Monk: Aaron Franklin takes Huckberry on a trip down memory lane at his salvage yard before he turns his attention towards welding an old Schwinn to a rotisserie smoker for this year’s Hot Luck Festival, which took place earlier this year in Austin.
Description: Who do you call when you need a rotisserie made from an old bicycle? Apparently, Aaron Franklin…
We caught up with the BBQ Chef and self-proclaimed “tinker-er” a week ahead of Hot Luck, a food festival he founded, while in the middle of a project for the festival: a peddle-powered rotisserie, fashioned from an old Schwinn Bicycle.
Along the way Aaron gives a tour of his workshop and personal salvage yard where he works on welding projects for Hot Luck and beyond. In Aaron’s words: he started welding “out of necessity” because to make a good cooker you “have to be someone who cooks.”
When news of Richard’s Bar-B-Q in Salisbury closing later this month, he also spun some words reflecting on the pending loss of yet another True ‘Cue joint
Native News
Congrats to Grady’s BBQ on 36 years open
Elliot Moss has parted ways with Buxton Hall Barbecue, according to his Instagram post, but will be staying in Asheville and has another restaurant in the works; as for barbecue: “I’m NOT done with BBQ. My passion for BBQ will live on forever. I’ll be doing some bbq traveling & cooking. Stay tuned”
Monk: The biggest barbecue news in Charlotte from April to June was surely the inaugural edition of the Carolina BBQ Festival held in late May. You can revisit my recap of the memorable day here:
The Carolina BBQ Festival Delivered on its Promise to Put Charlotte Barbecue on the Map https://t.co/NudqfDphkO
The festival sold out of all tickets for this year’s edition and Lewis Donald has some big plans for next year. More news on that front should be coming in the next few days or weeks according to a recent Instagram post. Follow them on Instagram to find out as soon as its posted.
The rest of the Charlotte barbecue news from the past 3 months:
April
4/4 In news you don’t like to see, Noble Smoke and a neighboring business The Good Life got involved in a parking dispute
The latest update in the parking dispute between 2 Charlotte businesses: The owner of The Good Life was arrested last week after a Freedom House pastor got involved via Instagram.
Robbie McNair asks, “Why am I here? I didn’t put my hands on anyone.”https://t.co/jtbTRftD6Y
4/25 Axios Charlotte names The Smoke Pit as one of the recommended places to eat when in Concord just north of Charlotte
May
5/10 The inaugural Carolina BBQ Festival officially sells out weeks ahead of its debut
5/24 The Carolina BBQ Festival in photos
Cheers to Lewis and team for a hugely successful inaugural Carolina BBQ Festival! Charlotte's got itself a great event I hope becomes a fixture of the local food scene. I can't wait until next year's edition which promises to be even bigger and badder. More on the festival soon. pic.twitter.com/Q7xuWYc0yS
6/1 We collaborate with our friends at The Smoke Sheet to recap the Carolina BBQ Festival
6/3 The fan favorite G’s Burger is taken off the Jon G’s Barbecue menu for a “short hiatus”
6/5 Midwood Smokehouse and Jon G’s Barbecue are two of the 13 barbecue restaurants included in Cheerwine’s Carolina ‘Cue Tour
6/5 Not to be outdone, Gaston County launches a barbecue trail of their own. The Gaston County Cue Trail has 7 barbecue restaurants on the list, the oldest of which even opened back in 1946
6/30 The Charlotte Observer posts their latest list of Charlotte-area barbecue joints; some good, some not so good on the list but that’s a reflection of Charlotte barbecue more than anything else.
Monk: WRAL’s Out and About has been visiting barbecue joints this summer, and in this video they sit down with Christopher Prieto of Prime Barbecue in Knightdale, who runs through his menu and approach to barbecue.
Description: Christopher Prieto has been studying barbecue all his life. The Texas native opened his first restaurant, Prime BBQ, in Knightdale Station in 2020. Full story here.
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