3 hogs

The Pit – Durham, NC

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Name: The Pit Durham
Date: 3/10/14
Address: 321 W. Geer St., Durham, NC 27701
Order: Lexington style outside brown, eastern style chopped pork, beef brisket, beef short ribs, corn bread, red slaw, fried okra (link to menu)
Price: $117.64 (for four people, including drinks)

Speedy: Upon finding out that Raleigh favorite The Pit was opening a new restaurant in Durham, I started looking for excuses to check it out, as I’ve had nothing but solid experiences in several trips to The Pit. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the new Pit quite lives up to the standard.

Monk: Although the rating for The Pit in Raleigh isn’t quite up there with our highest rankings, we did have a great time there a few years back and thus I was jealous of Speedy’s trip.

Speedy: Walking in, the atmosphere is more upscale than most barbecue joints, but overall is similar to the Raleigh version. It is a bit more closed off, and our group was seated in a large dining room, which was completely separated from the bar area. Overall, the atmosphere is fine, but it doesn’t scream “barbecue” at all.

The first thing I noticed about the menu is that it is somewhat different than The Pit in downtown Raleigh. Many menu items are the same, but The Pit Durham focuses on more “family style” ordering. Also, The Pit Durham did not have the BBQ soul rolls on the menu, which was a huge disappointment as these BBQ style egg rolls might be my favorite appetizer on Earth. Our group skipped all the appetizers and ordered an assortment of meats, sides, and cornbread.

Monk: No soul rolls?!? For shame!

Speedy: When the meat arrived, we received fairly large portions of our four meats. The menu advises that these are large enough for two people, which is probably about right; however, our group was totally prepared to sacrifice our stomachs (more on that later…) to over-indulge on smoked barbecue delicacies.

My personal favorite meat was the eastern chopped pork, as I found it to be tender with just the right amount of vinegary goodness. The Lexington style pork was fine, but just didn’t hold a candle to the real stuff you get in Lexington. Strangely enough, the rest of my group (who all grew up in Eastern NC) did not think much of the Eastern style but really liked the Lexington style. To me, that really just means that you can find much better versions of either style elsewhere. I remember all of the pork being better at the Raleigh version.

Monk: Funny how that worked out…

Speedy: The brisket, I thought, was pretty good and very similar to the Raleigh version. I’ve definitely had better and as my brisket palate is becoming more refined, I’m starting to learn what great brisket is. This was not great brisket, but it’s also really easy to get horrible brisket, and this certainly isn’t that either. I would probably order this again on a subsequent trip.

As for the short rib, this order was not my idea. For some reason, short rib seems to have become the most “mainstream” of all the traditional barbecue goods, as it can be found on menus of many high end restaurants. I’m not sure I understand why. I get that the meat can be cooked such that it’s super tender, but I don’t think it holds the smoky flavor in as well as some other meats. I’ll personally take pork ribs ten time out of ten when it comes to any type of rib. All that being said, this was a pretty decent version of short rib – it’s just not something I would tend to order at any barbecue joint. So take that into account when you consider my rating – similar to “degree of difficulty” on a gymnastics routine – I’m not sure there could ever be a short rib that would earn five hogs.

Monk: I’ll be honest here, I had to look up what a short rib was. I don’t think I’ve ever had one, unless I still just don’t know what it is.

Speedy: I was a little disappointed in the sides. The hush puppies and fried okra were strong, but the barbecue slaw lacked the necessary tang and was just so-so. The corn bread was kind of bad. It looked like banana bread and just didn’t taste quite right.

Monk: Being that the Durham location of The Pit just opened last November, do you think they could still be working out the kinks any? Or maybe the slight differences in the menus between the two may just mean that Durham won’t ever be quite as good.

Speedy: The issues I had with the food didn’t really seem to have much to do with it being new. The service was fine. It just seemed like the operators made a conscious decision to make The Pit Durham different from The Pit Raleigh. In my opinion, the changes were not for the better.

Overall, I thought the meal was good, but not as good as my experiences at The Pit Raleigh. I will say that starting about three hours later, my stomach was in bad shape for about two days. I think this is likely due to my extreme over-indulgence, and it wouldn’t stop me from a return trip, but I do think it probably has affected my perception, and thus my rating. I had high expectations going in, and was left wanting a little more (in terms of quality – I had eaten plenty of food).

