Monk: In this short feature from UNC TV’s NC Weekend, host Deborah Holt Noel traverses across the city, taking in all the tastes and experiences it has to offer. From wakeboarding to donuts to breweries and wineries.
But of course, there’s also barbecue. On that front, she visits the barbecue pit that was discovered during the renovation of City Hall in 2014 (1:01) which also contains all of the posters of The Barbecue Festival (2:00) which brings in 150,000 visitors each October and will continue next year.
No trip to Lexington is complete without actually eating barbecue, and she wraps up the barbecue content in this video by visiting the two most prominent restaurants in Lexington Barbecue (3:19 and Bar-B-Q Center (4:45), which started as an ice cream parlor.
Description: There’s so much to do in Lexington that you can spend an entire weekend there and that’s just what we did with visits to breweries, wineries, restaurants, donut shops, even a wake park! Lexington, NC https://visitlexingtonnc.com/
The Local Palate and writer Jenn Rice detail a pretty action-packed eastern North Carolina barbecue itinerary. The usual suspects are on the list including Barbecue Bros faves Wilber’s Barbecue and Southern Smoke BBQ, but there are plenty of ones I haven’t tried yet. Bookmarking for next Spring.
A new live-fire cooking restaurant called Cinder is opening in Charlotte from Husk veteran Duke Kroger (who identifies as a pitmaster in his Twitter profile)
SCOOP: Chef Duke Kroger plans to open a new restaurant called Cinder in South End in June. He calls it “a modern play on open-fire tasting” with characteristics of Husk, the famed Charleston restaurant where Kroger got his start: https://t.co/Le0OYsUTsO
Is this bad?? Seems to be some electrical issues in a wall screwed everything up. Once again shoutout to @DallasFireRes_q otherwise this could have been a lot worse. pic.twitter.com/yKt4gLJFey
New-ish barbecue joint Palmira BBQ is one of the stalls at Port of Call
At Port of Call "[t]he stalls include up-and-coming names like smoked meats spot Palmira BBQ…" | The Hottest New Restaurants in Charleston, November 2021 https://t.co/ar4BGGom6p via @eatercarolinas
Mustard-sauce barbecue and hash and rice are two iconic Midlands SC dishes
Passing through Columbia on your travels this weekend? @BeehiveSteph has 7 Iconic Midlands Dishes that you really should stop off and sample.https://t.co/3FpYDx6PlI
If you are in the market for a new knife (or just want to give someone a great holiday gift), my updated list, provided by owners of over 190 BBQ joints, might be helpful. See the diverse and detailed responses here:https://t.co/EHO0EddJB9pic.twitter.com/19rT1QvN6Y
Name: Sam Jones BBQ Date: 10/16/21 Address: 502 W Lenoir St, Raleigh, NC 27601 Order: Jones Family Original BBQ Tray (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Long time readers know that Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC has been on my to-do list for years and sadly it still remains on my to-do list in 2021. Regardless of the fact that I am not in that part of NC pretty much ever, I’ve thankfully been able to try the Jones family barbecue a couple of times in Charlotte over the years. The first time was at Midwood Smokehouse in 2013 when Sam Jones smoked a hog for a Midwood Smokehouse Sunday Supper even that also included an airing of the SFA documentary on Skylight Inn. The second time was at Free Range Brewing Pig Picking in 2017 that doubled as a viewing party for his Order/Fire documentary. Both times, the whole hog was life changing.
Since then, Sam Jones opened his first namesake restaurant in Winterville before opening a second location in Raleigh late last year. It was to be part of Raleigh’s supposed barbecue boom that was short-circuited by the pandemic. Thankfully Sam Jones BBQ persevered along with Prime Barbecue, Longleaf Swine, and Lawrence Barbecue.
After visiting the NC State campus with Lady Monk and the Monkettes, we made the short trip downtown to Lenoir Street. Though the lot for the restaurant is not very big, we found street parking right in front of the restaurant fairly easily. We waited in a short line and ordered at the front and not before too long a Jones Family Original BBQ Tray was placed in front of me.
Which I quickly turned into this to mimic what they do at Skylight Inn:
By now, everyone knows about the legendary whole hog with crispy bits of skin chopped in the way that the Jones family does it. The pork at Sam Jones BBQ in Raleigh lives up to that standard, although the skin could have been just a tad crispier. Just a minor nitpick in otherwise flawless whole hog barbecue.
Going in, I had wondered most about the corn bread. Theirs is a denser, non-sweet version that likely won’t ever be my favorite version of cornmeal served with barbecue. However, I can respect that its serving a different purpose than the sweeter corn meal in the hush puppies I’m used to in the Piedmont.
The mayo-based coleslaw was sweet and paired nicely with the cue and some Texas Pete.
It’s looking like 2022 will be the year I am able to finally make my pilgrimage to Ayden and I’ll likely stop by the original Sam Jones BBQ in nearby Winterville as well. Sam Jones BBQ’s outpost in Raleigh only made me anticipate that upcoming trip even more.
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