Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge – Shelby, NC

October 10, 2013August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge
Date: 9/28/13
Address: 2000 E Dixon Blvd, Shelby, NC 28150
Order: Monk – small barbecue tray, Cheerwine; Speedy: jumbo barbecue plate with red slaw, hush puppies, fries, and onion rings, Cheerwine (link to menu)
Price: $24

Monk: Heading to the Sigur Rós concert in Asheville afforded myself and Speedy another opportunity to hit up one of our favorite barbecue joints of all time, Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, NC.

Speedy: Monk and I have stopped by Red Bridges pretty frequently over the past few years (usually on the way to and from concerts in Asheville) and assumed this would be a slam dunk 5-hog review, as every experience in the past has been perfect.

Monk: However, that wasn’t exactly the case this time around for our official visit. Red Bridges is your classic old school barbecue joint located just off highway 74 and they have been serving the greater Shelby area for 67 years (60 in the current location). Speedy and I entered and sat ourselves and like always we were approached by the waitress immediately upon sitting down. As is our M.O. when it’s available, we each ordered a Cheerwine for our drink (unfortunately in a can and not from the fountain).

Speedy: Like an amateur, Monk had a full breakfast with the in-laws before lunch, so only ordered the small barbecue tray.

Monk: Hey now…

Speedy: I, on the other hand, had been fasting since the previous evening in preparation for the barbecue feast, so I ordered the jumbo barbecue plate which consisted of chopped pork, red slaw, hush puppies, fries, and onion rings. The food was brought out shortly thereafter, although not as promptly as we had remembered in previous visits.

Monk: Look, before we get into it I do want to caveat that it was all very good. Still, we don’t get paid the big bucks not to nitpick.

Speedy: Wait, you’re getting paid?

Monk: We’ll talk about that later…anyways, starting with the chopped pork, it was a little coarser chop than both Speedy and I would prefer – which is different from our past visits. And maybe it could have had just a touch more smoke – again, different from our past visits.

Speedy: I was actually ok with the amount of smoke in the pork. I would like to note, however, that the pork always comes with a good bit of outside brown, even if you don’t specifically ask for it.

Monk: Very true. As for sides, both the oblong hush puppies and red slaw were spot on for a Lexington-style joint.

Speedy: The onion rings were fine but the fries were not good, and I only ended up eating three of them. One thing that has always irked me about Red Bridges is that they have Frank’s Hot Sauce on the table – why not stock Texas Pete, a Winston-Salem product?

Monk: Speaking of sauce, the table dip seemed to be a little thicker than we’ve noticed in the past and lacked tang.

Speedy: You may be reading this review and thinking that we didn’t enjoy our visit. We assure you, that is not the case. Red Bridges is still in our top 5 North Carolina barbecue joints. It’s just that this particular visit didn’t quite live up to their unusually high standards. Still, this meal was better than 95% of barbecue joints out there.

Monk: We still have no trouble recommending Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge to anyone and everyone looking for proper barbecue and we will stop by there every chance we get. Let’s just hope this visit was an anomaly instead of the start of a trend.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/ambiance – 4.5 hogs
Pork – 4.5 hogs
Sides – 4.5 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs

Real Q (formerly Little Richard’s BBQ) – Winston-Salem, NC

October 3, 2013February 20, 2018 / Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Name: Little Richard’s BBQ
Date: 9/24/13
Address: 4885 Country Club Rd, Winston-Salem, NC 27104
Order: Chopped barbecue plate with slaw, fries, and hush puppies (link to menu)
Bill: $7.29

A mid-week work trip from Raleigh, NC to Bristol, VA had me driving through my old stomping grounds in Winston-Salem, which seemed like a perfect time to stop by Little Richard’s BBQ – Winston-Salem’s most famous barbecue restaurant and a stop on the NC Historic BBQ trail. I hadn’t eaten at Little Richard’s all that often – it’s not terribly convenient to Wake Forest’s campus – and honestly, growing up so close to Lexington, I spent many years of my life taking great barbecue for granted. However, I was excited to go because, if memory served me well, I was in for a treat.

