Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue

Linkdown: 2/24/21

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After a few weeks in soft open mode, Sam Jones BBQ’s downtown Raleigh location has finally opened; the latest opening towards Raleigh staking its claim as a modern barbecue capital. Next up in some order is Ed Mitchell’s The Preserve, Wyatt’s Barbecue (from the team behind Picnic in Durham), Lawrence Barbecue, and Longleaf Swine. More coverage on Sam Jones BBQ can be found in this article from industry trade publication QSR Magazine.

In the next few months, a visit to Raleigh will certainly be called for, as our Capital brethren continue to beat out the Queen City in barbecue openings. Step up your game, Charlotte!

Native News

Robert Moss explores the origin stories of 5 southern sauces, including Scott’s Barbecue Sauce from Goldsboro which is available across the US thanks to its distribution via Wal-Mart

Moss went into even more detail in his weekly Cue Sheet newsletter

Jon G’s has your St. Patty’s Day dinner plans solved as they will be slinging cue from their food truck at Waxhaw Taphouse

Non-Native News

Sad news out of Memphis’s Rendezvous

“Black Smoke” author Adrian Miller will be on an online Zoom interview this Friday (2/26) with Delaware Libraries that is free to the public

La Barbecue is moving, and will have a lot more space to work with at their new location

Goldee’s Barbecue in Forth Worth gets some love from the Dallas Morning News

RIP to a Kansas City barbecue legend, L.C. Richardson

Robert Sietsema’s top pastrami in NYC may surprise you, as it comes from a barbecue joint and beats out the world famous Katz’s Deli

Just gonna leave this here

Linkdown: 2/10/21

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Lewis Barbecue officially announces their second restaurant in Greenville, taking over the space previously occupied by Tommy’s Country Ham House. So for folks in the Charlotte area (i.e. me), Lewis’ central Texas-style brisket, hot guts, sausage will be about half the distance you previously had to travel to Charleston. And this is a very good thing. Lewis Barbecue Greenville will open sometime in early 2022.

In addition to the Lewis Barbecue expansion news, it was recently announced that his Juan Luis Tex-Mex concept will take over the former Workshop food hall in Charleston. It was an original food stall tenant at the food hall but recently the trailer had been parked in the courtyard at Lewis Barbecue. Based on these recent moves, Lewis is certainly building the foundation for a food empire in South Carolina.

Native News

A sneak peak inside the recently opened Sam Jones BBQ in Raleigh

Spectrum News’ Eating Local series kicks off with a stop at Bar-B-Q Center, where if you haven’t yet been you are doing it wrong according to their employees

Non-Native News

Munchie’s Live BBQ in Orlando was originally started by Chef Alfred Mann, who originally learned from a man named Gene Daniels who cooked NC barbecue

“Under this partnership structure, Mighty Quinn’s licenses Otto’s Tacos name and fulfills orders from it’s kitchen. Customers then receive their digital order from Otto’s Tacos using first- or third-party platforms.”

10 must-read cookbooks by Black authors to buy right now including upcoming barbecue books from Rodney Scott and Adrian Miller, according to the Austin American-Statesman

Texas Monthly interviews Kevin Bludso, who is ready to mentor the next generation of black pitmasters

Linkdown: 1/27/21

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Kingsford Charcoal has announced the “Preserve the Pit” Fellowship to celebrate the Black contribution to barbecue and help aspiring pitmasters through a monetary grant and a hands-on mentorship. That mentorship will be provided by several notable barbecue personalities and pitmasters: Kevin Bludso of Bludso’s BBQ in Compton as well as Netflix’s American Barbecue Showdown, Rashad Jones of Big Lee’s BBQ, Bryan Furman of B’s Cracklin’ Barbeque, Devita Davison of the non-profit FoodLab, Amy Mills of 17th Street Barbecue, and Dr. Howard Conyers of PBS’s Nourish.

It’s fantastic to see Kingsford celebrate Black barbecue and put their money where their mouth is with this fellowship investing in the future of it. I look forward to seeing who makes the class of 2021 and what they do with this great opportunity. Applications are due by March 1 and the inaugural class of fellows will be announced in April.

Native News

A sneak peak of Lawrence Barbecue’s setup in Boxyard RTP

Ed Mitchell will be appearing on this panel alongside Dr. Howard Conyers and “Black Smoke” Adrian Miller on February 10

The owner of Shaw’s Barbecue House in Williamston recently saved a longtime customer from choking

The Pit in Raleigh will offer to-go cocktails through the end of January

Kinston’s Kings Restaurant was selected to participate on a rib cookoff for the Drew Barrymore Show; last year King’s sold almost 2 tons worth of ribs

Hmm, now what could we do with a feral hog?!?!

Non-Native News

Stay with me here: Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall will offer “Chucktown-style” barbecue in South Jersey; the owner Charles Soreth was inspired by his trip to Charleston for his Chucktown BBQ pop-up, but no word on what exactly “Chucktown” style is

Brooklyn barbecue restaurants taking part in NYC’s Restaurant Week To Go

How craft barbecue and craft chocolate intersect at Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue

Sweet kicks

Linkdown: 10/28/20

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This week, Adrian Miller, the James Beard Award-winning author and self-proclaimed “Soul Food Scholar” shared the cover art and preorder link for his forthcoming book entitled “Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue.” As I noted in my recent Barbecue Bros Book Club entry for “North Carolina’s Roadside Eateries” by D.G. Martin, while the John T. Edges and Bob Garners of the world have given us so much in terms of exposing us to places we might never have known about otherwise, it’s well past time to get a different perspective.

I am very much looking forward to reading both this book as well as Rodney Scott’s upcoming book to get just that. “Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue” will be out April 22, 2021 on University of North Carolina Press.

“Black Smoke celebrates the significant contributions that African Americans have made to the American barbecue story. You’ll learn how African Americans honed and popularized a cuisine rooted in Native American culinary tradition, and became its most effective ambassadors. I profile fascinating barbecuers from the past two centuries, look at different aspects of African American barbecue culture, and opine about barbecue’s future.”

Native News

The BBQ Review (@BbqRate) is a Twitter account I just found out about

John Tanner’s BBQ Blog visits The Pit in Raleigh for a solid meal

John Tanner also recently shared his favorite barbecue sauces

Congrats to Warner Stamey, founder of Stameys Barbecue, on his Barbecue Hall of Fame induction!

Non-Native News

Desiree Robinson of Cozy Corner is also a BBQ Hall of Fame inductee

This UPROXX interview with Rodney Scott covers a lot of the basics you may already know

Horn Barbecue has finally opened in Oakland (finally!)

The Drinking Pig by Chef Raheem Sealey is a weekend pop-up in Northeast Miami Dade

https://twitter.com/soulphoodie/status/1321265183520624641

Franklin Barbecue has started shipping briskets through Goldbelly

A second location of Pappy’s Smokehouse has opened in the St. Louis area

LeRoy & Lewis has a Patreon account for exclusive content

This week is Texas Monthly BBQ Week