Asheville

Linkdown: 10/29/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– Creative Loafing: Is there an Atlanta barbecue? With quotes from our friend Grant from Marie, Let’s Eat (via)

But is there an “Atlanta style” of barbecue? Arguably the unofficial capital of the South, Atlanta should be known as a barbecue mecca the way Memphis is, right? Or Austin? Hell, even Lexington, N.C. — with a population of fewer than 20,000 — is more of a bona fide barbecue destination than we’ve ever been. Atlanta is situated in the heart of barbecue country, but when you ask some of the area’s best barbecue bloggers and chefs to explain the city’s place in the wider world of ‘cue, you get more hemming and hawing than from a pitmaster being grilled on what’s in his top-secret rub.

– Speaking of Atlanta, the latest barbecue stops for Marie, Let’s Eat are Poole’s Bar-B-Q, Joe’s BBQ, and Sam’s BBQ-1 West

– In this past weekend’s third annual Tempeh Challenge in Asheville. a tempeh from The Bom Bus captured the People’s Choice Award with “its black bean tempeh and North Carolina-style barbecue sauce served with sweet potato mash and sweet potato chips”

– Eight years in, southern Californian Carolina Panther Ryan Kalil knows the difference in barbecue between the two areas…kinda

Q. What has become your favorite Southern tradition?

A. Barbecuing’s a big deal in southern California and it is here, too.

Q. Different styles though, right?

A. Different style, different lingo. Like back home you say, ‘Are you going to a barbecue?’ Here you say, go to grill out. I’m like, ‘Grill out?’

Q. What’s the food at a California barbecue?

A. Different kinds of burgers, steaks. Here it’s like pulled pork.

– A video feature on The Great NC BBQ Map from High Point’s Fox 8

– WRAL’s pick for favorite entree at this year’s NC State Fair was a barbecue sundae

Carthage’s own Pik-N-Pig offers the best entree option at the N.C. State Fair – The Barbecue Sundae. Now, it isn’t a traditional ice cream sundae. It is more like a barbecue parfait with layers and layers of goodness. The barbecued pork is topped with a layer of baked beans, then a layer of coleslaw. Just add your favorite sauce on top (we like a mix of both sauces), and you are all set. Served in a convenient 20 oz. plastic cup, you are able to walk and eat quite easily with this blend of sides and meat. Don’t be surprised if you end up finishing it, because it is not nearly as heavy as it sounds.

– WRAL also reviews The Fire Pit, a new barbecue restaurant in Wake Forest

– On Sunday, Sam Jones hits Dallas with his brand of North Carolina whole hog awesomeness for Dia de los Puercos

– More info on Dia de los Puercos from TMBBQ themselves, noting that the “hogs that Samuel Jones will be cooking are a Texas-raised heritage breed,” plus this cool photos

– Lexington is #4 on this list of the 12 meat cities in the US, and for good reason:

Of the many “barbecue capitals of the world,” Lexington is by far the smallest. There’s a barbecue restaurant (19) for every thousand people, and most are world class.

– Finally:

Linkdown: 8/27/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– Tyson Ho of Arrogant Swine writes a post about creating a menu at his upcoming whole hog joint in Bushwick and has this great quote:

“Every time brisket shows up on a Carolina menu, God runs over a basket of sweet fluffy kittens with a Mack truck.”

– Marie, Let’s Eat! returns to Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q and provides some great perspective on Atlanta barbecue in the process; also, Grant, I’ll take you up on that offer next time I’m in town!

– Sounds like crowds weren’t quite as good as hoped for at last week’s RibFest in Raleigh due to competing activities in downtown

– Carolina Barbecue off Business I-85 in Spartanburg gets some good marks

– “Valley BBQ tradition involves caring” includes a little bit of history

“Virginians don’t have a barbecue tradition,” Matthew Poteat, a Stauntonian from eastern North Carolina, starts to say, then rights himself before setting off a small war.

The nationally renowned North Carolina-barbecue style came from Tidewater Virginia, the Carolina Q Pig Pickers owner admits.

Pig done Poteat’s way involves pulling pieces of pork off the roast, chopping it coarse with a cleaver, and mixing the dark and white meat together, crispy skin and all. His sauce is “vinegar and red pepper sauce, real thin.”

While Texas and other states prefer red sauces, the vinegar-based sauce is the oldest and first in the country according to Poteat, who’s also a history professor at Lynchburg College.

