Name: Peace -N- Hominy Q Shack
Date: 3/25/15
Address: 403 E Catawba St Ste 200, Belmont, NC 28012
Order: “Pul’d” pork sandwich with BBQ slaw, hush puppies, and Sun Drop (link to menu)
Price: $9.50

Monk: Belmont is a small town situated just off of I-85 between Charlotte and Gastonia that is mostly known for being the home of Belmont Abbey College, a small Catholic college. I haven’t really spent much time that way but last year a promising looking barbecue spot called Peace -N- Hominy Q Shack opened up. Being that Belmont is actually a little bit closer to where we currently live than barbecue restaurants in Fort Mill, Concord, or Kannapolis (since I’ve exhausted most Charlotte options), I decided to check it out.

I quite like the space that Peace -N- Hominy occupies at the rear of an older building that also houses Belmont’s Drug Store. It’s a smaller space and there aren’t but a handful of tables available in the main dining area (which were all full that day during lunch), so I headed back to the barstool seating against a wall just off the open kitchen.

Peace -N- Hominy state on the menu that they smoke their pork for 13 hours with apple-wood and hickory but from what I could tell, they do their smoking with a gasser. Which you could taste in the dry and coarsely pulled pork I had on my sandwich. The chunks that did have some bark were a notch above the other pieces but on the whole it was crying out for one of their table sauces (available in hot, vinegar, and mustard).

Speedy: Which sauce did you try? Did it help?

Monk: I tried the vinegar sauce, which helped a bit in terms of dryness. Another thing that helped was the barbecue slaw on the sandwich itself. One suggestion, though – they should put the slaw on top of the pork (as most places do) so that by the time I receive the sandwich the bottom half of the bun isn’t soaked through due to the weight of the meat sitting on top of the slaw. This resulted in me having a somewhat hard time eating the sandwich without it falling apart.

The hush puppies come lightly dusted with what I believe is cinnamon sugar and is almost more dessert than savory side. Nonetheless, they are quite good despite being somewhat inconsistent – some were a little more underdone than others.

And a note about the paper straws they utilized. Props to Peace -N- Hominy for refusing to use styrofoam products – I wish more restaurants would do this – but a paper straw is where I draw the line. Its just not natural to sip through a straw that is slowly disintegrating and breaking down with every sip. I try not to hyperbolize too much (I usually leave that to Speedy), but a paper straw truly is the devil’s instrument.

Speedy: I have no idea what you’re talking about…

Monk: Sure you don’t, Speedy… 

In addition to having a pretty good name, Peace -N- Hominy Q Shack is a decent little barbecue joint. They are unfortunately at a bit of a disadvantage by not using a wood burning smoker from the get-go but are worth checking out in Belmont.

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