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 2.5 hogs
Eastern Pork – 3.5 hogs
Lexington Outside Brown – 3 hogs
Brisket – 3.5 hogs
Short Ribs – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs
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Elwoods Barbecue & Burger Bar – Charlotte, NC (CLOSED)

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Name: Elwoods BBQ & Burger Bar
Date: 3/26/14
Address: 16139 Lancaster Hwy, Charlotte, NC 28277
Order: Classic Carolina Pulled Pork plate with cornbread, hush puppies, red slaw, and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $14

I never ate at the previous incarnation of Elwood’s Barbecue & Burger Bar (then simply known as Elwood’s BBQ) but from what I can tell I wasn’t missing much. Then last fall it was purchased by a couple of brothers-in-law, one of which was a former manager at Ri-Ra, who then hired a chef who previously worked at Burger Co. As I understand it, they immediately began to overhaul the menu and improve the quality of food.

But before I get to the food, Elwood’s interior is nice and generically rustic with a good array of televisions. With a solid beer list in tow, I imagine this could be a pretty good place to watch a [insert favorite sport here] game. In addition to wings and various burgers on the menu, they have barbecue in various forms – pulled pork, brisket, chicken, ribs, and burnt ends. Naturally, I ordered the pulled pork with hush puppies and red slaw.

The pulled pork came out in a mix of slightly dry and more moist shreds of pork. My order had decent pieces of bark (a welcome sight) that to my surprise had decent smoke. Very unexpected, considering there were no signs of a stick burner in the middle of this restaurant on the end of a strip mall. There were two pork sauces on the table: a “Piedmont” vinegar” sauce (which if we’re nitpicking was really an eastern-style vinegar sauce) and a non-traditional “Elwood’s” sauce that was tomato and vinegar-based with a special blend of spices. Of the two, the Elwood’s sauce worked best with the pork for me.

The menu states that all sides are scratch-made in house, which I can certainly appreciate. The hush puppies automatically came with a side of honey butter, which I am always happy to see. The red slaw had an off-putting brownish tint to it and had a slightly unappealing texture, so I did not finish it. Each plate order comes with cornbread, which was a little redundant with my hush puppies order but it was a nice, sweet-ish little muffin that I didn’t mind.

So Elwood’s Barbecue & Burger Bar exceeded my somewhat (and perhaps unfairly) low expectations going in. If it weren’t all the way in south Ballantyne I could see myself maybe going again in the right circumstances. As it stands, it’s an average barbecue restaurant for Charlotte.

-Monk

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

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Elwoods Barbecue & Burger Bar on Urbanspoon

Elwood's BBQ, Burgers and Ribs on Foodio54

Ten Park Lanes – Charlotte, NC

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Name: Ten Park Lanes
Date: 1/17/14
Address: 1700 Montford Dr., Charlotte, NC 28209
Order: Speedy: Burnt ends plate with fries and green beans; Monk: Pulled pork plate with slaw and mac and cheese (link to menu)
Price: Speedy: $13; Monk: $11

Monk: You might be asking yourself why the Barbecue Bros would bother reviewing barbecue from a bowling alley. I mean, you think of bowling alley food and you think of greasy pizza and hot dogs that have been cooking on rollers for too long and served on stale buns. Well, we assure you that is not the case here – Ten Park Lanes was actually named one of the best new restaurants in Charlotte in 2012 by Charlotte Magazine and was included in the Charlotte Observer’s Barbecue Bracket last spring, making it to the Elite 8 before being defeated by eventual winner Kyle Fletcher’s.

Speedy: Of course the atmosphere differs from most ‘cue joints, since it’s a bowling alley. Honestly, I wouldn’t go eat at Ten Park Lanes unless I was bowling, but the menu is perfectly suited for the atmosphere. Monk and I were having a guy’s night with a few buddies and the combination of bowling, beers, and barbecue was perfect for the event.

I decided to order the burnt ends, since we don’t often see them here in North Carolina. And I wasn’t disappointed. They were tender and didn’t need any additional sauce, but the flavor was lacking of any smoke or true barbecue taste. I was a little surprised that they were pulled instead of chunked, but it didn’t negatively affect the flavor. Overall, I thought my order was good – I might even order it again – but it doesn’t stack up to the burnt ends at Midwood Smokehouse, which is really the only other place I’ve had them (at least until my Kansas City trip this summer…)

Monk: The pulled pork was very moist and had decent smoke. It didn’t need it, but I did try it with some of the Piedmont Blonde housemade sauce. I mean, this was legitimately solid barbecue coming from a bowling alley (who do smoke their barbecue in house, presumably in a gas smoker). Although the slaw was mayo-based, both it and the mac and cheese were also quite good. Ten Park claims that all of the food is scratch made, and I believe it. The one thing that I do want to try next time is the Que Stacked Mason Jar, which is a jar stuffed with pulled pork, southern slaw, and BBQ baked beans.

