Cleveland

Linkdown: 4/13/16

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– Grant continues his barbecue tour of the NC Piedmont (that neither Speedy nor Monk were unable to join him on any part of, sadly): Smiley’s in Lexington, Fuzzy’s in Madison, Stamey’s in Greensboro, and Little Richard’s in Winston-Salem

– On his book blog, Grant also reviews a new barbecue book, “The One True Barbecue” by Rien Fertels, who along with photographer Denny Culbert was behind The Barbecue Bus

– The book is also included in this rundown along with John Shelton Reed’s upcoming book Barbecue

– Robert Moss posits that wood v gas is perhaps the wrong question when it comes to barbecue

– Shots fired from Alton Brown at unnamed southern barbecue restaurants

“It’s funny with barbecue, because the most beloved barbecue places in the South, by and large, serve the shittiest barbecue. I will stand by that. Places that people will drive hours to get to, barbecue’s not that great, but it’s still there. It’s been there. My mom brought me here. My grandparents are from here.?

– In case you were wondering what “Cleveland-style barbecue” was again…

You’re calling the food at Mabel’s “Cleveland-style barbecue.” What does that mean, exactly?
We’re inspired more by Eastern Europe than the South in our flavor profile. Cleveland is a big Eastern European melting pot, so I wanted to offer a menu that reflected the cuisine. For instance, instead of hot links, we serve kielbasa. Our spice blends, our sides… they’re very reminiscent of what you’d find in Cleveland, like smoked beets with horseradish, sauerkraut and Cleveland brown mustard. We’re also smoking with apple and cherry woods, which are native to the region.

Linkdown: 7/1/15

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– Chef Michael Symon is apparently trying to invent Cleveland-style barbecue

According to Symon, Cleveland-style barbecue will pay homage to the city’s Eastern European population with kielbasa and sauerkraut. As for the meat, it will be smoked over applewood “because of the large amount of apple orchards in northeastern Ohio.” It will also include its own signature style of barbecue sauce. Symon reveals:

“Because ketchup is made in Pittsburgh, we would never serve a tomato-based sauce in Cleveland. Cleveland’s known for its mustard, and I wanted to use that as the base of our sauce. But instead of the classic, Carolina, yellow-mustard BBQ sauce, I’m using Cleveland’s famous brown mustard, Bertman’s.”

– Another week, another list: First We Feast’s 29 Bucket List BBQ Joints for Every Smoked-Meat Connoisseur, though this list has quite the pedigree for its contributors ranging from reknowned pitmasters to barbecue editors to James Beard Award-winning authors

– Food and Wine has 7 tips for the backyard barbecuer including my favorite: pick pork

– Might want to steer clear of Tarheel Q in Lexington for awhile after nearly 100 216 people have gotten sick off their ‘cue; gotta say, with a placed named Tarheel I’m not too surprised

– Franklin Barbecue makes The National Eater 38 for 2015

– Barbecue Rankings read Franklin’s book, and here are the seven best things about it according to him

– Barbecuing on the Fourth of July is an American tradition

– Midwood Smokehouse and 10 Park Lanes makes Fervent Foodie’s list of Best Charlotte Restaurants

– The best barbecue side dishes, according to Southern Living

– Thrillist: 12 of the most important women in barbecue

– This listicle of 10 delicious joints in NC includes a couple of barbecue joints – B’s Barbecue and Lexington #1

– Speedy: look away…now

– Spending the day at the North Carolina State Barbecue Championship in Tryon from early June

–  A rundown of the barbecue styles you can find in NYC

– Frank Kaminsky: Public Enemy #1

Friday Find: Kathleen Purvis’ Short 2010 Barbecue Road Trip

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Image via Kathleen Purvis

In 2010,  Charlotte Observer food writer Kathleen Purvis documented a barbecue road trip in 3 short blog posts and if there is anything we love here at Barbecue Bros, it’s a barbecue road trip. If you want to read the opinion of someone who is actually qualified to write about barbecue and food in general, please read on. I’ve included a few short sentences below from each of the entries.

Barbecue road trip, Part I: Keaton’s, Cleveland, NC

The real star of the menu is just the same: Half-chicken fried, dipped in sauce and grilled. The meat inside is a little dry, but the skin is the point, peppery and just a little chewy.

Barbecue road trip, Part II: Port-A-Pit, Statesville, NC

The barbecue is smoky, moist and already sauced, the sauce on the side is dark, sweet and tastes strongly of liquid smoke.

Barbecue road trip, Part III: Cook’s BBQ, Lexington, NC

I’ve been hearing about Brandon Cook at Cook’s BBQ for a couple of years. I had just been waiting for an open travel day to check his place out. The son of barbecuer Doug Cook, who owns Backcountry Barbecue in Lexington, Brandon opened his own place and decided to forego modern shortcuts like electric or gas cookers and go back to all-wood cooked barbecue.

Link to all posts on Kathleen Purvis’ blog tagged with “barbecue”

–Monk