City Barbeque

Linkdown: 11/26/14

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– The Pit beats out NC State University in The Triangle Business Journal’s Battle of the Brands for Reader’s Choice

– Downtown Charleston is getting yet another barbecue joint, this time with Irish pub Egan & Sons coming back as a barbecue restaurant (under a new name) complete with a new smokehouse to be built out back

– I missed this back in the summer, but Home Team BBQ (currently with Sullivan’s Island and West Ashley locations) is also expanding to downtown Charleston

– Billy Durney, pitmaster of Hometown Barbecue in New York, to consult on a Los Angeles barbecue restaurant for Mendocino Farms

– Boone’s Bar-B-Que sauces are now available at Savory Spice Shop in Charlotte

– Ohio-based barbecue chain City Barbeque plans to open another triangle location; in addition to their Cary location they are opening a location at Southpoint Mall in Durham

– Jim ‘N Nicks and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que are forming a partnership for the purest of barbecue ideals – “to leverage their buying power, consolidate labor costs and grow both companies”

– A flattering review of the Flat Rock Wood Room, just outside of Asheville

As for what comes out of that 250-degree wood-fired pit, well, I can only gush. Ordering a half rack of their St. Louis style ribs, I carefully narrowed my sides down to wood-smoked mac and cheese and collard greens. While the mac and cheese was plenty cheesy, it proved to be fairly standard with minimal wood smoke. The collards, on the other hand, had plenty of flavor and a slight sweetness.

– Barbecue Rankings recounts his “barbecue odyssey” in Feast Magazine

I began my barbecue odyssey on October 22, 2013, at Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis.  I was nervous as I met owner Mike Emerson and tried to act as if I knew something about barbecue.  I have always considered myself a casual barbecue fan, but the truth is that I knew very little about regional nuances, barbecue history, smoking practices and the way restaurants work before setting out on this project.  I didn’t prepare much before setting off on my journey – I wanted to learn from the people working the pits day in and day out, not the so-called experts.

– Christmas is right around the corner

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

Linkdown: 11/27/13

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Happy Thanksgiving from the Barbecue Bros!

– Great name for a NC BBQ joint in Hong Kong – yes, that Hong Kong (h/t rlreevesjr)

– A nice little article from The Elon newspaper entitled “The BBQ State: Unique origins of barbecue define North Carolina history, culture” which also includes a neat interactive timeline

– A nice infographic on the 4 types of barbecue sauce (via)

– The BBQ Jew has some thoughts about City Barbeque coming to Cary

– The Pit Durham opened yesterday and will be open on Thanksgiving

Linkdown: 11/20/13

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So pumped to attend tonight’s Southern Supper at Midwood Smokehouse with guest pitmaster Sam Jones

– Some write ups on the event from Creative Loafing and Charlotte Magazine

Jones and Barry plan to engineer a 3-course “throwback” barbecue dinner which will include local brews and beers from NoDa Brewing Company, southern hors d’oeuvres of pimiento cheese and smoke jalapeno dip, house salad, the whole hog (of course), old-fashioned warm apple cobbler with cinnamon ice cream, and other sides (hush puppies, collard greens, mac&cheese, etc.).

– In somewhat hilarious news considering the reputation of Cary (aka Concentrated Area of Relocated Yankees), the Ohio barbecue chain City Barbeque is opening a location there (via)

– Engineering consulting firm WK Dickson has turned the site of the former Melton’s Barbecue in Rocky Mount into a park, fittingly named Barbecue Park   

– Why was the BBQ sandwich not named NC’s best sandwich? Instead, BusinessInsider.com picked the Carolina burger

– More deets on True ‘Cue courtesy of TMBBQ; also they have started to add content to the official site

TrueCue.org seeks to educate people about real barbecue—meat slow-cooked over wood or charcoal alone, without the assistance of gas, electricity or any other heat source—by certifying and promoting businesses that produce it.  Why do we care?  Because real barbecue is rooted in taste, tradition and a sense of place, three things increasingly lacking in today’s world.  We think the world will be a better place when there is more real barbecue in it.

– Speaking of cooking real barbecue over wood, The Pit Durham opens next Tuesday