Charleston

Linkdown: 10/15/14

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– Deep fried barbecue on a stick at – where else – the NC State Fair in Raleigh

– The 85th annual Mallard Creek BBQ Festival has big plans for 2014

In 2014, we expect to cook 14,600 pounds of pork barbecue, prepare 2,500 gallons of Brunswick stew, shred 2 tons of Cole slaw, brew 400 gallons of coffee, and entertain close to 20,000 people.

– Shots fired at Lexington-style barbecue by Linwood Parker, who owns White Swan Barbecue; isn’t White Swan the gas station barbecue who cooks with gassers?

“Years ago, when people started moving west in their oxen-dawn carts, it took so long they forgot the recipe for barbecue,” he said.

“When they reached their destination, the only kind of hogs they had were piney wood rooters that fed off acorns. So, their hog meat was green. They just added a lot of catsup to it to cover up the green color.”

– Review of Bob Garner’s latest book, “Foods That Make You Say Mmm-mmm”

– The 23rd Annual Hog Happnin‘ returns to the Cleveland County Fairgrounds on Friday, October 31 and Saturday, November 1

– Austin Chronicle story on John Lewis’s upcoming barbecue restaurant in Charleston

– A Notre Dame football blog talks NC barbecue in a post before last weekend’s game against UNC in South Bend

– Sam Jones is heading to Dallas for a whole hog event in November

– Eater story (with some nice photos) on the opening of Arrogant Swine in New York

Located on the border of East Williamsburg and Bushwick near the English Kills Canal, Arrogant Swine is the brainchild of pitmaster Tyson Ho, who studied under perpetual Barbecue Block Party participant Ed Mitchell, sometimes called the Pope of North Carolina barbecue. The hulking 3,000 foot space is a former warehouse, with high ceilings, a full bar, and a counter at the rear where the smoked meat and sides are sold by the plate or by the pound. Place your order and receive a number hoisted on a metal rod; carry it to your table and your meat horde will be delivered by and by. There’s an outside seating area, too, with giant graffiti murals decorating the outside walls of the building, and an L-shaped shack out back where the barbecuing is done.

– Shame about where this photo was taken but the linked article takes a look at barbecue culture in Charlotte

– This weekend you can actually taste some of the pitmasters barbecue at the Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship ( as opposed to years past); more details here

Linkdown: 10/8/14

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– Congrats to Marie, Let’s Eat! on their 300th barbecue review, Blind Pig in Jackson, GA

– The NC Whole Hog Champion was crowned after this past week’s championship in Raleigh, and congratulations to Grillfather Cooking Team of Roanoke Rapids, captained by Ernest Twisdale

– A man and his two sons also participated as contestants in the Whole Hog Barbecue Championship this past weekend in Raleigh

– Charlotte Observer writes up next week’s Q City Charlotte BBQ Championship, which for the first time this year is a NC BBQ Association event

– Uncle Ho nears the opening day of Arrogant Swine

The first issue was getting my hogs. I have specific heritage breed pigs shipped up from North Carolina. Getting the logistics set up for them to arrive in time for me to cook is harrowing indeed. There’s really no last minute supplement either—it’s not like I can wander into any random supermarket and pick up a 200-pound pig if my delivery falls through.

…

Cook too much and you waste money. Cook too little and you not only lose sales, you also sour relationships with customers who made the trip to see you. It’s basically spinning a roulette wheel with over $20,000 all on red. If that’s thrilling to you, you’re in the right place. I, on the other hand, needed a midwife next to me reminding me to breathe while placing my orders.

– Congrats to BSA Troop 33 for winning Creative Loafing’s Critic’s Choice for Best Barbecue (huh?); meanwhile, Midwood Smokehouse wins the reader’s choice for best barbecue

– The Great NC BBQ Map gets more coverage, this time from Paste Magazine

– Mac’s Speed Shop buys a former auto shop in Greensboro and plans to expand there

– Charlotte Business Journal interviews Mike and Anna Hicks, owners of Carolina BBQ in Spartanburg, SC

– Here and Now reports on how politics and barbecue are intertwined in North Carolina

– Scott’s Bar-B-Que gets mentioned in yet another barbecue list (via)

– John Lewis of la Barbecue to open a barbecue restaurant called Lewis Barbecue in Charleston next spring and as a result I just so happen to be planning a trip to Charleston for the late spring/early summer

– Speaking of John Lewis and Charleston, this:

– Charlotte, NC is the #1 “Best Big-City Bargain” according to Money Magazine and Midwood Smokehouse gets a brief shoutout

 

Home Team BBQ – Charleston, SC

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Name: Home Team BBQ
Date: 6/16/14
Address: 1205 Ashley River Rd., Charleston, SC
Order: Three meat platter (brisket, pork, ribs) with red rice and collards (link to menu)
Price: $18.25

I had heard a lot of great things about Home Team BBQ and owner/chef Aaron Siegel, so knew I had to check it out when I went with the fam to Charleston for a week. A recent Esquire article only confirmed my desire to check it out. A lazy afternoon presented the perfect opportunity to check it out with my Dad and Bro – two guys familiar with good ‘cue.

