Concord

Troutman’s Bar-B-Que – Concord, NC

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Name: Troutman’s Bar-B-Que
Date: 3/7/15
Address: 362 Church Street North, Concord, NC 28025
Order: Chopped barbecue plate with slaw, fries, hush puppies, and Cherry Lemon Sun Drop (!!) (link to menu)
Price: $9

Barbecue smoked over wood or wood coals is usually a pretty reliable indicator of good barbecue, but it isn’t 100%. Troutman’s Bar-B-Que has been open since the early 70s at its downtown Concord location off Church Street. And they are still cooking over wood coals in the smokehouse located at the back of the parking lot. However, Troutman’s is a case where cooking barbecue the old way unfortunately doesn’t produce a great product.

When it comes to barbecue plates, you get a choice of chopped or sliced and naturally I went with chopped (some day I will try sliced barbecue, but that day was not that day). For a place that smokes over wood, you sure couldn’t taste any of it in the barbecue. There was not a lot of bark either, which almost seemed as if it was taken away by design. And to top it all off, it was also extremely dry. Very disappointing.

The chopped plate comes with fries, slaw (your choice of red or white), and hush puppies. Only the hush puppies are really worth talking about and they were actually damn good. The Monkette would definitely agree, as her lunch that day mostly consisted of them. Thankfully, my father-in-law ordered an additional basket so we each were still able to get our fill.

The other saving grace of the meal besides the hush puppies was the Cherry Lemon Sun Drop. You see Cheerwine and you see regular Sun Drop at barbecue joints in the Piedmont but you don’t see a lot of Cherry Lemon Sun Drop. Man, that stuff is just about perfect to have with barbecue.

The search for good barbecue in Concord continues…

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 2 hogs
Sides – 3.5 hogs
Overall – 2 hogs
Troutman's Hickory Smoked BBQ on Urbanspoon

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Linkdown: 5/13/14

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– North Carolina is #2 on TripAdvisor’s “Top 10 States for BBQ.” Sure, I guess I can buy that. #1 on the list? Georgia…wait, what?

– Speaking of Georgia, here’s an interview with native son Myron Mixon from Conde Nast Traveler

– Statesville has a place that serves both eastern and western NC barbecue

– Another list of barbecue around the world, entitled “From the Philippines to Australia, a Gorgeous Look at BBQ Around the World”

– Eater’s guide to eating brisket in NYC, including Barbecue Bros fave Mighty Quinn’s

– Unfortunately, you need a subscription to read the whole article on barbecue styles in the Houston area, but there are these two fantastic sentences just before the paywall:

There are a lot of different styles in the United States, but the two barbecue heavyweights are North Carolina and Texas. Barbecue folks in Kansas City and Memphis are going to take umbrage at that statement, but that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

– A recap of last week’s Getting Jiggy with the Piggy last weekend in Concord

– The Wide Open Bluegrass Festival, as well as the Whole Hog Barbecue Championship that takes place alongside it, will remain in Raleigh until at least 2018 

– Alton Brown’s favorite barbecue is…North Carolina barbecue (specifically eastern; question and answer is at 2:13 of the linked video). 

– Tacos faced barbecue in this final round of Food Network’s “Regional Foods Face-Off” bracket. Spoiler alert: barbecue won.

Congratulations, barbecue! You are the pride of the South. If you think about it, what’s more American than barbecue? It was born and bred in the United States. And even though there are different types of barbecuing methods, preparations and sauces, which are very often hotly contested between states, at the end of the day it’s easy to bring together a crowd of family and friends when there’s a barbecue nearby. And with summer just around the corner, it’s time to pull out those grills and dust off those barbecue pits because grilling season is ahead!

– Not sure how long it’s been up, but the website for Ed Mitchell’s ‘Que is live and you can take a look at the menu here; full plates include both chopped and pulled eastern Carolina whole hog as well as chopped bbq turkey, brisket, ribs, fried chicken, and bbq half-chickens. The original opening was in April, but hopefully we’ll hear more details soon

R&R Bar-B-Que – Concord, NC

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Name: R&R Bar-B-Que
Date: 1/31/14
Address: 755 Pitts School Rd NW, Concord, NC 28027
Order: Engineer’s BBQ Plate with red slaw, onion rings, hush puppies, Cheerwine and a Peppermint Patty (link to menu)
Price: $11

Yet again, we have another barbecue restaurant cooking eastern-style barbecue in Lexington country (in addition to Bill Spoon’s and Bubba’s). This time it’s R&R Bar-B-Que, a railroad themed barbecue restaurant in Concord.

And boy, do they keep with the railroad theme. The wood paneled interior is filled with railroad memorabilia, photos, paintings, and even a couple of tracks with electric trains hooked to the ceiling (a la the old Ham’s in High Point). A little kitschy, but endearing enough.

On this particular Friday, I arrived smack in the middle of the lunch rush and the restaurant was packed to the gills. It took a little bit for the waitress to finally come and take my order (though she was very nice and apologized for the wait) and to me, it looked like they could have stood to have another waitress or two working during lunch.

