Welcome Back, Wilber’s!
Barbecue occupies several spots on GQ’s list of 53 Things You Should Eat Before Summer is Over
The California barbecue scene is on the upswing
Smorgasburg has reopened
RIOT RIBS
Barbecue Center is closed this week due to vacation
Noble Smoke is celebrating one year open this Saturday
Monk: Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I quietly posted my Lexington rankings a few months back through the top navigation bar. Before the pandemic hit, it was my pet project to hit all of the current Lexington-area barbecue restaurants for my definitive* Lexington rankings. I’ve been a longtime fan of Lexington Barbecue and in recent years, The Barbecue Center. But as the self-proclaimed “Barbecue Capital of the World” (one of many cities claiming that title, it should be noted) boasting at times one barbecue restaurant per 1,000 restaurants (though this is not currently the case), I needed to explore the others to understand the quality and depth of the other restaurants.
I’ve broken the 14 restaurants I’ve reviewed thus far into three tiers. Someday I will get to the curiously named Lexington Trimmings for completeness sake but in the meantime, here is the most definitive list of Lexington-area barbecue restaurants on the internet*. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lexington Big Board.
*one man’s opinion
**that I know of
I need to revisit both Smiley’s and Speedy’s asap, as they may no longer be in business for too much longer as a result of the NC Department of Transportation widening Highway 8 that they both sit on. Also, both were reviewed very early in this blog’s life and while I really enjoyed both, I’ve had a lot of barbecue since.
To my knowledge, all of these places smoke over wood with no gas or electricity but are just a notch below the best of the best in Lexington.
Of the bottom tier, Kerley’s and Randy’s don’t smoke over wood and it shows in the actual barbecue.
Lexington Trimmings
Have I missed anything? Let me know in the comments or email us at barbecuebros@gmail.com.
Congrats to Midwood Smokehouse on their Charlotte Magazine Best of the Best Voter’s Choice Award for “Best BBQ”; Sweet Lew’s BBQ was the runner up
Another mail order barbecue list, from Robert Moss in Southern Living
Congrats to AmazingRibs.com on turning 15
Noble Smoke is now delivering in Charlotte
The folks behind Hubba Hubba Smokehouse opened up a “neighborhood bar and grill” called Campfire Grill that has Hubba Hubba barbecue on the takeout menu and plenty of live fire cooking
Evan LeRoy of LeRoy and Lewis argues that “barbecue is the perfect pandemic food” because you can “[o]rder extra and cook it all week.”
Peg Leg Porker reopens on May 1 for curbside to go and delivery
Happy belated birthday to Tootsie!
Monk: YouTube Vloggers Andrew and Kathryn, also known as The Adventures of A+K, live in a sprinter van, and document their adventures on the road. They are both Texas natives but recently made a trip across North Carolina to try our two types of barbecue – eastern and western/Lexington-style – at our two most famous barbecue restaurants: Skylight Inn in Ayden and and Lexington Barbecue in Lexington. They are both novices to North Carolina barbecue and lacked some of the proper barbecue vocabulary to describe the food (not to mention they didn’t mix the slaw with the barbecue!) but were very much open to it and, in the end, both preferred one style over the other (no spoilers).
Description:
A couple months ago we heard about the North Carolina BBQ Trail, which is a route across the state of North Carolina with 21 BBQ stops. We love BBQ, so we knew we had to try it! North Carolina has two styles of BBQ: Eastern Style and Western/Lexington Style. In this vlog we road tripped 3 hours across the state of North Carolina to try one spot for each style!
STOPS
Skylight Inn BBQ (Ayden): https://www.yelp.com/biz/skylight-inn…
Jubala Coffee (Raleigh): https://www.yelp.com/biz/jubala-villa…
Lexington BBQ (Lexington): https://goo.gl/maps/JZUpkmd6tinpjAvy5