Speedy: At the end of the day, you go to Ten Park Lanes for the bowling, but it turns out that the barbecue is a very pleasant surprise. I’m not ready to crown it king of Charlotte barbecue, but it’s a great compliment to rolling a few (in our case, very few) strikes.

Monk: Sorry Speedy, but this is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. And you were over the line on those rolls…

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Burnt Ends – 3 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs

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Ten Park Lanes on Urbanspoon

Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q – Concord, NC

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Name: Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q
Date: 1/3/14
Address: 7791 Gateway Ln NW, Concord, NC 28027
Order: Mr Jim’s Deluxe Combo with Carolina-style pork, beef brisket, and baby back ribs with slow-cooked collards, cole slaw, and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $23.50

Monk: In the reader comments to our December Big Board, a reader had a couple of Charlotte-area suggestions including Jim ‘N Nick’s (albeit the Steele Creek location instead of the Concord Mills location I visited). While we don’t do a lot of chains here on Barbecue Bros, on the first Friday after the holidays I decided to throw caution into the holiday weight gain wind and give it a try.

Jim ‘N Nick’s is a pretty well-respected barbecue chain restaurant out of Birmingham, Alabama with approximately 30 locations in 7 states. Owner Nick Pihakis, a James Beard nominated restaurateur for 4 years straight, is a member of the Fatback Collective, “a group of entrepreneurs and scholars who champion heritage ingredients and cooking techniques” and has also put his money where his mouth by creating a “pork-farming pipeline” of cross-bred heritage pigs with the mission to create a better quality product for their customers. Recently, their Charleston, SC location supported Rodney Scott on the first stop on his In Exile tour.

If you want a particular type of barbecue, chances are Jim ‘N Nick’s serves it. In the past, I’ve been criticized by my fellow Barbecue Bros for not trying enough when I visit a restaurant, so on this day I went for it with the three meat combo platter with Carolina-style pork, beef brisket, and baby back ribs. As for other meats, “classic pulled pork,” hot links, smoked ham, chicken, turkey breast, and spare ribs are also available.

The pork and beef came pre-sauced and topped with a pickle (weird and not ideal for me) but were plenty moist on their own. The “Carolina-style” pork was “chopped with a vinegar-pepper sauce,” however the eastern North Carolina flavor didn’t come through. The brisket was chopped and the larger pieces had a decent tug but overall it wasn’t particularly smokey and the bark lacked flavor. The three baby back ribs were slightly pinker than I’d prefer but were brushed nicely with a sweet/tangy sauce. The two table sauces were an “original concoction” as well as a “hot & spicy” sauce. Of the two, I preferred the hot & spicy used sparingly with the pork.

JNN claims all of their sides (or “trimmings” as they are referred on the menu) are made daily with fresh ingredients, and I could tell based on my meal. The table gets a complimentary basket of cheese corn muffins, which were really good and had a nice sweetness to them. Unfortunately, these muffins appeared to be in lieu of hush puppies, which are not on the menu and thus not cool with me. The slow-cooked collards had chunks of pork and certainly did not taste like they came out of the can. The slaw had a mayo/vinegar base, was sprinkled with fresh pepper, and had a nice crispness to it. Both of my sides were fantastic.

Speedy: I’ve been to Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q twice – once for lunch while working in Fort Mill, SC in 2010 and once for dinner in Birmingham, AL in 2008. Unfortunately, I don’t have any documentation around my meal, as this was BBB (Before Barbecue Bros), but the fact that I was willing to go back means I didn’t hate it. However, I don’t feel a specific need to revisit. Incidentally, I did visit Dreamland BBQ while in Birmingham and found it to be severely overrated. Bring on the hate.

Monk: For chain barbecue (with a drive-thru no less), I haven’t had too many places better than Jim ‘N Nick’s, who by the way also had excellent service. That being said, Jim ‘N Nick’s is still a chain which means they cook their barbecue in a gas smoker. They may use hickory wood during the smoking process (which did create a nice waft of smoke in the parking lot as I exited my car), but ultimately it’s still roast pork (and beef). It’s also a bit pricey – their prices could be cut by about 20-25% (maybe more) – and it won’t make you forget about real pit barbecue, but it’ll definitely do in a pinch.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Brisket – 3 hogs
Ribs – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs 

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Jim 'n Nicks on Urbanspoon