Little Richard’s is your classic old-school Lexington style barbecue joint. You walk in, seat yourself, and a waitress comes to see you immediately. There are menus on the table, but if you’re like me, you don’t need one. The order is easy – chopped barbecue plate with slaw, fries, and hush puppies.

The food is brought out nearly immediately, and it’s time to dig in. The pork is good, but I do think it could use a bit more smoke on it. It’s perfectly tender with the right amount of dip applied, but the flavor doesn’t quite stack up to some of the top joints. It’s still quite good and I certainly wasn’t disappointed, but it simply does not compare favorably to most of the places in Lexington.

The sides, however, are a different story. For my money, the slaw and hush puppies were perfect. The slaw had the perfect amount of tang and was served at the right temperate – refrigerator cold to contrast the hot chopped pork. The hush puppies are shaped as small round balls and have just the right amount of sweetness. The crinkle fries are pretty standard and are a bit of an afterthought of the meal.

One thing I must mention is that Little Richard’s is cash only, which can be slightly inconvenient. However, this shouldn’t stop people from going. If you’re in Winston-Salem and looking for barbecue, Little Richard’s is the place to go.

-Speedy

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 4 hogs
Pork – 4 hogs
Sides – 5 hogs
Overall – 4 hogs

The Barbecue Center – Lexington, NC

August 15, 2013January 19, 2016 / Barbecue Bros / 2 Comments

Name: The Barbecue Center
Date: 8/8/13
Address: 900 N Main St., Lexington, NC 27292
Order: Chopped pork plate with fries, slaw, hush puppies and a Cheerwine (link to menu)
Price: $10.14

Monk: On our way to fly out of Greensboro for our annual guys trip, Speedy and I took the opportunity to check out a joint in Lexington that is on the NC Historic Barbecue Trail but which neither of us had been to – The Barbecue Center. I personally must have passed within a half mile of it literally hundreds of times heading to and from Charlotte without knowing it was there. Nevertheless, I was excited.

Speedy: Like Monk, I had never been though I’d heard tale of some locals claiming it as their favorite joint in town, which in Lexington is a big deal. (I later found out the reason I never went growing up: when telling Mama Speedy about my lunch locale, she replied with a scoff, “why’d you go there? Monk’s is right around the corner.”)

Pulling in, things looked really good, as there’s a large smokehouse outside and piles of hickory wood. The large smokehouse was not active upon our noon arrival. Additionally, there was hickory wood outside of the kitchen in the main building, which was going, as there was a strong, glorious smoke smell present as we entered the building.

Monk: In addition to the smell, you could see thin veil of smoke wafting in the dining room, so I was definitely encouraged. We grabbed a small two-person booth as the lunch rush started to come in and before too long the waitress had taken our order. As is standard, we each ordered a chopped pork plate (with extra outside brown) that came with fries, slaw, and hush puppies and of course, a Cheerwine to top it all off.

Speedy: The meal looked fantastic – exactly as a barbecue meal should. I bit into the pork and noticed a definite smoke flavor. It was also perfectly tender. I think my biggest problem was with the dip, which seemed a little heavy on the ketchup, making it sweeter than I like.

Monk: The outside brown was very present in the pork, which I agree was very good. The oblong hush puppies were really good and almost as sweet as I like them to be, though not quite. The red slaw wasn’t quite as tangy as I normally like, and I know Speedy had some issues.

Speedy: My love of red slaw is well documented around these parts, but again, the dip really held it back for me. The cabbage was chopped perfectly, but I was just overwhelmed by the sweetness of the dip. Was it better than mayo based cole slaw? Of course. But it just wasn’t up to what I expected in the town of Lexington.

