Linkdown: 5/22/24 – The Three-Time Grand Champions Edition

Featured

Monk: The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest was held this past weekend in Memphis, and The Shed yet again took home the Grand Champion and Whole Hog titles. The Grand Champion title was the third for the 17-time competition team from Ocean Springs, MS led by brother and sister Brad Orrison and Brooke Lewis.

The full list of winners in other categories are on their website. Of note, Big Bob Gibson and Chris Lilly took home yet another Pork Shoulder title.

Of note, the upstart barbecue competition SmokeSlam also took place the same weekend at Tom Lee Park, the former site of the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Here were the winners of SmokeSlam:

Native News

Friends of the blog The Low and Slow Barbecue Show featured Jon G’s Barbecue

Union Barbecue is a newer barbecue food truck in Charlotte native Holden Sasser

Pizza Peel in the Plaza Midwood is closing after a decade open and is turning into an Improper Pig

Mike D’s BBQ in east Durham but got a couple of lifelines through a Rapid Recovery loan  from The NC Rural Center

Non-Native News

City Limits Barbeque has been testing out pork steaks

Smoke Queen Barbecue is run by Winnie Yee-Lakhani and was recently featured by J.C. Reid in a recent profile

After last week’s tornadoes, many Houston restaurants are still without power including Gatlin’s BBQ and Feges BBQ

Daniel Vaughn digs up the first article on Franklin Barbecue

Linkdown: 7/20/22

Featured

Monk: A fairly wide-ranging state of NC barbecue from News & Observer writer Drew Jackson, who has been very ably covering the barbecue scene in and around Raleigh for the past few years.

Despite the invasive species of brisket coming into the state, there are still a number of places clinging to the NC barbecue tradition, be that eastern whole hog or Lexington-style shoulders (though this story focuses on places east of Durham. Wyatt Dickson, Matt Register, Ronald House (night pitmaster at B’s Barbecue), and Ryan Mitchell are all quoted in the story but of course Sam Jones has the money quote:

“The hard lines that used to exist, that barbecue was either this or it’s not barbecue — that’s over. It used to be, for people in North Carolina, it was either whole hog, or it ain’t (expletive). For 10 million Texans, it’s brisket. As times go on and we’re so much more transient as a society, those lines are blurred.”

Sam Jones

Read more at the link:

Native News

Lewis Donald is no longer involved with Dish and will be focusing his efforts on Sweet Lew’s BBQ and the Carolina Barbecue Festival going forward

Axios Raleigh releases their Triangle barbecue list

Barbecue Center in Lexington is closing for a week later this month for some hard earned rest and relaxation, so plan accordingly

Hillsborough’s Hog Day festival is the oldest barbecue festival in Orange County and this year will officially be part of the Whole Hog Barbecue State Championship

Jon G’s makes the Yelp Charlotte Top 25 Places to Eat along with…JD’s Smokehouse in Rutherford College near Morganton?

A behind-the-scenes follow-up to Jeremy Markovich’s story on B’s Barbecue in Our State Magazine from 2016

Non-Native News

A couple of recent stories where Adrian Miller was interviewed:

Little Pigs BBQ is on this Eater essential restaurants list for Myrtle Beach

Feges BBQ hosted Premier League champions (ugh) Man City on their pre-season US tour

Barbecue sauce beer? Barbecue sauce beer.

Linkdown: 2/19/20

The Takeout explores Santa Maria-style barbecue and the history of tri-tip in their latest “Acquired Tastes” column

John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog reviewed a few barbecue restaurants recently: he found great brisket at 2Fifty Texas BBQ in Riverdale Park, MD, good ribs (but not much else) at Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q in Douglasville, GA, and left The Original Leo and Susie’s Green Top Barbecue in Dora, AL disappointed

The evolution of the Texas beef rib from J.C. Reid (paywall)

Aaron Franklin’s latest venture isn’t about barbecue

Feges BBQ is opening a second location in the Houston area

Meanwhile, Ronnie Killen is opening another barbecue joint in The Woodlands area of Houston

Grape jelly in barbecue sauce? Apparently so in some regions of Georgia

This short list of eight black-owned barbecue joints in Houston includes Gatlin’s BBQ and Ray’s BBQ Shack

Interesting story, on a potential origin of hush puppies, but according to historian Adrian Miller its 50/50 whether or not its actually true

Legalize Barbecue