Linkdown: 1/15/13

– The town of Hillsborough to end Hog Day after 31 years

– Report says smoking ban has not financially affected business, including barbecue restaurants

Michael Conrad, co-owner of The Barbecue Center, said the restaurant opted to go smoke free prior to the law being enforced. He said although there was some complaints in the beginning, in the end it has improved the atmosphere of the restaurant.

“We can breathe a little better,” Conrad said. “We did lose a few customers who didn’t want to go outside or wanted to smoke after they ate, but on the whole we were getting more compliments than complaints.”

– True ‘Cue gets a write-up in the Charlotte Observer

– A slightly different kind of guide to Austin barbecue

More information on Crook’s Corner’s weekly barbecue dinner Carolina ‘Cue

– SC competition team Up in Smoke is hosting a whole hog class this Saturday in McConnells (about 50 minutes from Charlotte)

– This past Sunday, Midwood Smokehouse welcomed folks from Ribs ‘n’ Bibs, an “American Smokehouse” in Lincoln, England

Barbecue Rankings

How would you like to pack your bags and spend the next half-year doing nothing but traveling around the U.S., stopping at every barbecue restaurant from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine? At each ‘cue shack, the owner would skip forth from the kitchen bearing a platter of the house specialties for your delectation. As the months pass, the numbers grow. Before long, you will have eaten at several hundred barbecue restaurants. You can taste the individual ingredients in the sauce. Your tongue can actually tell how many hours a rib has been in the smoker. If the potato salad isn’t perfect, you lean to the left and surrender it to a silver spittoon engraved “Boss.”

This is the (somewhat exaggerated) reality for Johnny Fugitt, a St. Louisan who sold his house and began the next phase of his life as a barbecue nomad.

Since last October, Johnny Fugitt has definitely had my dream job: travel across America, try all of the barbecue, and rank the restaurants.

(h/t)

Barbecue Rankings

Top 10 Austin Barbecue Joints: Top 10 Austin Barbecue Joints

burntendstx:

Here’s what the Austin Chronicle considers to be the Top 10 BBQ joints in Austin. Burnt Ends agrees with almost all of it.

Top 10 Austin Barbecue Joints: Top 10 Austin Barbecue Joints