Monk: All in all, I was glad we were able to finally check out The Barbecue Center. It’s former owner Sonny Conrad (who recently passed away in June) was a barbecue icon and was one of six restaurant owners who started The Barbecue Festival in Lexington, the largest one-day festival in the state of NC. Conrad was so iconic, in fact, that he always presented the first barbecue sandwich of the festival to the mayor of Lexington. As for the food itself…

Speedy: It was very good. In fact, if The Barbecue Center were in Charlotte, I’d probably go eat there all the time. But it’s not in Charlotte, and there’s a higher standard in Lexington. At the end of the day, Mama Speedy was right – why waste your time when Monk’s place is just around the corner?

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 Hogs
Pork – 4 Hogs
Sides – 3.5 Hogs
Overall – 4 Hogs

Stamey’s Barbecue – Greensboro, NC

July 22, 2013August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / 3 Comments

Name: Stamey’s Barbecue
Date: 7/12/13
Address: 2206 High Point Road, Greensboro, NC 27403
Order: Chopped pork plate with red slaw, hush puppies, and Cheerwine (link to menu)
Bill: $6.84

Monk: Guys, I think I am in love. Despite growing up in High Point not 20 minutes from Stamey’s, I’m a little ashamed to admit that this past Friday was my first visit to the joint. I mean, Carter Brother’s was fine at the time but why didn’t someone drag me by the ear to Stamey’s?

Rudy: It’s funny that you had never been there, because I practically grew up on Stamey’s. It is located about 2 blocks from my Dad’s business, so I ate there all the time. It is pretty much the barometer for how I view all barbecue. It is also directly across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum, so during the ACC Basketball Tournament, it is packed all day long.

Monk: There really is no good explanation as to why it took so long but in any case, after finishing my latest reading material and getting a better understanding of Warner Stamey’s legacy and influence on Lexington style barbecue in NC, I knew I had to get here asap. And visiting my parents for the weekend while my wife went out of town presented the perfect opportunity.

My dad and I were already going to be in Greensboro so we planned to stop in at Stamey’s that day. We walked into the large wooden building, sat ourselves in a booth and did the usual barbecue joint drill – order a drink, order food when the waitress returns with our drink 2 minutes later, and then receive the food another 2-3 minutes after that (if not sooner).

Soon a perfect plate was presented before me with chopped pork barbecue, red slaw, and oblong hush puppies. After snapping a few photos, I took my first bite and wow. Just wow. Immediately I knew an overall 5 whole hog ratings was in play. Nice chop, perfect smokiness that can’t be faked with gas, and the right ratio of sweetness to tang in the sauce. I ordered the regular plate but immediately wished I had ordered the large.

Rudy: With so many places moving towards gas, it is refreshing to see a big stack of wood piled in the corner of the parking lot; a clear sign that they are sticking with the traditional smoking, which makes the whole difference.

Monk: In case you weren’t aware (I wasn’t until recently), Warner Stamey is actually credited with introducing hush puppies into barbecue meals in the 50’s (it had previously only been a seafood side). As stated in this space numerous times, I like a sweeter hush puppy and while these weren’t quite as sweet as I’d have liked they were pretty good. The red slaw was above average and a Cheerwine rounded out the meal nicely. My Dad and I also split a blueberry cobbler bro-style (separate plates, thank you very much) for dessert, which was quite good. I’m usually too full to order dessert at a barbecue restaurant, but I’m glad I did on this day.

Rudy: One of my biggest complaints about barbecue in Texas is the lack of effort with sides. Most of the time it is just some beans as an option. Stamey’s has brunswick stew as a side option…and it is amazing. Next time anyone goes there, it is an absolute must.

Monk: I wish I had seen your tweet and had ordered the brunswick stew, but next time. When the bill came out I did a double take since the entire meal was under $14. Total. I have come to expect to pay that much for just myself. So you’re telling me not only is this probably at least as good as the best barbecue I’ve ever had (Lexington #1), but the prices are ridiculously reasonable too (a sandwich is $2.99 and a regular plate is $5.29)?

I can’t say enough good things about Stamey’s and I hope to make it back very soon. It is the definition of a 5 whole hog plate of chopped pork barbecue and to me, also the definition of a 5 whole hog joint.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4.5 hogs
Pork – 5 hogs
Sides/Dessert – 4.5 hogs
Overall – 5 hogs