It also took a little while to get the food once I placed my order, again likely due to the lunch rush. The plate finally arrived and though the pork was tender enough it lacked smoke and bark on the pork, likely due to the use of a gas or electric smoker. The hush puppies came in a coffee filter and were more savory than sweet, but were well cooked. Curiously, both white and red slaw are available on the menu, so of course I opted for the red slaw, which was finely chopped and surprisingly good for a so-called eastern-style restaurant. The onion rings were pretty standard.

R&R Bar-B-Que has a sign off I-85 which I must have passed hundreds of times and noticed but paid little attention to it. I can’t recommend visiting during lunch unless you don’t have to get to anything pressing, as the meal took about an hour total from seating to paying the check. The staff was friendly, the food was decent, but if you are passing by the Poplar Tent Rd exit on I-85 looking for true barbecue feel free to keep on driving.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 2.5 Hogs 

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R & R Bar-B-Que on Urbanspoon

RandR Bar-B-Que on Foodio54

Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q – Concord, NC

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Name: Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q
Date: 1/3/14
Address: 7791 Gateway Ln NW, Concord, NC 28027
Order: Mr Jim’s Deluxe Combo with Carolina-style pork, beef brisket, and baby back ribs with slow-cooked collards, cole slaw, and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $23.50

Monk: In the reader comments to our December Big Board, a reader had a couple of Charlotte-area suggestions including Jim ‘N Nick’s (albeit the Steele Creek location instead of the Concord Mills location I visited). While we don’t do a lot of chains here on Barbecue Bros, on the first Friday after the holidays I decided to throw caution into the holiday weight gain wind and give it a try.

Jim ‘N Nick’s is a pretty well-respected barbecue chain restaurant out of Birmingham, Alabama with approximately 30 locations in 7 states. Owner Nick Pihakis, a James Beard nominated restaurateur for 4 years straight, is a member of the Fatback Collective, “a group of entrepreneurs and scholars who champion heritage ingredients and cooking techniques” and has also put his money where his mouth by creating a “pork-farming pipeline” of cross-bred heritage pigs with the mission to create a better quality product for their customers. Recently, their Charleston, SC location supported Rodney Scott on the first stop on his In Exile tour.

If you want a particular type of barbecue, chances are Jim ‘N Nick’s serves it. In the past, I’ve been criticized by my fellow Barbecue Bros for not trying enough when I visit a restaurant, so on this day I went for it with the three meat combo platter with Carolina-style pork, beef brisket, and baby back ribs. As for other meats, “classic pulled pork,” hot links, smoked ham, chicken, turkey breast, and spare ribs are also available.

The pork and beef came pre-sauced and topped with a pickle (weird and not ideal for me) but were plenty moist on their own. The “Carolina-style” pork was “chopped with a vinegar-pepper sauce,” however the eastern North Carolina flavor didn’t come through. The brisket was chopped and the larger pieces had a decent tug but overall it wasn’t particularly smokey and the bark lacked flavor. The three baby back ribs were slightly pinker than I’d prefer but were brushed nicely with a sweet/tangy sauce. The two table sauces were an “original concoction” as well as a “hot & spicy” sauce. Of the two, I preferred the hot & spicy used sparingly with the pork.

JNN claims all of their sides (or “trimmings” as they are referred on the menu) are made daily with fresh ingredients, and I could tell based on my meal. The table gets a complimentary basket of cheese corn muffins, which were really good and had a nice sweetness to them. Unfortunately, these muffins appeared to be in lieu of hush puppies, which are not on the menu and thus not cool with me. The slow-cooked collards had chunks of pork and certainly did not taste like they came out of the can. The slaw had a mayo/vinegar base, was sprinkled with fresh pepper, and had a nice crispness to it. Both of my sides were fantastic.

Speedy: I’ve been to Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q twice – once for lunch while working in Fort Mill, SC in 2010 and once for dinner in Birmingham, AL in 2008. Unfortunately, I don’t have any documentation around my meal, as this was BBB (Before Barbecue Bros), but the fact that I was willing to go back means I didn’t hate it. However, I don’t feel a specific need to revisit. Incidentally, I did visit Dreamland BBQ while in Birmingham and found it to be severely overrated. Bring on the hate.

Monk: For chain barbecue (with a drive-thru no less), I haven’t had too many places better than Jim ‘N Nick’s, who by the way also had excellent service. That being said, Jim ‘N Nick’s is still a chain which means they cook their barbecue in a gas smoker. They may use hickory wood during the smoking process (which did create a nice waft of smoke in the parking lot as I exited my car), but ultimately it’s still roast pork (and beef). It’s also a bit pricey – their prices could be cut by about 20-25% (maybe more) – and it won’t make you forget about real pit barbecue, but it’ll definitely do in a pinch.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Brisket – 3 hogs
Ribs – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs 

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Jim 'n Nicks on Urbanspoon