Name: College Barbecue Date: 2/21/22 Address: 117 Statesville Blvd, Salisbury, NC 28144 Order: Small chopped barbecue tray, Cheerwine (link to menu) Pricing: $
Monk: Reviving an old pastime of mine, I used a banker’s holiday as an excuse to try out a new barbecue restaurant out of town. Looking to stay within an hour or so, I realized that Salisbury had another True ‘Cue-approved joint besides Richard’s an pointed my GPS to College Barbecue.
As I parked, I exited the car and got whiffs of wood smoke in the air. Good start, to be sure. Luckily, at this lunch hour the youngest Monkette and I found the last booth and as is the case with a classic NC barbecue joint had a drink and our order with the waitress within minutes.
As we waited for our food (chopped tray for me, kid’s cut up hot dog for her), the sounds of cleavers slamming down on a wood barbecue block filled the restaurant. Great sign number two.
Unfortunately, that optimism was quite met by the barbecue itself. I ordered extra brown but even still did not detect much wood smoke on the chopped pork. Or flavor, if I’m being honest. Only after a few dashes of the table dip and Texas Pete did I feel that the pork started to come to life. Even the red slaw was a bit on the bland side. puppies
The small tray only came with two hush puppies, though they were on the larger side to the point of splitting one with the Monkette. They were fresh but more on the savory end of the savory-vs-sweet spectrum.
College Barbecue has been smoking barbecue over Hickory wood coals since 1965 just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from nearby Catawba College where they presumably get their name from. If you’re in Salisbury, you couldn’t be blamed for going to there but next time my money would be going to Richard’s.
Name: Noble Smoke Date: 2/12/22 Address: 2216 Freedom Dr, Charlotte, NC 28208 Order: Little bit of everything (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Rudy: It’s not every day that some of the Barbecue Bros are able to get together and eat barbecue. Nowadays there has to be a big event to cause it and a couple weeks ago we had a big event! Monk was turning 40 and becoming a man, which gave us a great excuse to get together and celebrate that momentous occasion with some great food. I had heard lots of great reviews of Noble Smoke and was looking forward to trying it out. So upon landing in Charlotte, I headed straight for the restaurant to meet up with Monk and others. In full disclosure, I worked at Jimmy Noble’s restaurant in High Point back in high school, but they didn’t give me an employee discount this day.
Reading the website before I came, it said to make sure you arrive early because they can have long lines, so I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as space. We sat outside, which was a fantastic set up after flying in from snowy Michigan. I am not sure if they have expanded since putting that on their site, but it looked like there was plenty of seating inside and outside and plenty of parking. I was really impressed with their setup.
Monk: I was honored that Rudy made the trip, though it made a lot more sense when he said it hadn’t been above freezing in Michigan in about a month. Regardless, we were treated to clear sunny skies and a high of 69 the day of my 40th birthday party, so it was a nice and perfect day to eat on Noble Smoke’s huge patio.
Rudy: We had a large group so we ordered a little bit of everything from the menu. My main dish was a chopped pork sandwich with western slaw. I added their Lexington style sauce to get a traditional sandwich feel. I really liked the fresh bun and slaw but thought the best part was the barbecue (as it should be). Very traditional barbecue with great flavor and plenty of moisture. It was exactly what I was expecting and hoping for.
Monk: Unfortunately, we ran out of time for me to show Rudy the Lexington-style brick pits in the smokehouse where they smoke the pork shoulders in but I’m glad the sammie hit the spot.
Rudy: The brisket was next and it was a good effort for brisket outside of Texas but wasn’t what I was used to after living in Austin for so many years. I like having more flavor on the bark and would have preferred for it to be trimmed a bit more than it was to remove some of the excess fat that did not render all the way down. Similar review for the sausage, good effort but didn’t get all the way there for me. Again, I would have preferred a bit more flavor, but I was also glad that I tried it and it was better than average.
For me, the best part by far was the sides. Normally when you say that about a barbecue place, it is usually a slight to the meat but that is not the case here; the sides are just that good! We had hushpuppies, mac and cheese, collards, pickled veggies, and brussel sprouts. Any one of them would have been a great side that would have stood on their own, but by far the brussel sprouts were the best. Not only were they cooked perfectly, they also came with a great dipping sauce, and there were a ton of them in an order. Great value and great food.
