OooWee BBQ (food truck) – Charlotte, NC

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Name: OooWee BBQ (food truck)
Date: 10/19/13
Address: N/A
Order: Chopped BBQ pork with slaw and mac and cheese (link to menu)
Price: ~$8

OooWee BBQ is a relatively new food truck around town that has been popping up at Food Truck Friday and NoDa Brewing, among other locations. On this night, they were one of a few trucks at the first Brewz Arts & Music Festival, a new music festival at the NC Music Factory featuring of Montreal, Kool AD, The Whigs, and The Love Language, among many other local Charlotte bands and DJ’s.

Picking the truck was a no-brainer but unfortunately, on this night the chopped pork was completely dry as if it had been sitting under a heating lamp most of the day (speculating here, but it was about 7pm at night). Sauce helped make it a little more palatable, but even still it was still pretty dry. My mac and cheese was also fairly dry and the mayo-based slaw wasn’t much to write home about either.

Everyone has an off day so perhaps that was the case here. I would be interested in checking OooWee BBQ out again on a different day in a different circumstance. I might even be tempted to try the called the curiously named “barbecue sundae” just to see what it’s all about. In any case, you may spot OooWee’s bright yellow food truck around town at various food truck rallies or events but like the color yellow implies, I would suggest proceeding with caution.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – N/A
Pork – 1 Hogs
Sides – 2 Hogs
Overall – 1.5 Hogs

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Mallard Creek BBQ

This past Thursday, I visited my first Mallard Creek Barbecue during a late lunch break on a perfectly crisp fall day. The church barbecue was in its 84th year and this year cooked 14,000 pounds of barbecue, 2,500 gallons of brunswick stew, 2 tons of slaw, and over 8,000 sandwiches. Speaking of sandwiches – my two sandwiches were pretty great and honestly better than most restaurant options in Charlotte. Be sure to mark your calendars for next year’s barbecue – always the fourth Thursday of October – because it’s definitely worth checking out for any serious barbecue fan.

-Monk

Q City Championship

This past Saturday afternoon, Speedy and I stopped in on the Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship. Walking through the competition site on was pretty cool and fairly amusing (the pig puns, they were a-flowing), but the standard street fair aspects and the lack of barbecue options outside of Mac’s, Rock Store, and Sauceman‘s was a little disappointing – my one sandwich from Rock Store was dry and forgettable. Still, I’m glad that Charlotte has a legit barbecue championship and who knows, maybe next year Speedy and I will participate as judges or competitors…

-Monk

Linkdown: 10/23/13

– The 84th Annual Mallard Creek Barbecue is tomorrow

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– However, Kathleen Purvis warns everyone to be careful at church barbecues (and similar events) in light of the recent salmonella outbreak in Shelby last month

– NC (specifically Lexington-style) and TX barbecue: maybe not so completely different? Daniel Vaughn of TMBBQ thinks so when it comes to outside brown and fatty brisket.

– Diva Q stopped by Charleston last week and helped with a fundraiser for a local charity (thanks to the reader Robert who submitted this story!)

– For August – National Sandwich Month – Zagat listed a sandwich for each state that best embodies “the spirit of each community and its local cuisine.” The good: they picked a chopped pork sandwich for NC. The bad: they photographed one at Bar-B-Q King in Charlotte. It’s as if they flew into Charlotte and found the first barbecue joint they could find (4 or so miles out Wilkinson Blvd from the airport) and just went with that.

– The winners of last week’s Q-City Championship, with Ranucci’s Big Butt BBQ winning the grand championship