Monk: Lamb barbacoa is primarily thought of as a dish along the southern Texas border, but Gonzalo Ramirez has been making authentic barbacoa in Arleta outside of Los Angeles for the past 40 years.
Description: Gonzalo Ramirez is one of the only barbacoyeros in the U.S. who raises and butchers his own lambs. He cooks the barbacoa in a pit, during a process that takes 24 hours. Ramirez sells his traditional Hidalgo-style barbacoa, moronga (blood sausage), consomé, and more on the corner of Canterbury Ave. and Hoyt Street off Van Nuys Blvd. in Arleta, California.
Monk: The biggest news from a mostly quiet past three months was the reopening of Bubba’s Barbecue in north Charlotte after 2+ years closure due to the pandemic. It technically opened over the summer, but that was a quiet reopening and it wasn’t publicized until October.
As noted in the article linked below, the restaurant first opened in 1963 as Jackson and Spoon’s Barbecue (later just Spoon’s Barbecue) on South Boulevard. In 1987, owner Ralph Miller purchased the restaurant and the original recipes. He later renamed the restaurant Bubba’s Barbecue and moved it to Sunset Road, where it has been serving Eastern North Carolina-style barbecue since 1994.
I’ll have a report back in a few weeks, but in the meantime it’s good to have a classic barbecue restaurant back in operation.
October
10/7 Bubba’s Barbecue quietly reopened over the summer, reports the Charlotte Observer
Bubba’s Barbecue closed at the beginning of the pandemic. It serves slow-cooked Eastern NC-style barbecue, with brisket, ribs and sides. https://t.co/kd8Dd1BPfP
10/18 Local coverage from WSOC TV on Phar Mill Brewing & BBQ‘s expansion into Concord
10/23 Courtney’s BBQ in nearby Clover opened a brewery that is open every day the restaurant is
November
11/7 The Smoke Pit wins Best Soup for its Smoked Chicken and Dumplings in the 17th Annual Soup Sampling by Cabarrus County’s Meals on Wheels
11/17 Jon G’s Barbecue collaborated with Virtuoso Bread in Waxhaw by smoking a bag of rye berries for 4 hours “in a way that the flavor would come out gentle and not too intrusive”
11/30 The NC F&B Podcast publishes its podcast visit to Jon G’s Barbecue
December
12/19 Midwood Smokehouse’s Raleigh location (opening this month) will have some different items than their current stores, including what looks to be a crunchwrap-type item
12/28 Mac’s Speed Shop has new menu items until the end of February, including this beef rib
Monk: 2022 was yet another year of great barbecue. In addition to finally getting to spend some time in the eastern part of the state for whole hog (although still not nearly enough), I tried two of the best new school barbecue at Palmira Barbecue in Charleston and Lawrence Barbecue in Durham. In terms of North Carolina, in the last weeks of the year I ate at two of the best joints in Buxton Hall Barbecue and Stamey’s. Here are the meals in photos listed in alphabetical order.
Whole hog barbecue dinner from B’s Barbecue, Greenville, NC (link)
Whole hog and ribs from Buxton Hall Barbecue in Asheville (re-review coming soon)
Hash and rice from Duke’s Barbecue in Orangeburg, SC (link)
A little bit of everything from Jon G’s Barbecue in Peachland, NC
Pork, brisket, and sticky ribs from Lawrence Barbecue, Durham, NC (link)
Whole hog barbecue, hash and rice from Palmira BBQ, Charleston, NC (link)
Whole hog barbecue from Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC (link)
Chopped barbecue plate with extra brown from Stamey’s Barbecue, Greensboro, NC (re-review coming soon)
Monk: 2022 marked the ten year anniversary of the blog and its gone by in a flash. We’re going to take the rest of the year off in order to come out strong in 2023, but before we do we want to 1) wish you all a happy holidays and 2) spotlight one last time some of our favorite original content from 2022.
Without further ado…
Original Content
My summer kicked off with a weekly recap of all 8 episodes of the third season of “BBQ Brawl.” While I was happy to get through those two months mostly unscathed, I also checked out a few other barbecue streaming shows throughout the year featuring notable barbecue personalities like Michael Symon’s “BBQ USA,”“World of Flavor with Big Moe Cason,” and the third season of “BBQuest” which added Hardcore Carnivore’s Jess Pryles as a co-host.
We’ve done some updating of our Lexington rankings sadly due to closures but I already know I need to get back to Lexington to try Cafe 71 Smoke House BBQ, which opened this fall in the old Rick’s Smokehouse space.
I also am trying a new post format with the “best barbecue within an hour of [insert major city here].” I’ve started with Charlotte but will work on posts for both Raleigh as well as the eastern part of the state.
We also went to a few festivals this year! May was a busy month in Charlotte with both the Smoke & Grapes event at the Charlotte Wine & Food Festival as well as the successful first annual Carolina BBQ Festival hosted by Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s BBQ.
I can’t wait to see what festivals I’ll make it to in 2023.
Reviews
We’re up to 327 reviews on the site now, and in 2022 we added 23 more. Not quite our most productive year, but still an average of nearly 2 per month.
Rudy got to finally try Noble Smoke in Charlotte in February, and left pretty impressed with a 4.5 hog review.
Speedy loved pretty much everything about the relatively new Bringle’s Smoking Oasis in Nashville, from the space to the bar to of course the food (in particular the beef rib and the brisket). Another 4.5 hog meal.
But from the looks of it, Speedy’s favorite meal of the year was at Prime Barbecue in Knightdale when he was back in North Carolina this summer. He gave it our prestigious 5 hog rating, the first since our most recent Jon G’s Barbecue review from 2021.
I got in on the 4.5 hog action with a couple of joints in the Carolinas: Lawrence Barbecue in Durham and Palmira BBQ in Charleston. At Lawrence, in addition to the fun atmosphere at Boxyard RTP and the Lawrence Barbecue-inspired beer from Trophy Brewing, the pork and brisket were highlights of the meal. At Palmira, I got to chat with owner and pitmaster Hector Garate and both the whole hog barbecue and hash and rice shone through.
And last but not least, I can’t forget my mini whole hog barbecue tour in eastern North Carolina in the spring, where I visited B’s Barbecue, Skylight Inn, and the original location of Sam Jones BBQ.
I did a brief writeup for The Smoke Sheet, which a version of showed up on the site as well.
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