Author: Barbecue Bros

Linkdown: 5/24/23 – The Melissa Cookston is No Brett Favre Edition

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Monk: Firehawk Brewpub opened its doors this past Saturday in Mount Holly and the barbecue joint/brewery promptly sold out within hours of opening. Based on the comments on its Facebook page, it appears that the visitors that day were pleased with their food and beer. I hope to confirm for myself soon.

Firehawk Brewpub will be open Wednesday through Friday from 4-9 and Saturday from 11-9 this week. Check their Instagram and Facebook pages for further updates on hours of operation.

Native News

Some photos from Jake Wood’s Gettin’ Piggy With It; looks like it was a great event

An estimated 100,000+ people attended last weekend’s Cheerwine Festival

Non-Native News

Photos of the Winners from last weekend’s Memphis in May 2023 World Barbecue Championship

Melissa Cookston has officially cooked in her last Memphis in May and will be focusing on her other businesses as well as the World Junior BBQ League

More coverage of Cookston’s retirement of sorts

Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson stopped by Memphis in May for their upcoming TV show, “Kings of BBQ”

Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX has recently added a barbecue joint and distillery to its operations

Barbecue Showdown season 2 will be released this Friday on Netfllix

John Tanner loved the Brunswick stew from Porkey’s BBQ in Lothian, Maryland

The Southern Foodways Alliance profiles Daniel Vaughn

The Concord Location of Phar Mill BBQ & Brewing Has Some Hits, Some Misses

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Name: Phar Mill BBQ & Brewing
Address: 363 Church St N, Concord, NC 28025
Order: Chopped brisket sandwich, 1/2 lb pulled pork, smoked wings and pork belly burnt ends
Pricing: $$

Monk: Last fall, I gave Phar Mill Brewing & BBQ a shot at the original Harrisburg location and thought it showed a decent amount of promise. After that visit, I was assured that the larger downtown Concord location which opened in fall 2022 was now the primary focus of the combination brewery and barbecue restaurant. My understanding is this is where they now do the primary smoking for both locations so I marked it on my list to visit next chance I got.

That chance ended up being a recent visit with the rest of the Monk family and the Monk-in-Laws in tow. All of which are used to visiting barbecue restaurants with me and could confirm whether or not my assessment from the Harrisburg location was spot on or perhaps a little off.

We started off with an order of 6 smoked wings that were tossed in a buffalo sauce. They were nicely smokey with a good crispy skin from the fryer. The buffalo flavor the wings were tossed in was a touch on the hot side but overall these were successful wings.

Having arrived for dinner on a Saturday night, lots of things were already marked off the board: sliced brisket, beef ribs, and pork belly chief among them. I did manage to get the last chopped brisket sandwich for the day, which came topped with slaw and sauce. The hefty sandwich was solid even though it was literally the last scraps of chopped brisket on the day. I would have liked to taste the sliced brisket to compare to the slices from Harrisburg, which were not my favorite part of the meal.

The pulled pork was on a bit on the dry side and crying out for sauce. I did detect the taste of smoke in the outside brown but on its own, the pulled pork did not stand out.

In terms of sides, the collards were a bit on the bland side while the beans and slaw were average. While Mrs. Monk shared my platter with me, in terms of other orders the Monkettes were satisfied with their flatbread pizzas and the Monk-in-Laws also seemed satisfied with their respective sandwiches – chopped brisket and pulled pork.

Overall, I would say that the Concord location of Phar Mill Brewing & BBQ was a slight bit better than Harrisburg, and mostly a hit the Monks and Monk-in-Laws. As for me, next time I come through, I’ll be sure to come earlier in the day.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Brisket – 3 hogs
Smoked Wings – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs

Steven Raichlen’s “Planet Barbecue” Will Explore BBQ from Around the World

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Monk: While I know the name, I am not terribly familiar with a lot of Steven Raichlen’s work – either on his previous tv shows or his many number of books. I have occasionally used his website BarbecueBible.com for recipes and product reviews. That will likely change once his latest TV show debuts later this month on PBS.

Description: Ever since he wrote the international blockbuster, The Barbecue Bible, Steven Raichlen has been fascinated (make that obsessed) by global grilling. So now, after four seasons of the popular Project Fire on PBS, Steven and his Emmy Award-winning producer Matt Cohen of Resolution Pictures launch their most ambitious TV series yet: Steven Raichlen’s Planet Barbecue®. It’s the show of a lifetime by a team that’s spent decades traveling the world’s barbecue trail to bring you the ultimate in barbecuing and grilling.

Like Project Fire and Project Smoke, Planet Barbecue ® continues the popular format that delivers 96 percent carriage on the Public Television network (more than 400 stations): The cutting-edge recipes, practical how-tos, ingenious techniques, and eye-popping beauty shots of the food. (Yes, Steven is the man who introduced the world to beer can chicken, planked salmon, caveman T-bones, and rotisserie pineapple blasted with a roofer’s torch.) ?

But the new show takes an international approach, focusing on grilling across the planet, not just in the U.S. Guest grill masters will demonstrate the A, B, Cs of world barbecue, with shows on Argentinean, Brazilian, and Caribbean grilling. Other episodes will delve into the live fire cooking of Mexico, Venezuela, and Peru. The series will explore how grill cultures meet and influence each other in shows like East Meets West, Grilling from Across the Pond, The Global Melting Pot, and a mostly meatless show called Planet Barbecue.

Planet Barbecue’s home base this year is the historic Spanish Governor’s Palace in San Antonio, Texas. So look forward to plenty of great Lone Star and Tex-Mex barbecue—prepared by some of Texas’ top pitmasters and showcased in episodes like Texas Trinity and The San Antonio Grill. Our mission: to explore how a region’s barbecue reflects its culture and how that culture determines what people grill.

We live in an age of unprecedented cultural diversity and global interconnection. Steven Raichlen’s Planet Barbecue® will celebrate the universality of live-fire cooking and the cultural differences that make it so thrilling.

Steven Raichlen’s Planet Barbecue®. Bringing the world of live-fire cooking to your backyard.

Linkdown: 5/17/23 – The Day After National BBQ Day Edition

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Monk: Garren’s turning 40 in late June and throwing a heckuva party at Jon G’s! The Jon G’s Jubilee will bring in town Jake Wood of Lawrence Barbecue in Durham as well as the N. Sea Oyster Co from the Topsail Beach area. Charlotte’s Divine Barrel Brewing will provide the beer with ice cream from Wadesboro’s Brown Creek Creamery, who Jon G’s uses for cheeses in their sausages. Tickets will surely go fast for this so if interested, I’d recommend you act quickly.

Ticket info here

Native News

Hubba Hubba Smokehouse has opened for the season; they close each winter and reopen during the spring

Elliot Moss’s Little Louie’s continues to play with smoked meats

Southern Smoke’s Matthew Register is one of the chefs who weigh in on “Boat Chicken”

A belated Happy National Barbecue Day

Non-Native News

Fork Grove BBQ will open this weekend in Anderson

Hector Garate of Palmira BBQ is heading back to Texas for another collab, this time with Khoi Barbecue on May 21

The Memphis in May Barbecue Fest starts this week; here are 10 teams to watch for

How to trim a brisket, by Jess Pryles