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My first (and last) time at Pete’s BBQ in Fort Mill, SC

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Monk: On Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays for Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day weekends for the past 55 years, Pete Wheeles of Pete’s BBQ has been serving up barbecue out of his home in Fort Mill off India Hook Road. Earlier this week, the Charlotte Observer posted a story that this weekend would be the last one of service ever. Pete’s wasn’t really on my radar until that story but I made my way on the Friday of Memorial Day 2018 to check it out while I could. Getting there shortly before 9, I encountered about an hour’s long line of several dozen folks.

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Folks at Pete’s BBQ primarily order bulk orders for their holiday weekend plans – often several pounds of barbecue and several racks of ribs in addition to pounds of slaw or beans – so the line wasn’t moving at quite the clip I would have wanted for my much smaller order. Plus, I had no idea about the actual barbecue itself. After about 20 minutes, the line had moved about 50 feet. This was going to take a little longer than an hour.

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Forty minutes later, I approached the doorway of the shack. But may I say, I love this sign.

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Pete’s only takes cash or check and I had just gotten only $20 cash out of the ATM on my way there. And again, I had no idea of the barbecue itself, so I just went with a pound of barbecue and a pint of sauce and headed back to my car, passing a news truck on the way out.

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Waiting in line, I overheard someone stating that if someone hadn’t had Pete’s BBQ before then they were in for a treat. Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the case for me. I found the barbecue to be oversauced to the point where I couldn’t detect any smoke in the meat. It wasn’t bad per se, but it just wasn’t my style of barbecue.

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Locals certainly seem to love Pete’s BBQ and showed out on the first day of their last weekend of service ever (some apparently lining up as early as 5am for a 7am opening). If you are reading this on Monday, May 28, 2018 there may still be some barbecue available (though once they run out they run out). If you are reading this anytime after, then you have missed it. Regardless of how I feel about the barbecue (which again, isn’t my style but different strokes etc.), 55 years is quite an achievement.

Congrats to Pete’s BBQ and enjoy the retirement.

Photos: Sights from Memphis in May 2018

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Our other neighbors, The Shed
Across the pathway, the Traeger Grills team and tent
The Cotton Pickin’ Porkers home for the festival
Awards Ceremony on Saturday
Bryan Furman of the awesome B’s Cracklin’ Bar-B-Que in Savannah and Atlanta
Matt Pittman of Meat Church
The Shed with some crazy expensive tomahawk chops
The Traeger Grills tent
The Cotton Pickin’ Porkers…and Dave Grohl
Sunset over the Mississippi
Another shot of the river
More shots of the Mississippi
Jess Pryles of Hardcore Carnivore
The Beached Pig team on one side – where David Grohl
Dave Grohl hanging out at our neighbors tent all weekend – The Beached Pig
Welcome to Memphis in May
Nighttime on the Mississippi River
Brisket samples from Traeger

I will write up more from my Memphis in May Barbecue Fest experience with the Cotton Pickin’ Porkers competition team once I get some rest but for now here’s a few photos I captured from the festival. More to come…

–Monk

Photo Gallery: Noble Smoke at Hyde Brewing for St. Patty’s Day

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Monk: In advance of the forthcoming brewery/smokehouse/beer garden concept, Jim Noble and Noble Smoke set up at Hyde Brewing to serve chopped pork sandwiches on a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day in Charlotte.

Noble Smoke was set up in the side lot next to Hyde Brewing’s back patio where none other than Jim Noble himself was chopping up pork shoulders on a block in front of his smoker Beulah. On this day, they kept it simple with only sandwiches for sale for $7.

Each hefty sandwich was pre-topped with slaw and dip and while you could add more, I didn’t find it necessary. Noble Smoke certainly wasn’t skimping on chopped pork in each sandwich. The chopped pork was moist and the sandwiches were really good – a lot better than some of the dry barbecue sandwiches I’ve had since. Had I not had dinner plans, I certainly would have gone for a second sandwich and perhaps a third (the other one pictured in my hand was for my dad).

If this service is any indication of what’s to come, I will no longer have to drive an hour to Lexington for a true Lexington-style chopped pork sandwich, something I’ve been looking for as long as I’ve lived in Charlotte. Simply put, I cannot wait for Noble Smoke to open later this year.

Check out more from Noble Smoke on their website

Photo Gallery: Smoking a pork butt Lexington-style

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Monk: For this year’s annual Super Bowl smoke, I knew a few things going in:

  1. I was going to use a Big Green Egg to smoke a pork butt for the first time (the BGE was my neighbor’s)
  2. I wanted to try to smoke it and serve it a little more authentically Lexington-style, particularly the rub

The NC BBQ Society’s website has been my go-to page for a Lexington-style dip recipe (that is, a thin barbecue sauce for those of you not in the know) the past few years (recipe here) while using a rub of my own (or Speedy’s) concoction. All these years, they’ve had a recipe for “Cooking Pork Shoulders Lexington Style” just a little further down the page that I’ve been ignoring. Turns out this is actually a transcription of a recipe from the book “The Best Tarheel Barbecue: From Manteo to Murphy” by NC BBQ Society founder Jim Early, which I just so happen to own. So I’ve really had no excuse not to try this technique before now.

On that page, in terms of rub it states “Rub the exposed side of the meat (not skin side) with a fair amount of salt. Set aside at room temperature.” And that’s it. I had to re-read a few times just to be sure I wasn’t missing something. No other spices, no overnight rub – this really was going to be a different technique than I was used to.

Doing a quick Google search, I found some corroborating evidence that salt only is indeed the way that the Lexington Barbecue rubs its pork butts (a second source here also somewhat verified it). So my mind was made up – I just hope it wouldn’t be a bust for our annual Super Bowl Party but it seemed so simple so what could go wrong?  At least we had 100 takeout wings as backup.

Speedy: Just to interject here, Monk, but I’m not sure I buy it. Maybe it’s been in the dip all these years, but I feel like I get some peppery goodness in all the Lexington ‘cue. I’ll reserve judgment until I try it for myself, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Monk: I was skeptical too, but I’m confident you will recognize Lexington in this technique. Next time we get a chance, we should do a side by side with just salt versus a more peppery rub.

The morning of, I rubbed about a ¼ cup of Morton’s coarse kosher salt on the smaller 5 lb pork butt and set aside at room temperature while I got the Big Green Egg lit – though admitedly this took a little longer seeing as this was my first time and I was starting solo.

Outside of that, everything else went about the same as a normal smoke. About 8.5 hours later, I pulled the butt off and let it rest for about an hour before chopping it and adding the Lexington dip.

I must say, I do believe this was the closest I’ve come to recreating Lexington-style pork butts at home. A slider with this chopped pork, a red slaw that Mrs. Monk prepared, and some Texas Pete tasted pretty darn close to what you might find in Lexington. I’m not saying its going to replace a trip to Lexington #1 anytime soon, but its not bad for a backyard smoke.