes to barbecue.

Native News

Fighting words from the Hear to Say podcast host Tressie McMillan Cottom

An oldie but a goodie from Our State Magazine for National Barbecue Day this past Sunday

Non-Native News

Myron Mixon’s Jack’s Old South team wins Whole Hog and the whole shebang at last weekend’s Memphis in May Barbecue Championship

Three barbecue and brewery pairings in Texas

More coverage of Rodney Scott and Adrian Miller’s books, with quotes from Daniel Vaughn

Black Smoke vs Savory Spice Shop

High on the Hog premieres on Netflix in one week on 5/26