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Linkdown: 9/4/13

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– Lolis Eric Elie thinks the nation is currently in the “cover-band” stage of barbecue; read this article to see what exactly he means

Barbecue’s migration to the national stage is almost complete. This summer, in Parade magazine, John T. Edge declared this the “new golden age of barbecue,” saying, “Americans adopted barbecue as our national folk food.”

That is exactly what barbecue didn’t need.

– Several Pittsburgh-area barbecue restaurants have been influenced by the Carolinas

– North Mecklenburg Republican Women will host its 5th annual Pig Pickin’ and Politickin’ event on Sept. 10

– This Slate writer believes that if “you put enough barbecue sauce on anything, it’ll taste good,” which is just wrong on so many levels

– A University of Alabama professor recently received an $18,000 grant from the Southern Foodways Alliance to study how barbecue has become such a cultural phenomenon in Alabama

– Clyde Cooper’s will be rebuilding – ahem, “reincarnating” – its current interior when it relocates to a new Raleigh location just around the corner in December (via) 

– The event schedule for the Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship has been released and includes concerts, contests, and a brewfest

– Because it is the best (non-alcoholic) drink to have with barbecue, I present to you “The History of Cheerwine”

Linkdown: 8/28/13

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– In case you missed it, here is Food & Wine’s list of “Best BBQ Cities” which includes Western NC (Lexington and surrounding area) as well as Eastern NC (Raleigh and surrounding area)

In Lexington proper, off Highway 29-70, no-frills Lexington Barbecue has pitmasters who expertly smoke pork shoulder and little else; in Greensboro, Stamey’s Old Fashioned Barbecue makes the best sandwich in town, topped with a pleasantly vinegary slaw and served on paper plates.

– So there’s this: Dallas, TX-based barbecue chain Dickey’s is opening their first Charlotte area restaurant and 15th overall in NC

– ”How much barbecue can Wells Fargo finance?” They have expanded into agricultural lending in eastern NC by adding a team of agricultural lenders in cities like Greenville, Goldsboro, Kinston, Rocky Mount and several others

– The Wine & Swine festival in Corolla makes Our State magazine’s 5 Things Every North Carolinian Should Do In September list

– Speaking of wine, Our State magazine has a wine pairing guide that focuses on the two styles of NC barbecue

– Jester King Brewery and The Salt Lick have collaborated on a pecan wood smoked saison beer called “Censored,” so named because the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission wouldn’t allow them to use The Salt Lick’s name due to some weird restriction which is too bad since the original logo was kind of bad ass:

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(image via)

– And finally, with football season about to start, Queen City Q just announced its food truck plans for the season

Linkdown: 8/21/13

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– The 2013 Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship (formerly the Blues, Brew & BBQ Festival) was recently announced for October 18-19 and will be the southeast’s largest sanctioned BBQ competition

– Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, Scott’s, and Skylight Inn make Southern Living’s 100 Places to Eat Now (via)

– Meanwhile in Asheville, James Beard nominated chef Elliot Moss has left Ben’s Tune-Up and is now focusing on his barbecue restaurant, presumably still being called Buxton Hill (though the article mentions he is taking more of a “modernist approach” and the details of which are “still in flux”)

– Boney’s Smokehouse, (review from Speedy and Monk coming tomorrow), gets a 3/4 star review in the Denver Post. Spoiler alert: we didn’t like it as much.

– Myron Mixon has parted ways with his restaurant partners in both Pride and Joy locations – Miami and the soon-to-be-opened New York (via)

– In case you were wondering, you can take Wilber’s barbecue (and presumably any other barbecue) through airport security (although why the typo of “Wilbur’s” made it through the editing process at the N&O is a mystery to me)

– Scott’s Bar-B-Q in Hemingway, SC is Andrew Zimmern’s favorite barbecue joint in America as confirmed in a tweet a few weeks back

Linkdown: 8/14/13

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– Nerd alert: the mystery of the smoke ring has been solved:

It turns out that burning organic fuels like wood, charcoal or gas produces a variety of chemicals, including trace amounts of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas. When NO2 gas meets the surface, it dissolves into the meat and picks up a hydrogen molecule, becoming nitrous acid (HNO2), which then gets converted into nitric oxide (NO). NO reacts with myoglobin, and together they form a stable pink molecule that can withstand heat. The thickness of the ring depends on how deep into the meat the NO is able to penetrate before reacting with myoglobin.

– Little Pigs BBQ in Statesville, a restaurant formerly part of a Memphis-style chain, celebrated its 50th anniversary last week

– Two men in Akron who wanted to bring “authentic barbecue” to northeast Ohio have opened a restaurant and naturally called it Old Carolina Barbecue

– Rodney Scott will be presiding pit master to over 30 chefs who will “prepare their personal take on barbecue” in Charleston, SC on 10/26 at the BBQ Perspectives public event

– A piece on Upstate SC barbecue entitled “In the Shadow of the Giant Peachoid”

– An open-faced barbecue sandwich on cornbread named after knuckleballer Phil Niekro is one of the local ballpark delicacies featured in this Garden and Gun blog post

– Lexington Barbecue and barbecue in general get a shout out in a recent list of “9 Southern foods you must try”

– So there’s this: a wine pairing guide to regional barbecue