Monk: We may have gone a little overboard on the sides but I agree that Noble Smoke executes all of them at an extremely high level. Next time I’d recommend Rudy try the creamed corn but honestly I’m just happy that I got to share a barbecue meal with Rudy for the first time in a couple of years. And also that it was significantly better than the last two times we had barbecue in Ohio in 2020 at Ray Ray’s Hog Pit and Rudy’s Smokehouse.
Rudy: Overall I was very pleased with my experience at Noble Smoke. I don’t have the depth of experiences with Charlotte barbecue that Monk does, so I don’t know how it compares or ranks with other places around the city. But I thought the atmosphere was great, the food was great, and most importantly, the friends were great!
Monk: Coming back from a quick overnight trip to Asheville, with Buxton Hall not open until 11:30am, I got out of town and headed towards Charlotte east on I-40. That would put me in the Connelly Springs/Rutherford College area right at lunchtime, in time to finally catch JD’s Smokehouse where “[i]t’s a weekend celebration.”
That means its only open from Thursdays to Saturdays, and JD’s Smokehouse was packed on a Friday lunch this past December. Now that may be because they have a loyal local fanbase but perhaps it also in some part due to being voted best barbecue in NC by the readers of “Strange Carolinas” in 2021. It was a recommendation on our Facebook page in the early days of this blog, so my visit was long overdue.
Visitors are greeted with the welcome sight of a couple of racks of firewood as they enter the restaurant. Just off to the left of this shot is the entrance to the smokehouse. It all looked so promising.
I went with the pork and brisket combo, but for only $0.50 more I could have gotten ribs as well. An amateur mistake on my part. Though if the ribs were more like the brisket than the pork, I made the right choice.
Which is to say that that pork was my favorite of the two meats that day. Fresh and smoky, it was a solid serving of barbecue. Dashes of table sauce didn’t hurt it, and I was satisfied at that point in my meal.
The brisket, on the other head was overcooked and on the bland side of things. It didn’t have the peppery bark of a Central Texas-style brisket (which is fine) but it didn’t wow me with what it was trying to do either.
As for sides, the red slaw came spicy, there was a dinner roll instead of any sort of cornmeal, and the plate was served with a side of pickled jalapenos. Just what exactly they were going for is anyone’s guess, but it appears to me to be a mish-mash of several different styles.
And that is ultimately my issue with JD’s Smokehouse: they didn’t have a clear identity, or at least not one that was immediately discernable by me. They smoke with wood coals, which should be applauded, but is ultimately one restaurateur’s take on an “international house of barbecue” model. As has been the case for a couple of recent reviews, should you find yourself here, my suggestion is to stick with the pork.
Name: BBQ Joe’s Date: 11/24/21 Address: 4865-4873 NC-62, Trinity, NC 27370 Order: Two meat combo with pork and ribs, (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Growing up in High Point, I have distinct memories of driver’s ed pit stops at a barbecue restaurant called Henry James BBQ off of Greensboro Rd in Jamestown. It is long gone but I believe another restaurant in the regional chain is in nearby Asheboro. The Greensboro Road store seemed to be the usual place for my driver’s ed teacher Ms. Sealy to stop and get refills of her large cup of Diet Coke but not necessarily a meal. I’m certain I ate there once or twice in high school but I can’t be sure whether it was on one of these stops. In concept and layout and even quality, BBQ Joe’s in Trinity reminds me of Henry James.
While both Henry James and BBQ Joe’s are both barbecue restaurants, they might also be more accurately categorized as “country cooking restaurants.” Barbecue is on the menu and in the name, but may not necessarily be the focus.
I would guess the pork is likely cooked offsite for both BBQ Joe’s locations but I found it to be passable. The table sauces were not essential but helped its cause. I would not be unhappy with a barbecue sandwich of this pork topped with some red slaw, sauce, and Texas Pete.
I was feeling frisky and ordered the ribs as well. The color was that of a half rack that had been boiled, rendering the ribs bland and inedible. I don’t know if they assume that patrons will drown them in the sweet, sticky sauce but that’s asking a lot.
The hush puppies at BBQ Joe’s were some of the most original I’ve seen. At first glance, they look like a large onion ring or a small cake donut. They are on the sweeter side, and I loved them. They also had Cheerwine from the fountain, which is always a welcome sight.
Next time at BBQ Joe’s, I’ll stick with a simple barbecue sandwich combo. I suggest you do the same.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
