BBQ Capital Cook-off

Linkdown: 4/30/14

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– Two Tar Heels issue the true ‘cue challenge in the News and Observer:

So we are issuing a challenge. We will give a handsome “No Faux ’Cue” apron to the first person to email us at truecue@gmail.com with either (1) a citation to any federal, state, county or municipal statute or regulation that makes it impossible for even one North Carolina barbecue restaurant to cook with wood or charcoal or (2) the name and job title of any federal, state, county, or municipal official who has required an existing North Carolina barbecue restaurant to stop cooking with wood or charcoal, or forbidden a new one to start.

– Thrillist’s 7 ways to spot a fake bbq joint

– The Houston Chronicle has hired a full-time barbecue writer (via)

– Big Wayner had a few photos from this past weekend’s BBQ Capital Cook-off in Lexington

– The Capital Cook-off also helped feed more than 1,200 people through food banks

– The final two barbecue stops on the NC road trip for Marie, Let’s Eat! is Sauceman’s in Charlotte and R.O.’s Bar-B-Q in Gastonia; looking forward to Grant’s next NC roadtrip to the eastern part of the state in November

– Speaking of barbecue roadtrips, the guy behind Barbecue Ranking is looking for suggestions:

– Congrats to Midwood Smokehouse, Charlotte Magazine’s Best of the Best Voters’ Choice Winner for Barbecue

– And finally, regarding NC vs Texas barbecue, could Texas Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison have settled the debate?

Linkdown: 4/16/14

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– The Charlotte Observer has a list of various road trips for Spring (including one for beer), and here is a 10-stop NC barbecue tour which includes some not-so-obvious choices

– Speaking of road trips, the latest reviews from Marie, Let’s Eat!’s NC barbecue roadtrip: The Barbecue Center in Lexington, Allen & Son Barbeque in Chapel Hill, Hursey’s in Burlington, and Short Sugar’s in Reidsville

– Bar-B-Q King in Charlotte is included as part of the history of Wilkinson Boulevard from the March 2014 issue of Charlotte Magazine

Few places are more familiar on Wilkinson than Bar-B-Q King. Follow the curved arrow of its sign, and most days you’ll see a lot full of cars. Behind the counter, a static buzz fills the room as co-owner Gus Karapanos flips on the speaker system.

“Same one we’ve had for 40 years,” he says. “People love to hear it.”  The sign, too, has been the same since Karapanos’s uncles opened the place back in 1959. Except for a few days after Hurricane Hugo knocked it down in 1989, that sign and the billboard–sized, ice-cream-eating Inuit at Dairy Queen next door have remained constants in a changing neighborhood. 

– Ed Mitchell, Sam Jones, and Rodney Scott are the pitmasters from the Carolinas in this year’s Big Apple Barbecue Block party in June

– I think I’ve seen a version of this list before, but in case you missed it Lexington comes in at #4 in this list of 10 best barbecue cities (h/t Rudy)

4. Lexington, North Carolina

Pork is the game in Lexington, a small town just an hour’s drive northeast of Charlotte, where a regional favorite is the wood-smoked pork shoulder, coarsely chopped and topped by a mostly vinegar based sauce -0 those who know their way around a Lexington grill often order it with some outside brown, which means more flavorful extra bark from the meat) and sometimes extra dip, which is just the word for the thinner sauce. Another Lexington trademark is red slaw, coleslaw that’s swapped out the mayo for BBQ sauce. There’s a lot to the Lexington scene, which is why the city throws the annual Barbecue Festival to celebrate it. For the regular season, Lexington Barbecue #1, established in 1962 and better known by locals as the Honeymonk, is the quintessential Lexington joint, widely hailed as the best in the business, always happy to help a diner out with a big plate of pork and some Cheerwine.

– Speaking of Lexington, this year’s BBQ Capital Cook-Off is April 25-26

– The Charlotte Smokeoff at Unknown Brewing is this Saturday in Charlotte:

Linkdown: 3/26/14

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– Charlotte Beer has a post on The Great NC BBQ Map and the barbecue-themed smoked amber ale with chile peppers being brewed in for their launch party; speaking of which, it’s still not too late to pledge to their Kickstarter!

– An update on Rodney Scott post-exile tour:

All told, the tour raised just over $80,000, $60,000 of which will go toward the estimated $100,000 it will take Scott to rebuild his pit room. (The remaining $40,000 he’ll secure through a bank loan.)

As a 40-year-old business, Scott’s might have been able to sneak by with some grandfathering and just recreate what they had before. But Scott says, “We came to the conclusion that we should do this right. We decided to upgrade to all codes and all regulations, so this thing would be [around] more than a few more years.”

– Unknown Brewing Co. in Charlotte is having a Smoke Off on April 19 with 20 teams competing, live music, and beer of course

– Lexington’s BBQ Capital Cook-off will be April 25 and 26 (via bbqboard)

– There is a bill in the South Carolina senate which would declare barbecue the “Official State Picnic Cuisine of South Carolina”

– Speaking of which, Stephen Colbert is at it again; I know he is trolling but he does realize he is talking about mustard-based barbecue right?

– City Barbeque is opening in Cary, NC in mid April and are holding a sauce contest as part of their grand opening festivities; enter now through March 31

– Barbecue traditions from around the world including lechon and satay from the Phillipines (via)

– Pretty in Pistachio has a short profile and some great photos of Mighty Quinn’s (our review here) in NYC’s East Village

image(image via)

– And finally, Big Wayner has 5 reasons why you should join the newly formed North Carolina BBQ Association