Upon arriving, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Home Team has both indoor and outdoor seating and also has a nice bar. You order at the counter, and both the meat and the sides are sitting in steam trays and ready to be pulled (with the exception of the ribs, which are cut in the back). I found this to be a little bit of an odd presentation, and I’m not sure it helped the quality of the meal.

Digging in, I thought the pork lacked flavor – it was definitely moist (thanks to the steam trays), but I couldn’t really taste any seasoning or smoke on the meat. A lot of places like to “let the meat speak for itself” but I think truly great ‘cue needs to have that smoke flavor and a good rub only enhances it. The brisket was similar – moist, but in need of sauce. Home Team has several sauces – I stuck with the hot red – which helps, but overall, I was a little disappointed in the pork and brisket.

I had higher expectations for the ribs and while those lofty expectations weren’t quite met, I did enjoy them. I was first surprised that they were spare ribs, as I’d expect America’s best ribs to be baby back ribs, which I generally find to be more tender. The spare ribs were presented dry, and had a fair amount of seasoning, which I enjoyed. The ribs were fairly tender, and I did enjoy them, but best ribs in America, they are not.

The sides, on the other hand, were excellent. The collards were perfect and the red rice was enjoyable. The Bro said that the baked beans (which I didn’t sample) were the best he’d ever had, so that’s high praise. There were no hush puppies on the menu, which is always a disappointment, but each platter did come with corn bread muffins, which were also very good.

Overall, the meal at Home Team was a little underwhelming. So much so that I decided to walk around the building looking for a wood pile, as I didn’t think the food tasted wood-smoked. I did find said wood pile, so I think maybe the stream tray hid the smoke flavor. I don’t know much about the Charleston BBQ scene, but I think on my next trip, I’ll check out a new place instead of a return to Home Team BBQ.

-Speedy

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 2 hogs
Brisket – 2.5 hogs
Ribs – 3 hogs
Sides – 4.5 hogs
Overall – 2.5 Hogs
Home Team BBQ on Urbanspoon
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Linkdown: 7/16/14

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– Our State’s latest in the barbecue profile series Carolina ‘Cue is Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington (our review here)

Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington has a tale like this to tell. In the mid-’40s, patriarch Sylvester Hursey and a good friend were engaged in a night of bacchanalian revelry — they had a little party that got out of hand — and at some point it seemed like a good idea to find a pig and cook it, so that’s what they did. I imagine them in the still heat of a Carolina summer’s night, climbing over a splintered wooden fence and into the pigpen. The moonlight broke through the limbs of the giant oak and shone on the chosen pig, as big as any pig there ever was, and the two of them wrestled with it into the night, coming this close to losing their own lives in the process, but finally emerging victorious. They had their pig, and then they dragged it halfway across Alamance County and fired up the pit and cooked it.

– Indy Week reviews Ed Mitchell’s Que, saying it “lives up to the hype”

– Durham restaurant Piedmont is hosting a whole hog barbecue dinner next Thursday (h/t bbqboard)

– Eater guide to where to eat barbecue around Atlanta

– Also, some Eater photos from Heirloom Market on a Wednesday at 11:35am

– The latest update on The Great NC BBQ Map states that the maps will mail out the week of 7/28-8/1 to all Kickstarter backers; also, they have a new logo

– Really hate that I missed the first SC-TX BBQ Invitational because it sounds like it was legendary; no seriously it looked epic

Rodney Scott we love you and your pulled pork, but we must concede the star of yesterday’s SC-TX BBQ Invitational was clearly John Lewis of Austin, Texas’ La Barbecue. The man’s beef brisket was O-face-inducingly good (I saw more than one pair of eyes roll back into eaters’ heads). And the pit master’s presence was all thanks to the members of Charleston Brown Water Society (CBWS), whose Holy City Brewing hoedown came off smokingly well, despite intermittent rain threats.

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