NC

Linkdown: 3/27/14

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Bonus linkdown? Bonus linkdown!

– You have until Friday to eat at the original Clyde Cooper’s location in Raleigh before it moves a few blocks away onto Wilmington Street the second week in April (via bbqboard)

– Colbert Pulled Pork Rant Pulled Too Hard, says Esquire’s Eat Like a Man Blog:

This seems a bit much. On the one hand, I applaud Colbert for taking on a sacred cow, or rather a sacred pig. They can’t say the guy doesn’t have balls. And he’s right in a way. It’s true that a lot of Carolina barbecue, not just in North Carolina but also in Colbert’s home state of South Carolina, is mediocre at best, and sometimes almost as bad as he makes it out to be. But the best of it is transporting, unique, and irreplaceable. No barbecue tradition in America varies so much from good to bad. I just came back from Raleigh and Durham and experienced both. At Cooper’s, I had a finely chopped barbecue sandwich that was simultaneously soft and somehow also firm, tightly packed but giving up every bite without resistance. It was porky, and a little smoky, and its vinegar just set off its fat. It was basically perfect. Later in the day I went to The Pit, one of the state’s best barbecue restaurants, and it was even better. The barbecue was fresher, and even when coarsely chopped, was still tender. Moreover, the vinegar was judiciously spiked with hot pepper, so you got three things on your palate at once: fat, acid, and heat — a kind of holy trinity of American meat.

– By the looks of this tweet, it appears Our State Magazine has hired a new barbecue writer

– As of 9:24am this morning, The Great NC BBQ Map Kickstarter has been fully funded! Congrats to them!

Linkdown: 3/26/14

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– Charlotte Beer has a post on The Great NC BBQ Map and the barbecue-themed smoked amber ale with chile peppers being brewed in for their launch party; speaking of which, it’s still not too late to pledge to their Kickstarter!

– An update on Rodney Scott post-exile tour:

All told, the tour raised just over $80,000, $60,000 of which will go toward the estimated $100,000 it will take Scott to rebuild his pit room. (The remaining $40,000 he’ll secure through a bank loan.)

As a 40-year-old business, Scott’s might have been able to sneak by with some grandfathering and just recreate what they had before. But Scott says, “We came to the conclusion that we should do this right. We decided to upgrade to all codes and all regulations, so this thing would be [around] more than a few more years.”

– Unknown Brewing Co. in Charlotte is having a Smoke Off on April 19 with 20 teams competing, live music, and beer of course

– Lexington’s BBQ Capital Cook-off will be April 25 and 26 (via bbqboard)

– There is a bill in the South Carolina senate which would declare barbecue the “Official State Picnic Cuisine of South Carolina”

– Speaking of which, Stephen Colbert is at it again; I know he is trolling but he does realize he is talking about mustard-based barbecue right?

– City Barbeque is opening in Cary, NC in mid April and are holding a sauce contest as part of their grand opening festivities; enter now through March 31

– Barbecue traditions from around the world including lechon and satay from the Phillipines (via)

– Pretty in Pistachio has a short profile and some great photos of Mighty Quinn’s (our review here) in NYC’s East Village

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– And finally, Big Wayner has 5 reasons why you should join the newly formed North Carolina BBQ Association

Lancaster’s BBQ – Huntersville, NC

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Name: Lancaster’s BBQ
Date: 3/21/14
Address: 9230 Beatties Ford Rd, Huntersville, NC 28078
Order: Bar-B-Que pork dinner with slaw, brunswick stew and Sun Drop (link to menu)
Price: $8.66

By my count, Lancaster’s BBQ is the fourth Charlotte-area barbecue restaurant that serves Eastern NC barbecue (including Midwood Smokehouse, Bill Spoon’s, and Bubba’s). I promise our dear readers that I will stop being surprised by other barbecue styles in Piedmont-located Charlotte because according to Tom Hanchett, a historian at the city’s Levine Museum of the New South and expert on Southern food, “it is a city of newcomers and we have other people’s barbecue.” In any case, I visited the Huntersville location of Lancaster’s last week because I had not had barbecue in the month of March and I was tweakin’.

If you go to Lancaster’s I pray you aren’t annoyed by NASCAR and NASCAR memorabilia. Because it’s literally everywhere. Next to my booth was a car engine, which I had the good fortune of staring at during my meal.

On this Friday, they had a pork barbecue plate special which includes 2 sides and a drink and represents a pretty outstanding value considering the meal is usually $10.75 on its own. Picking that with bbq slaw and brunswick stew as my sides, it wasn’t but 3 minutes later that I had a plate in front of me. Bonus points for quickness.

The pork was moist and fairly tender but had little smoke, even in the pieces of bark in my coarsely pulled plate. The two sauces on the table were a vinegar, eastern sauce and a heavier ketchup-y barbecue sauce. I stayed away from the heavier sauce but the vinegar sauce complemented the meat pretty well. Too bad about the lack of smoke, though – likely due to the pork being smoked in a gas or electric smoker.

Even before you order, you get a basket of hush puppies and mine were fresh out of the deep fryer and once I happily let them cool off, they were great – probably the best part of the meal. As for the sides I ordered, the “bbq slaw” wasn’t the Lexington style slaw its name would indicate but made in the eastern style of the pork with mayo and a little mustard. The brunswick stew needed salt but at least the veggies didn’t taste like they were originally frozen. They did have Sun Drop from a soda fountain, so props on that.

Lancaster’s BBQ has another location further north in Mooresville, but I won’t be rushing there any time soon. If for some reason I happen to be in the area (unlikely), maybe I will check it out since it’s a quick meal with friendly service.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 3.5 hogs
Overall – 2.5 Hogs

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Lancaster's BBQ on Urbanspoon

Lancasters BBQ on Foodio54

Only 5 Days Left to Pledge to The Great NC BBQ Map!

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The Great NC BBQ Map’s Kickstarter ends this Thursday, March 27 and they are a little over 60% of the way towards their $10,000 goal. Let’s get on this, people! 

This is one Kickstarter I am particularly interested in (for obvious reasons), so I’d really like to see it come to fruition. They’ve announced more details on their launch party at NoDa Brewing in June, and it looks to be a really fun time.

  • NoDa Brewing will have a special release, barbecue-themed beer – a “spicy, smoked amber ale with red chilis, in honor of NC’s BBQ tradition.”
  • Other barbecue-themed activities, including a hush puppy eating contest.

So let’s get those pledges in and push them over the edge before Thursday. I want my maps!

-Monk

Only 5 Days Left to Pledge to The Great NC BBQ Map!