– Look for The Great NC BBQ Map folks on Charlotte Today next Friday

– More from Buxton Hall:

Linkdown: 8/20/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– Wayne Monk, Sam Jones, and other “old-school pitmasters” weigh in on how the barbecue industry is changing

“To cook pork shoulders the way we do it, it’s a 10-hour process. It’s hard these days to find young men to learn a trade like this that they’re proud of, that have 10-hour days. People take shortcuts, like gas cookers. But the more gas cookers there are, the better my business gets.” – Rick Monk, Lexington Barbecue (Lexington, NC)

– You may remember this bill from a few months back due to its dubious claim to South Carolina being “birthplace of barbecue,” but in any case its finally official: barbecue is South Carolina’s “southern picnic cuisine”

– Speaking of South Carolina, would the Senator Frank Underwood from House of Cards really be eating ribs instead of pulled pork?

– Registration for the 2014 Q City Charlotte BBQ Championship is now live until slots fill up; also, it is now a NC BBQ Association event rather than a Memphis BBQ Network one as it had been in years past

– According to Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor of Texas Monthly, “[t]he brisket I’ve had in New York lately is better than a lot of places in Texas”

– Vote for best barbecue (as well as other cuisines) in Creative Loafing Charlotte’s Best of 2014 survey

– On September 7, five Louisville chefs will compete in a whole hog challenge to determine who will be crowned the “BBQ King or Queen” (via)

At the stand-up tasting reception, they’ll serve six dishes that illustrate entire animal usage, scored on utilization, presentation, barbecue influences and flavor. The perfect plate spotlights the whole pig and can ultimately inspire restaurant owners to greater support of local agriculture, according to event founder Brady Lowe.

– This Eater guide to the best pulled pork in Austin features a couple of the usual suspects plus a few I hadn’t heard of before (via)

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Papa Joe’s BBQ Pit and Cook Out in a review from last week

– This month’s Carolina ‘Cue feature from Our State is Big Mike’s Barbecue, a food truck out of the Raleigh area

At this writing, there is but one place you can find Big Mike’s Barbecue: It’s indeterminate, location at present unknown, its setting determined by demand, a roving outlet for the conveyance of pork in its various guises. Big Mike calls it the Red Barn. You would, too, if you saw it, because that’s exactly what it appears to be. No room for towering bales of hay or horse stalls or tractors, though, just big enough for a sink and a counter and a little smoker toward the back, on what looks like a screened-in porch, and small enough to be pulled behind a GMC Sierra 2500HD. You order through one of the barn windows. On the window is a drawing of a pig holding a fork and knife, a pig with a big smile on his face, as if he’s happy to be eating himself. And, on any given day, the Red Barn could be in the parking lot of the building where you work, near a bar you frequent, or at a party where you’re the guest of honor.

– Brooks Sandwich House, home of Charlotte’s best burger, has barbecue available seasonally and it is back; I’m not sure what to expect from it but when I try it I’ll at least get a burger as well

– A preview of things to come from Buxton Hall?

Linkdown: 8/13/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– This is my nightmare: the Lone Star Tick (named for Texas) can make you allergic to barbecue as well as burgers

– The 2014 NC Whole Hog Barbecue State Championship will be October 3/4 in Downtown Raleigh

This year, the State Championship will return to Downtown Raleigh as part of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Wide Open Bluegrass Festival. After the judging is complete, the mouth-watering barbecue will be chopped and sold in sandwiches to festival attendees on Saturday, October 4.

– Another article from the Mooresville Tribune on The Great NC BBQ Map; it was also listed this week as one of the 5 things you need to know in the South right now from Southern Living

– Barbecue on other lists, pt. 1: Garden and Gun named their top breakfast joints in the South and Southern Soul Barbeque in St. Simons Island, GA made the list

– Barbecue on other lists, pt. 2: in addition to legendary barbecue, Skylight Inn in Ayden apparently has one of the NC’s best burgers

– Thrillist’s list of The 15 Best New BBQ Joints in America

– A letter to the president regarding NC barbecue, plus a pork butt recipe

Dear President Obama,

It seems you like barbecue. You broke in line at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, but I guess the headaches of being president allow you some leeway. You had a cold Bud Light when you hit Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City, even if they had run out of slaw, but you stood in line there, so between the beer and waiting your turn, you showed your humanity and touch with the common man.

I know you’ve been to North Carolina many times, but I’ve yet to hear about you stopping at one of our well-smoked, traditional barbecue joints. They really are your kind of places. I’m not talking about the newfangled ones, where the emphasis is on selling you a liquor drink. No, we have some time-honored places where wood smoke meets the meat.

– 12 Bones Smokehouse makes this list of places to eat from The Telegraph’s (UK) guide to Asheville as well as Culture Trip’s 10 “must-try” local restaurants in Asheville

– How I Built A Barbecue Restaurant in Brookyln: A Lease Safari, from Tyson Ho of Arrogant Swine – you remember, Arrogant Swine is the Carolina style whole hog joint who is using Heritage Cheshire hogs that I want to go to next time I’m in NYC (via)

– A shot of the space where Buxton Hall will be housed

– Pat Martin, pitmaster of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, cooked the annual barbecue dinner at the James Beard House last Thursday and here was the draft menu