Florence

The Best Bites at last month’s Second Annual Jon G’s Jubilee

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Note: a version of this article originally appeared last month in The Smoke Sheet, a fantastic national barbecue newsletter that I regularly contribute to. For more information on how to subscribe, visit bbqnewsletter.com.

Monk: The Jon G’s Jubilee is part barbecue festival and part birthday celebration, with the first edition in 2023 created in honor of the 40th birthday of co-owner and pitmaster Garren Kirkman. This year, I made my way to Peachland around 4pm on a Saturday in late June – which, by the way, is an odd feeling if you’ve ever woken up closer to the crack of dawn to leave for a Barbecue Saturday – for this year’s edition of the Jubilee featuring contributions from N. Sea Oyster Co., Lawrence Barbecue, Elliott Moss, and of course Jon G’s Barbecue.

Most attendees at the Jubilee started with oysters from N. Sea Oyster Co. from Hampstead which is located near Topsail Beach on the North Carolina coast. They offered both raw and the barbecued oysters that were cooked on a Kudu grill next to the tent. The oysters were a touch on the small side for my liking but the raw with a “hog wash mignonette” were nice and briney while the barbecued with a chipotle bourbon butter were sublime.

Lawrence Barbecue‘s beef fat caramel wings were probably the food highlight of the evening for me. If I am recalling the process correctly, beef fat drippings from briskets are rendered into a caramel sauce with sugar and cumin, and then that is what the wings are dipped in after they are fried. These don’t appear to be a regular menu item at their shop in Durham but if they are ever on special, grab a friend and get as many as you can. Just ridiculously tasty.

Elliot Moss and his mobile BQ smoker was actually the first sight attendees saw when walking into the Jubilee in the the lawn area behind the Jon G’s building. Moss was a last minute addition to the festivities, announced just the week leading into the festival, but he was certainly a welcome one for barbecue fans in the know. He’s made some moves in his hometown of Florence that are still to be announced publicly (but are consistent with what he told me at the Carolina BBQ Festival) and safe to say that big things are in the works. I can’t wait to hear the full scope of his plans, which we should hopefully know more about in the coming weeks.

His whole hog was served pig pickin’ style straight from the pig cooker with a pot of vinegar pepper sauce and a white slaw. And it was as sublime as you would have expected from a fresh hog cooked on site the night before to be.

Finally, Jon G’s Barbecue came through with a beef rib croissant sandwich topped with chimichurri served with a side of burnt ends and a watermelon salad. The sandwich was a super-sized version of the slider beef rib croissant sandwich I had at the first Carolina BBQ Festival and the Smoke and Grapes event as part of 2022’s Charlotte Food and Wine Festival. It’s deliciously luxurious and indulgent and a neighbor at a nearby table noted that the sandwich was “the best thing [she’s] ever eaten” which honestly isn’t too far off from the truth. The usual excellence from Garren, Kelly, and team.

Thankfully, Garren has confirmed that the third edition of the Jon G’s Jubilee is already in the works, possibly with a move in timing (especially if wife and co-owner Kelly has anything to do with it). Whenever it’s announced, for barbecue fans in North and South Carolina it’s worth looking out for and adding to your calendar.

A Thousand Words: The Second Annual Jon G’s Jubilee

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Monk: A family vacation prevented me from attending last year’s Jon G’s Jubilation, which is part barbecue festival and part birthday celebration (the original was created to celebrate Garren’s 40th birthday). This year, my family obligations didn’t conflict with my barbecue obligations, so I made my way to Peachland around 4pm on a Saturday – which, by the way, is an odd feeling – for this year’s edition of the Jubilee featuring Lawrence Barbecue, Elliott Moss, N. Sea Oyster Co., and NoDa Brewing.

Swag and jubilee setup

Beef fat caramel wings from Lawrence Barbecue out of Durham

Beef rib croissant sandwich, burnt ends, and watermelon salad from Jon G’s Barbecue

Oysters from N. Sea Oyster Co. out of Hampstead, NC

Whole hog from Elliott Moss, now out of Florence, SC

Dessert from Brown Creek Creamery in Wadesboro and beverages from NoDa Brewing out of Charlotte

Here’s hoping there is a third edition next year!

