Monk: Tommy Tomlinson welcomes Adrian Miller onto his SouthBound podcast during his recently publicity tour for his “Black Smoke” book. A lot of similar ground is covered if you’ve listened to other interviews or podcasts with Miller, but Tomlinson manages to cover some new topics with his thoughtful questions.
Don’t have Spotify? Click here for other ways to listen to the episode.
Description: SouthBound host Tommy Tomlinson interviews Adrian Miller, James Beard Award-winning food writer and author of the new book “Black Smoke,” about Black barbecue pioneers.
This latest piece of controversial barbecue list content from one “chefspencil.com” has been rightly getting roasted online since the weekend, but perhaps that was the intent all along? I mean, who had even heard of “chefspencil.com,” an Austrialian website, before this list?
New Orlean’s at number 1? Red flag. No Texas cities on the list? Red flag. As for Charlotte’s rank of 3 on the list? I say this as a Charlotte resident, but red flag. I’m not the only Charlottean who feels this way. Enter Kathleen Purvis:
Let’s declare a moratorium on any further discussion or outrage on anything “chefspencil.com” related, particularly when it comes to barbecue.
Native News
Fighting words from the Hear to Say podcast host Tressie McMillan Cottom
We had @KosherSoul & @soulfoodscholar on @HearToSlay this week. We talk about race and culture and food and how Black people were erased from the food we perfected. But I started with this question to BBQ master, Adrian, because I’m true to this: pic.twitter.com/k1Y5dlQ4Yl
— Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) May 18, 2021
An oldie but a goodie from Our State Magazine for National Barbecue Day this past Sunday
No matter where you stand on the great sauce debate, we can all agree that North Carolina barbecue is legendary. In honor of #NationalBarbecueDay, here are 26 essential NC barbecue joints. Which one will you visit next?https://t.co/eVfcMzRUGV
1. Jack's Old South 2. Hometown BBQ 3. Yazoo Delta's Q 4. Smoke Masters Championship BBQ Team 5. The Beached Pig 6. Pickin N Grillin 7. Dirty Old Basters 8. 3 Taxi Guys 9. Boars Night Out 10. Ubons BBQ
This #spicerub collection tells a story of culinary traditions that span from #WestAfrica to the American West. Includes an all-purpose rub inspired by the late John Frank Garth, one of my beloved church fathers, a #tsire rub, some #jerk seasoning, and a shout out to East Texas! pic.twitter.com/ME2UDouCwx
High on the Hog premieres on Netflix in one week on 5/26
Although it took five years to turn what is essentially the first half of her book “High on the Hog” into a documentary, Jessica B. Harris said the timing of its release is perfect. https://t.co/rgisl9z6Bu
Name: Bobby’s BBQ Address: 1301 N Main St, Fountain Inn, SC 29644 Order: 1/2 lb brisket, 1/2 lb pork, 1 original sausage, 1 jalapeno cheddar sausage, corn pudding, mac and cheese, green beans (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Octavius “Tay” Nelson and his wife, Sarah opened Bobby’s BBQ in Fountain Inn, SC after Tay spent a few years learning how to smoke from YouTube videos. Yes, really. Tay actually originally grew up in Fountain Inn and Bobby’s is named after both his dad and brother (Bobby Sr and Jr) who both passed away within a few months of each other in the late 00’s. Tay came up with a barbecue seasoning first in 2010 and the restaurant came later in 2018.
The restaurant is central Texas-inspired which as mentioned above, Tay learned from watching different tutorials on YouTube. The Texas of it all is evident if you take a peek into the smoke room and see two huge offset pits with stacks of wood.
As for the barbecue, I found it to be above average but not transcendent. The brisket had good flavor but was not the most neatly sliced by the meat cutter, who hacked and sliced through the end of a brisket.
The pork was dry which is almost to be expected from a Texas-style joint at this point.
On this day, they had two sausages, both an original and a jalapeno cheddar. Of the two, I preferred the jalapeno cheddar, though both were above average.
From a sides perspective, both the mac and cheese and corn pudding shone, and I particularly liked the corn pudding. The green beans were a bit bland and were cooked within an inch of their life.
Bobby’s BBQ is a great story, with food that mostly backs it up as well as a great setting. It’s worth seeking out in the greater Greenville area.
Name: Smoke Show BBQ (pop-up at Crown Station) Order: 1/2 lb brisket, 4 St. Louis cut rib, 1/4 chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, mac and cheese, baked, beans, banana pudding (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Ever keeping my eye on new barbecue restaurants or pop-ups in Charlotte, I was caught off guard by a recent Charlotte Magazine article listing 4 pop-ups to know including one Smoke Show BBQ. The pop-up is owned and run by Brandon Belfer, a chef who attended Johnson & Wales culinary school in Charlotte and who according to that article has worked for a lot of great chefs and kitchens in Charlotte including The Stanley with Paul Verica, The Crunkleton, The Asbury under former chef Matthew Krenz and current chef Mike Long, and Kindred and Hello, Sailor under Joe Kindred and Craig Diehl.
Belfer is originally from the town of Pleasanton outside San Antonio, so he grew up around Texas barbecue and that is his focus for Smoke Show. Every 2 weeks or so, he runs his pop-up from a literal pop-up tailgating tent in the parking lot at Crown Station in NoDa (just around the corner from the former Monk residence).
And Belfer’s barbecue shows some promise but did have some issues on this day. The Creekstone brisket had a nice bark but had some issues with consistency and texture and could have used a little more trimming of the fat cap. Brandon eventually introduced himself and mentioned he was breaking in a new smoker. On top of that, for this cook he was delivered larger-than-expected briskets (16 pounds vs. his normal 12 pounders). I could tell those variables affected this particular cook but as I mentioned earlier, there is promise.
The St. Louis cut ribs were best part of the meal and had some real nice flavor, even if the ribs weren’t the meatiest. The smoked chicken was a solid option as well but probably could have benefitted from some direct heat to crisp up the skin (I’m assuming it was smoked on an offset like the rest of the meats but could be mistaken there). Beef ribs were a special, and while I didn’t order on this go round I’ll get to it eventually.
All of the sides were well made and showed off the culinary skill of Belfer; this day we got mac and cheese, potato salad, baked beans, and cole slaw. And to top off the meal, the banana pudding with some sort of caramelized crumble topping was awesome. I’ll be ordering that ‘naner pudding every time I come back.
Smoke Show BBQ is well worth keeping an eye on as a new player in the Charlotte barbecue scene, and I look forward to giving them another shot in a few months.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
