Reviews

Noble Smoke – Charlotte, NC (Rudy’s take)

/ Barbecue Bros / 2 Comments

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!

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 5 hogs
Pork – 4 hogs
Brisket – 3.5 hogs
Sausage – 3 hogs
Sides – 5 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs

JD’s Smokehouse – Rutherford College, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: JD’s Smokehouse
Date: 12/10/21
Address: 500 Malcolm Blvd, Rutherford College, NC 28671
Order: Pork and brisket combination (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

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.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Brisket – 2 hogs
Sides – 2 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs

BBQ Joe’s – Trinity, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

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.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 2 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Ribs – 1 hog
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 2.5 hogs

Sam Jones BBQ – Raleigh, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / 3 Comments

Name: Sam Jones BBQ
Date: 10/16/21
Address: 502 W Lenoir St, Raleigh, NC 27601
Order: Jones Family Original BBQ Tray (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Monk: Long time readers know that Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC has been on my to-do list for years and sadly it still remains on my to-do list in 2021. Regardless of the fact that I am not in that part of NC pretty much ever, I’ve thankfully been able to try the Jones family barbecue a couple of times in Charlotte over the years. The first time was at Midwood Smokehouse in 2013 when Sam Jones smoked a hog for a Midwood Smokehouse Sunday Supper even that also included an airing of the SFA documentary on Skylight Inn. The second time was at Free Range Brewing Pig Picking in 2017 that doubled as a viewing party for his Order/Fire documentary. Both times, the whole hog was life changing.

Since then, Sam Jones opened his first namesake restaurant in Winterville before opening a second location in Raleigh late last year. It was to be part of Raleigh’s supposed barbecue boom that was short-circuited by the pandemic. Thankfully Sam Jones BBQ persevered along with Prime Barbecue, Longleaf Swine, and Lawrence Barbecue.

After visiting the NC State campus with Lady Monk and the Monkettes, we made the short trip downtown to Lenoir Street. Though the lot for the restaurant is not very big, we found street parking right in front of the restaurant fairly easily. We waited in a short line and ordered at the front and not before too long a Jones Family Original BBQ Tray was placed in front of me.

Which I quickly turned into this to mimic what they do at Skylight Inn:

By now, everyone knows about the legendary whole hog with crispy bits of skin chopped in the way that the Jones family does it. The pork at Sam Jones BBQ in Raleigh lives up to that standard, although the skin could have been just a tad crispier. Just a minor nitpick in otherwise flawless whole hog barbecue.

Going in, I had wondered most about the corn bread. Theirs is a denser, non-sweet version that likely won’t ever be my favorite version of cornmeal served with barbecue. However, I can respect that its serving a different purpose than the sweeter corn meal in the hush puppies I’m used to in the Piedmont.

The mayo-based coleslaw was sweet and paired nicely with the cue and some Texas Pete.

It’s looking like 2022 will be the year I am able to finally make my pilgrimage to Ayden and I’ll likely stop by the original Sam Jones BBQ in nearby Winterville as well. Sam Jones BBQ’s outpost in Raleigh only made me anticipate that upcoming trip even more.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 4.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs