This might be a story in the affirmative and while I never made it there myself, by all accounts Bill Ellis Barbecue in Wilson was an eastern NC institution. It unfortunately closed quietly last week after 55 years in business and follows an unfortunate trend after closures at Allen & Son in Chapel Hill and Q Shack in Raleigh
More on NC barbecue; I’m not sure what prompted this but Stamey’s Barbecue in Greensboro with a mini-thread laying down the truth:
Can someone explain where this whole myth of “western barbecue” that is tomato based comes from? Firstly, what barbecue restaurants identify with “western style” as one of the original restaurants in Lexington, NC starting in 1930 “Lexington Style” barbecue is cooked with ……
Most people think the best thing about writing about barbecue is getting to eat a lot of barbecue. That's a plus, but for me the best part is digging deep into #HouBBQ history & discovering whatever nuggets of the past I can turn up. h/t @DavidLeftwich68https://t.co/2cdVnwxtpDpic.twitter.com/C2dMNZbx7M
Name: Field House Bar-B-Que Date: 12/18/18 Address: 1907 S Cannon Blvd, Kannapolis, NC 28083 Order: Chopped barbecue plate with slaw, fries, and hush puppies; Cheerwine
Monk: I first heard of Field House Bar-B-Que in Kannapolis in regards to a 2017 name change from its original name of Varsity BBQ & Ice Cream after being sued by The Varsity in Atlanta. How a one store NC barbecue restaurant in operation since 1998 could be confused with the classic burgers chain two states away baffles me, but nonetheless Field House opted to change the name rather than going through a lengthy legal process.
As for the food itself, as best I can tell Field House uses a gasser but manages to get some decent smoke on the pork. While I ordered the plate with fries, they do serve Lexington-style trays which you don’t see too often on the stretch of highway between Salisbury and Shelby. Next time I’ll try to avoid the temptation of fries and just get the tray with pork, slaw, and hush puppies on the side.
Speaking of slaw, they do offer a choice of red slaw as well as white slaw so you can keep your Lexington tray traditional. I appreciate that the hush puppies are scratch made and not some frozen nonsense.
As best I can tell, nothing really changed in fall 2017 when Varsity Bar-B-Que was renamed to Field House Bar-B-Que (the old sign is even still out back). For local Kannapolis-ians (Kannapolites?), that appears to be a good thing. The old name does live in on the back of each waitresses’ shirts, however, which are styled as jerseys with “Varsity Team” as the player name above a “98” as the block style jersey number. Nicely played, Field House. Nicely played.
The two co-founders of The Smokesheet, BBQ Tourist and NYC BBQ, joined the Man Meat BBQ podcast to discuss their origin story with barbecue and also assemble their perfect plate of barbecue out of their favorite barbecue bites from across the US.
There is a little bit of cussing at the top, so be warned. Also be warned that the host Mike could have used a cough button. Still, a pretty good conversation between three barbecue enthusiasts.
Midwood Smokehouse’s Roadhouse burger with a patty made of a mix of brisket and chuck lands at #13 on Charlotte Agenda’s best burgers in Charlotte list
Stubbs and Son BBQ in Sanford (no apparent relation to Stubbs BBQ in Austin) makes eastern NC barbecue and has plans to both expand the menu as well as the dining room
Messing around with Barbecue Bros t-shirt designs. Would anyone be interested in this "forefathers of Lexington Barbecue" t-shirt if it were to be made available for purchase? pic.twitter.com/LWSwlCGHkd
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