Monk: In this short feature from UNC TV’s NC Weekend, host Deborah Holt Noel traverses across the city, taking in all the tastes and experiences it has to offer. From wakeboarding to donuts to breweries and wineries.
But of course, there’s also barbecue. On that front, she visits the barbecue pit that was discovered during the renovation of City Hall in 2014 (1:01) which also contains all of the posters of The Barbecue Festival (2:00) which brings in 150,000 visitors each October and will continue next year.
No trip to Lexington is complete without actually eating barbecue, and she wraps up the barbecue content in this video by visiting the two most prominent restaurants in Lexington Barbecue (3:19 and Bar-B-Q Center (4:45), which started as an ice cream parlor.
Description: There’s so much to do in Lexington that you can spend an entire weekend there and that’s just what we did with visits to breweries, wineries, restaurants, donut shops, even a wake park! Lexington, NC https://visitlexingtonnc.com/
The Local Palate and writer Jenn Rice detail a pretty action-packed eastern North Carolina barbecue itinerary. The usual suspects are on the list including Barbecue Bros faves Wilber’s Barbecue and Southern Smoke BBQ, but there are plenty of ones I haven’t tried yet. Bookmarking for next Spring.
A new live-fire cooking restaurant called Cinder is opening in Charlotte from Husk veteran Duke Kroger (who identifies as a pitmaster in his Twitter profile)
SCOOP: Chef Duke Kroger plans to open a new restaurant called Cinder in South End in June. He calls it “a modern play on open-fire tasting” with characteristics of Husk, the famed Charleston restaurant where Kroger got his start: https://t.co/Le0OYsUTsO
Is this bad?? Seems to be some electrical issues in a wall screwed everything up. Once again shoutout to @DallasFireRes_q otherwise this could have been a lot worse. pic.twitter.com/yKt4gLJFey
New-ish barbecue joint Palmira BBQ is one of the stalls at Port of Call
At Port of Call "[t]he stalls include up-and-coming names like smoked meats spot Palmira BBQ…" | The Hottest New Restaurants in Charleston, November 2021 https://t.co/ar4BGGom6p via @eatercarolinas
Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books. And in this case, barbecue magazine issues.
Every four years, the most anticipated issue of Texas Monthly is awaited not only by Texas barbecue fans but also by just about all Texas barbecue restaurants as well. The Top 50 is the end product of “32 Texas Monthly editorial staffers and 3 freelancers [who] visited 411 barbecue joints over eight weeks during the spring and summer, driving many thousands of miles in the process.”
As for the issue itself, the Texas Monthly Top 50 and its related features takes up about 30 pages of the November issue of the magazine. That covers: the top 10 with extended write ups, shorter write-ups on the remaining 40 of the 50, a list of the 50 honorable mentioned joints, plus a couple of short articles. Beautiful photos are featured throughout.
I can’t help but be struck by the newness of the joints in the top 50 but also the youth of several of the top joints. The five pitmasters at #1 joint Goldee’s BBQ in Fort Worth are all under 27, the five listed pitmasters at #3 Truth Barbeque in Houston are all under 35, Evan LeRoy of #5 LeRoy and Lewis is 35, and four of the other joints in the top 10 have pitmasters under 40 (Franklin Barbeque, Evie Mae’s Pit Barbeque, Snow’s BBQ, and Panther City BBQ). And as noted in the lead-in, 29 of the top 50 are new to the list.
Goldee’s Barbecue in particular is one I hope to visit soon. Besides the youth of the pitmasters noted above, I love the multi-culturality. Black, white, Laotian; these are some of the new faces of always changing barbecue scene.
Also included in the issue is the updated Top 50 BBQ Joints Passport, a highly coveted item for all Texas BBQ hunters. As folks visit the various joints, they get a stamp in the hopes of completing the passport. Who knows if I’ll get the opportunity to get stamps of my own, but I urge folks to practice civility when visiting these joints in the coming weeks and months. I recall anecdotal evidence of impatience and ugliness after the last list drop in 2017.
The Texas Monthly Top 50 issue is available through the Texas Monthly Store online(now sold out) for those of us not in Texas but be warned that you will be paying about $15 for the single issue after shipping. It’s also available as part of “The Ultimate Texas BBQ Guide Bundle” which will run you $50 before shipping (also now sold out). Even with the increased price for those out of state, it’s worth having for any serious barbecue fan.
Monk: The Smoke Sheet has recently been active on their YouTube Channel and they have some sights and sounds from BrettFest held last month in Rockdale, TX.
Description: Celebrating their 3rd anniversary with over 45 BBQ joints, several from the newly listed Texas Monthly Top 50, Brett’s Backyard Bar-B-Que sold over 400 tickets to BrettFest and put on a show!
Brett Boren called BrettFest 2021 the “party of the year”, and that might have been an understatement. Gathering pitmasters from all over Texas, Rockdale was rocking with live music, delicious bites, and crafted cocktails. Highlighting their culinary powers, the pitmasters cooked up everything from homemade empanadas, grilled steaks with chimichurri, onigirazu, chocolate chip cookies, kimchi pulled pork sliders, tacos, and bbq eggrolls. Vendors handed out samples of hot sauce, pickles, beer, and cocktails.
Guests of the event not only ate to their hearts delight, but also collected signatures from the pitmasters in their newly printed Texas Monthly magazines.
Brett being a man of few words spoke to the pitmasters and simply thanked them for coming and that he was looking forward to celebrating with them after the event with a nice glass of bourbon. I would recommend that everyone mark their calendars for Brett Fest 2022!
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