Guest Photo Gallery: Virgie’s Bar-B-Que, Houston, TX
On his work travels, friend of the blog Avent snapped a couple of photos from Virgie’s Bar-B-Que, one of Texas Monthly’s Top 50 BBQ joints in Texas, and sent them over to us.
Avent’s mini-review: “the sides leave a little to be desired, but the meat is great.”
– While the newest incarnation of the Hornets opted not to use Alexander Julian as a free consultant to help design their new uniforms, he designed the original ones in exchange for barbecue
Julian was already a standout in the design world because of his “Colours” collection of men’s clothes when Shinn asked him in the 1980s to come up with the Hornets’ original uniforms. Julian said he would do it if Shinn would ship five pounds of barbecue to his house in Connecticut every month – “Carolina caviar,” as Julian called it.
“I had no idea that an expansion team uniform was going to sell as much as it did,” Julian said. “I was really dumb. I didn’t know what I was giving up. I normally get a five percent royalty. The reports I saw was that they sold over $200 million worth of stuff. So I traded $10 million for some barbecue. George got rich, and I got fat.”
– Stamey’s was featured on the Cooking Channel show “Man Fire Food” (via bbqboard) yesterday
– Well this sounds promising:
Pretty damn excited about the idea of @topchefkevin bringing whole-hog barbecue to Georgia this year. Preview taste at @gunshowatl July 4-5.
— Bill Addison (@BillAddison)
– Yet another list of best barbecue joints in America, this time from Smart Travel list (via Huffington Post). At least it’s pretty accurate for NC, both in the description of east vs. Lexington styles as well as the joints they choose
Where to Get It: Our resident North Carolinian editor says Allen & Son in Chapel Hill is quintessential, with large brick pits out back and telltale checkered oilcloth on the tables inside. Skylight Inn in Ayden earns Southern Living‘s high praises for its whole-hog approach. Locals laud Lexington Barbecue‘s wood-smoked, ketchup-laced pork shoulder; a roll to heap it on will cost you $0.17 extra, and some Cheerwine (a super-carbonated cherry soda native to the area) is the only proper accompaniment.
– From a few weeks back, Daniel Vaughn (aka bbqsnob) had the good fortune to explore whole hog barbecue through tasting it from Ed Mitchell, Samuel Jones, and Rodney Scott at The Big Apple BBQ event earlier this month
– Robert Moss explains smokers across the south in this article for Serious Eats (via)
– 8 Things to Eat at a Charlotte Knights game includes two barbecue items from Queen City Q – a pulled pork potato and a pulled pork sandwich
– Q4Fun figures out which beers from NoDa Brewing pairs best with various barbecue dishes
- Pulled pork
- Mustard sauce – Ramble on Red – counterbalances the acidity – competing flavors
- Vinegar sauce – Ramble on Red or Cavu
- KC style sauce – Hop Drop ‘n Roll
– This Fourth of July, feel free to go with slaw as a side dish at your cookout
“Slaw is universal,” says John Shelton Reed, author of “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue .” “Slaw is part of the deal unless you ask not to have it.”
– Well this looks amazing: John Lewis of la Barbecue and Rodney Scott of Scott’s Bar-B-Que to smoke barbecue together in Charleston; too bad its on a Sunday and during the World Cup Final
So we’re throwin’ a little shindig. @chsbrownwater @la_Barbecue @rodneyscottbbq pic.twitter.com/U5l6Lw0ILx
— Pork n Whisk(e)y (@porknwhiskey)
A short video from the AP on the True Cue guys and their “cue-sade” (nice) against “faux ‘cue.” Allen & Son Barbecue and its pitmaster Keith Allen are also featured, along with a couple of very Breaking Bad-inspired uses of a Go Pro Camera.
-Monk
– A review of the Mighty Quinn’s in Clifton, NJ
– Hogs for the Cause out of New Orleans has added an event in Charleston dubbed Holy City Hogs
– Ed Mitchell’s barbecue made an impression on Zagat from the Big Apple BBQ a few weeks back (via)
Whole hog from pitmaster Ed Mitchell
North Carolina-based pitmaster Ed Mitchell recently opened Durham restaurant Que with his son Ryan. At this weekend’s event he prepared whole hog which was tossed in the classic North Carolina vinegar-based sauce, resulting in some of the most interesting and complex flavors we tasted.
– New location, new management for Hog Day, this year in Efland
– Three Salisbury men have created Little E Sauces and Marinades, a line of rubs, marinades, and sauces that has been picked up by Food Lion
– A Beer Pilgrim’s review of 12 Bones Smokehouse in Asheville
– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Lovie’s BBQ in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, that, while isn’t a Lexington-style joint, has a thin vinegar sauce somewhat reminiscent of a Lexington dip
There is only one sauce available, and it’s as close to a Lexington-style thin vinegar-tomato mix as you’re likely to find in Atlanta. I don’t know that it went all that well with the chicken, but the pork just loved it.
– The Great NC BBQ Map should be shipping out for customers to receive maps by the end of July, and the final tally of barbecue restaurants is kind of mind-blowing
How many restaurants ended up on the map? Guess. We don’t think you’ll believe the number….
FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR!!!!
Yes, you read that right. 434. And another 42 barbecue festivals and cook-offs! So get your bellies ready.