On Chicken Bog

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Chicken Bog at Buxton Hall Barbecue in Asheville

Monk: Chicken Bog is a South Carolina Pee Dee regional dish with Gullah 
Geechee roots that’s at least 300 years old but if you were to ask someone outside of that small region, chances are they have never heard of it. Per DiscoverSC.com, it’s most popular in the stretch of SC between Horry County (think Myrtle Beach) to Florence in the eastern part of the state. Loris, SC (30 miles inland from Myrtle Beach towards the NC border) has been home to the Loris Bog-Off Festival since 1979. Personally, it wasn’t until a little over 2 years ago that I first encountered and tried it at Buxton Hall Barbecue (in the mountains of NC no less). Though if you know Buxton Hall, that’s not so far-fetched because pitmaster Elliott Moss is originally from Florence and has brought his family’s recipe for the dish to western NC.

I liken chicken bog to a SC version of jambalaya. It’s base ingredients are rice, chicken, and sausage and from there its anyone’s call. In that way, its a bit like Brunswick stew where everyone has their own version – some have various veggies while others are pretty simple with just the main ingredients and everyone’s spice mix is a well-kept secret. The version I made with my neighbor for an oyster roast this past weekend was on the simpler end of the spectrum. My neighbors have been having oyster roasts for a while now and initially would cook a chili to accompany the steamed oysters. A few years back, they made the switch to chicken bog and it was such a fan favorite that they haven’t done chili since.

I don’t have the recipe but the version we made was pretty simple (check the Discover SC page above for a more exact recipe). In two large pots, we placed 3 whole chickens, chopped smoked sausage, and spices into water and brought to a boil which both cooked the chickens and also created the stock we would later cook the rice in.

Then, the chickens were taken out of the stock and pulled into coarse chunks and set aside. Combining the stock into one pot, the rice was boiled and once cooked we added the pulled chicken back in and stirred the entire pot up. Spoon that mixture into bowls, add some hot sauce if you prefer, and its done – simple as that. It was a huge hit, and its so easy that you should do it too at your next oyster or even pig roast.


For more on Chicken Bog:
A Taste of SC: Just What Is Chicken Bog?
Elliott Moss’ Chicken Bog recipe
“On South Carolina, Gullah Cuisine and the History of Chicken Bog” by RL Reeves Jr

Linkdown: 12/3/14

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– How Do You Spell Barbecue? Personally, I go with “barbecue”

Back in the 18th century, there were almost as many ways to spell barbecue as there were people cooking it: barbacue, barbicu, borbecue. In his diary entry for September 18, 1773, George Washington recorded that he attended, “a Barbicue of my own giving at Accotink.”

He may have been the Father of our Country, but Washington’s spelling didn’t stick. By the time of the Civil War, Americans had settled on two primary versions—barbecue and barbeque—and that’s as close as we’ve come to consensus. The North Carolina Barbecue Society has come down on the side of the “c”, but their neighbors in the Palmetto State, home of the South Carolina Barbeque Association, are more prone to go with the “q,” as are the folks out in Missouri in the Kansas City Barbeque Society.

– Southport has a new barbecue restaurant in Terry’s North Carolina Bar-B-Que & Ribs

– Zagat: Arrogant Swine brings Carolina ‘Cue to Brooklyn

– Speaking of Arrogant Swine, I haven’t linked to a Tyson Ho blog entry on SeriousEats in a few weeks, but here’s a link to his latest, on changing his menu and taking feedback; if you haven’t read the whole series, do yourself a favor and catch up asap

We’ve already cut two items from the menu: turkey legs and corn pone. There’s a certain amount of market efficiency when it comes to a barbecue menu. Certain items appear everywhere because they’re guaranteed hits: brisket, ribs, pulled pork, and chicken are time-tested and reliable. Sometimes you win big when you go against the grain, but for the most part one would do well to heed the wisdom of crowds.

– The SC Barbecue Trail marketing campaign (specifically the web series) wins some accolades by highlighting the state’s barbecue tradition

– An Army veteran has opened a NC barbecue restaurant in Tampa, Three Brothers BBQ Smokehouse

– Austin writer Matthew Odam picks apart a recent WSJ article on Austin barbecue that just plain got some things wrong

– Marie, Let’s Eat! begins their 12 chapter (!!) circumnavigation of barbecue restaurants in South Carolina and eastern North Carolina with Maurice’s in Columbia, some less than great places around Florence, and Parker’s in Wilson