Monk: Friend of the blog Ryan Cooper from The Smoke Sheet co-hosted the inaugural Party in the Pit (alongside Chef Terra Whipple of Chef J BBQ), which recently brought together folks from the barbecue community to celebrate Kansas City barbecue. A full write-up was featured in this week’s Smoke Sheet newsletter.
Description: Jordan Turner captured this video of the inaugural Party in the Pit, which brought together the BBQ community in a celebration of Kansas City BBQ. The exclusive event highlighted barbecue from 18 of the city’s top pitmasters, who shared a variety of delicious dishes with attendees, while Bull Creek Distillery served their award-winning spirits. That evening, local artist Philip Bergantine created a portrait of Henry Perry, the father of Kansas City BBQ, which was presented to Perry’s granddaughter Bernetta McKindra. The event was organized by Terra Whipple of Chef J BBQ and The Smoke Sheet’s Ryan Cooper.
Monk: Phar Mill BBQ and Brewing has not only recently joined the Charlotte barbecue landscape within the last year or so but has even opened a second location in Concord (it’s original location is in Harrisburg). They are a joint that is smoking it’s barbecue over wood – on a Jon G’s smoker, nonetheless – and I hope to report back soon.
In the next six months, I’d love to see more upstart barbecue joints in Charlotte plus maybe an established, wood-smoking chain like Sam Jones or Rodney Scott or Home Team join the Charlotte barbecue scene because, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Here’s the notable barbecue news from the past three months.
July
7/12 Spectrum 1 checks in on Barvecue, the wood-smoked, plant-based barbecue from Cornelius
7/12 Jon G’s Barbecue makes Yelp Charlotte’s list of 25 places to eat in Charlotte
7/15 Lewis Donald is no longer involved with Dish and will be focusing his efforts on Sweet Lew’s BBQ and the Carolina Barbecue Festival going forward
Former owner Lewis Donald will focus on Sweet Lew’s, and Paper Plane owner Amanda Cranford has taken over. Good news: Meatloaf and fried green tomatoes are here to stay. https://t.co/Np0YFk0Ysr
8/3 HopFly Brewing Company releases Go Time Smoked Pilsner, brewed in collaboration with Jon G’s Barbecue:
We put this recipe together with our friends from the renowned @jongsbbq in Peachland, NC. In addition to our favorite pilsner malt, we filled this beer out with a healthy quantity of wheat smoked by Jon G himself down in Peachland. This beautiful golden lager has a round, malty sweetness complemented nicely with overtones of the BBQ pit. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a slab of smoked brisket, or while you’re at home standing next to the grill. 4.0% ABV
8/3 Jon G’s also makes the News & Observer’s favorite NC barbecue joints
September
9/3 Jon G’s Barbecue shares some photos of their involvement in the wedding of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Afflect in Savannah
9/9 Phar Mill Brewing and BBQ opens its Concord location
9/14 Noble Smoke, Jon G’s, Midwood Smokehouse, and The Smoke Pit are included in this Texas-style barbecue restaurant roundup from Kevin’s BBQ Joints
NEW: There are some amazing Texas-style BBQ Joints OUTSIDE of Texas. I have compiled a list of over 108 of them from 46 states. You can see the guide with over 324 photos of gorgeous platters from those spots here:https://t.co/3VFkTmO8FSpic.twitter.com/2H3pNTfa30
Monk: Preparations are underway, not only from the organizers of the festival but also the restaurants on the fringe of town who hope to get additional traffic from the 150,000 or so folks coming into town for the weekend.
I did learn from this video that a barbecue joint named Cafe 71 has recently opened in the former Rick’s Smokehouse in Welcome, which is wonderful news and has been added to my list.
Monk: Fascinating story first brought to our attention by the excellent NC Rabbit Hole newsletter by Jeremy Markovich. And relevant because Texas Pete has a long history with NC barbecue: “[The history section on the Texas Pete website] goes on to say that basically, during the depression, the Garner family wanted some spicier sauce to serve at their barbecue stand. The sauce outlived the stand.”
— North Carolina Rabbit Hole (@ncrabbithole) October 6, 2022
Also fascinating: Jeremy first brought this to our attention (culling information from a publicly available lawsuit, but still) but has since been aggregated out of credit. He breaks it down in the following Twitter thread.
First up, I was not the first person to write about this case! That distinction goes to @jobrienwv at @LegalNewsline, who wrote up a short story on September 26, two weeks after it was filed 2/ https://t.co/kWMenWf2lF
The story has since been picked up by The Huffington Post, USA Today, Business Insider/Food Insider, and the Nexstar-owned news stations like High Point’s Fox 8.
A California man is suing the maker of Texas Pete hot sauce for false advertising because it's made in North Carolina, not Texas https://t.co/cZ3MoRs3dx
In any case, I urge you to support Jeremy and NC Rabbit Hole for not only this but lots of other fascinating, NC-focused stories.
Native News
The last bit on Texas Pete (for now), an Our State Magazine story on its history from 2017
Since Texas Pete is getting sued because it isn’t actually made in Texas here’s the story I wrote on the history of Texas Pete in 2017. A vintage Sara story, if you will. https://t.co/Mg4V5fOtAN
John Mueller’s barbecue joint at the Granary didn’t come to fruition before he passed, but his friend Jeff Ancira is keeping his memory alive with BBQ at the Granary
The Jarrell joint was helmed by the late pitmaster and is now led by his friend, who still serves some of the same menu items, like cheesy squash. https://t.co/uOWRXj9601
Heirloom Market is still found on Eater Atlanta’s 38 Essential Restaurants lis
38 essential Atlanta restaurants to know serving everything from Filipino fare in Grant Park and fresh bistro dishes under the stars in Chastain Park to duck lasagna in Midtown and gheimeh bademjoon (lamb shank stew) in Inman Park https://t.co/jQCP2SD5y5
Thank you to the esteemed food team at @houstonchron for this honor. 4yrs ago we began this journey having no idea where it would lead. Lo & behold it has been a yellow brick road laid w/ a foundation of passion, hard work & dedication to being the best we can be every single day pic.twitter.com/bYWl70uLSw
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