NC

Linkdown: 9/25/13

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All NC barbecue news this week…

– Usually Raleigh’s WRAL picks their five favorite barbecue joints but this year they left it up to their readers

– October is now officially Barbecue Festival Month, at least according to the (somewhat biased) Lexington City Council

– This coming weekend on the streets of Raleigh, the NC Whole Hog Barbecue State Championship will be held at the same time as the International Bluegrass Music Assocation’s awards show, convention, and music festival, which recently relocated from Nashville to the capital city for the first of at least a three-year run

– You can catch the second airing of Bob Garner’s segment discussing his “Book of Barbecue” on UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Bookwatch” Thursday at 5pm

– Sadly, there was a salmonella outbreak at a barbecue event in Shelby earlier this month with 89 ill and 13 hospitalized; hopefully everyone makes a full recovery

Hursey’s Bar-B-Q – Burlington, NC

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Name: Hursey’s Bar-B-Q
Date: 9/5/13
Address: 1834 South Church St., Burlington, NC 27215
Order: BBQ & Chicken combo platter with slaw, hush puppies, fries (link to menu)
Price: $6.70

My latest stop on the Historic NC Barbecue Trail was Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington, NC, a town familiar to anyone who regularly drives between Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and Greensboro or Charlotte. Not to be confused with the fast food version of this restaurant in Graham off I-85/I-40 (housed in what I believe is an old Hardee’s), this joint is off Church Street near downtown Burlington in a brick building where it has resided since 1960.

Burlington is located in the piedmont between Greensboro and Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill but Hursey’s cooks open pit eastern NC style barbecue with a slight kick to its vinegar sauce. It has a nice chop and moistness to it, but lacked a little smoke. The table side dip was nice, if not essential. I ordered the BBQ & chicken combo since it was the special of the day and lo and behold received a thigh and drum of fried chicken. Which was actually pretty good, just not exactly what I was expecting. I should have clarified with the waitress before ordering or just gotten only barbecue in the first place.

The hush puppies were little orbs cooked to golden brown perfection but what really set it off was that they were served with honey butter (!!). If you have ever had perfect hush puppies with honey butter, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t – well man, you just haven’t lived. The slaw was mayo based and average – not much to write about it. The fries were fries.

In keeping with the eastern NC theme, my wife got the BBQ & brunswick stew combo and found the brunswick stew to be disappointingly bad cooked with what tasted like store-bought vegetables. Which was unfortunate since for the most part we enjoyed our visit there.

Hursey’s is just a few minutes off the highway and worth checking out if you are heading from the Research Triangle towards Greensboro or Charlotte. Just don’t mess with the brunswick stew.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 Hogs
Pork – 3.5 Hogs
Sides – 2.5 Hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs
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Hursey's Bar-B-Q on Urbanspoon

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”