North Carolina’s oldest barbecue restaurant will celebrate its 85th anniversary on February 11. That’s right, 85 years! Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue has seemingly been invigorated by the “BBQ Karen” controversy from late last year and will take its newfound energy into its 86th year in existence. A big congrats to them!
Native News
Eater has released an updated restaurant list for the Triangle
A construction update of the Raleigh location of Midwood Smokehouse
Ray Nathan’s recently celebrated their 4th anniversary earlier this month
Meet Cece of Lincolnton’s Bar-B-Q King
Cece has been such a blessing to us! She helps prep every morning. I’m sure she is tired of slicing onions because we go thru A LOT. But she always does it with a smile on her face. Glad to have you here🙏 pic.twitter.com/GTdndlzPO9
Hill East Burgers in DC cold smokes their burgers with brisket trimmings for their take on smoked smash burgers
There is a reason, I suspect, that smoked burgers became a trend among Texas pitmasters only in recent years. The owners of Hill East Burgers and I dig into the subject in my latest column.https://t.co/dNojjM6kET
I covered this on the Facebook page briefly a few weeks back, but Smiley’s Lexington BBQ has officially announced its closing due to the NCDOT widening of Winston Road in Lexington. This widening was first announced in 2018 with a start date in summer 2020 but had likely been delayed due to the pandemic.
While owner Steve Yountz is not ready to retire just yet, per him “right now there is no definite plans on relocating as far as availably and affordability.” Patrons will have until February 26 to dine at the current location of Smiley’s before it closes its doors for good.
Nearby barbecue restaurant Speedy’s is also expected to close as a result of the road widening, however they are more optimistic about reopening in a new location and plan to rebuild and relocate, depending on the compensation they receive from DOT.
While the optimist in me hopes that both restaurants are able to relocate and continue business in due time, I worry that by next month we will be down two more classic NC barbecue joints.
Native News
A helpful post from Grady’s
Non-Native News
Applications for the Preserve the Pit fellowship are due March 1st
We continue to celebrate Black barbecue culture by launching year two of our Preserve the Pit fellowship and doubling our investment towards aspiring barbecue professionals. Check out details and apply: https://t.co/IYglP3WOgf#PreserveThePitpic.twitter.com/r1sGUEZvJL
Tim Carman of The Washington Post comes out with his annual barbecue list, with the wrinkle of releasing it in the winter time when some joints are closed
Carman also mourns the loss of pitmaster Corries Hardy
As we celebrate the best smokehouses in DC for 2022, I’d like to pause for a minute and acknowledge the loss last year of one of Washington’s best pitmasters: Corries Hardy. I really miss his presence at the Montgomery Farm Women’s Cooperative Market. https://t.co/6kwtRV7OMV
Rodney Scott and Eric Church getting into the honkey tonk game, and bringing whole hog to Broadway at Chief’s
In case anyone was wondering, the next country singer signing on for restaurant and bar ownership in downtown Nashville is Eric Church, and this time Carolina pitmaster Rodney Scott is getting in on the action.https://t.co/v472hUfRe2
Texans love traditions, and when it comes to barbecue, that means the Texas trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage. But like everything else in the barbecue business recently, that tradition is adapting and evolving. https://t.co/dpg88ZCGOi#houbbq#texaspic.twitter.com/0XZ3o7s6vj
In his latest issue of The Cue Sheet, Robert Moss examines the ten best college cities or towns to attend according to nearby barbecue options. While my alma mater NC State is mentioned as a future possibility once the planned restaurants like Sam Jones BBQ, Wyatt’s Barbecue, and Longleaf Swine open their doors in 2021 (not to mention Prime BBQ in Knightdale that opened this year and the upcoming Ed Mitchell’s The Preserve), several NC towns make the list. Not on the list either is Chapel Hill, primarily due to the loss of Allen & Son last year.
East Carolina University in Greenville has B’s Barbecue, Sam Jones Barbecue and the two Ayden joints nearby (Skylight and Bum’s) and comes in at #9. Surprisingly, Catawba College in Salisbury, NC makes the list just ahead of Greenville due to a couple of joints in town (College Barbecue and Richard’s) plus its proximity to Lexington and its myriad options for barbecue.
That’s it for NC on this list but both Columbia and Charleston appear further down from our neighbors to the south. I won’t spoil the rest of the list, but if you think hard enough you can probably guess which university and city takes the #1 spot on the list.
Whether you major in ribs or brisket is up to you: The Top 10 Colleges in the South, Ranked by BBQ https://t.co/RUzoistHAi
This smothered tater tots collaboration between Fox Bros Bar-B-Q and Nina and Rafi looks amazing
Announcing our collaboration w/ our friends at @ninaandrafi! “Meat Me In Detroit Tots”! Tots smothered in N&R Marinara, mozz, pepp, soppressata & capicola! At N&R try the old fashioned with our bbq sauce, mozz, pork, onions, spicy cherry peppers, finished w/ our vinegar sauce! pic.twitter.com/a8l6raflYt
An American pitmaster living in Hong Kong names the US barbecue restaurantshe dreams of going back to some day, including Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Cozy Corner, Franklin Barbecue, and Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ
Pork n’ Pine Santa delivers pulled pork sammies in Baltimore
In Baltimore there’s a business called Pork n’Pine where Santa comes to your house on a bicycle with a fresh 9-foot-tall Christmas tree strapped to the front, and a sack of pulled pork sandwiches. This is undoubtably the most brilliant business concept in human history. pic.twitter.com/rA9B2jSSSB
Even in the midst of a pandemic and all that 2020 had to offer, Tim Carman of the Washington Post went ahead with his annual “best barbecue joints in DC” list, with the main change being that he got takeout from every joint he tried. And he found that, even while getting more and more expensive, the state of barbecue in DC is strong and only improving. To wit, three of the joints in his top ten were brand new to the list.
Cheers to Tim Carman for pushing ahead!
The editors and I huddled and made the call: We would do the annual barbecue rankings, pandemic be damned. I'm so glad we did. https://t.co/eE9JXIJO3J
.@DallasNews: Greenberg Smoked Turkey in Tyler is shutting down for the holiday season after a fire and at least two explosions destroyed 87,000 turkeys and part of the facility. “We will rebuild. We will be smoking turkeys in 2021. And to hell with 2020.” https://t.co/T21y6NvE67
The Athens episode of TrueSouth brought together neighbors; watch at the link below
For our Athens TrueSouth show on @SECNetwork we invited the Betty Jean & Larry Scott of Scott's BBQ to eat with Pablo Rivadenyera at his Peruvian restaurant across the street. Off camera, friends Andre Gallant, Beto Mendoza, and Wright Thompson worked hard https://t.co/gZnsPDb5Bcpic.twitter.com/RIbQY0OzFS
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