Queen City Q

Linkdown: 11/5/14

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– Want to know what its like to judge a NC BBQ Association competition? Well, Big Wayner has the deets.

– TMBBQ interviews Sam Jones from Skylight Inn

DV: Do the people who cook it for a living have those same arguments?

SJ: I don’t think so. I don’t anyway. I’m not one of those people that’ll tell you that our way is the only way and that if you don’t do it our way you’re going to hell. Barbecue is defined by geography. In North Carolina it really changes by community. Do what you do and do it with the passion that ought to be in there, and you should be proud of the product you turn out. If you’re half-assing it you know you ought not walk to the forefront with your chest out.

– Speaking of which, some great photos from his Dias de los Puercos event with TMBBQ this past Sunday in Dallas including the one below of Sam Jones and Daniel Vaughn

– This article is subtitled “The Great Beef vs. Pork BBQ Debate” (via)

– Still more coverage on The Great NC BBQ Map

– The original list from USA Today was posted earlier in the year, but Fox 8 in High Point just got around to linking to it

– Just found this article from March of this year (as well as the blog itself), but it’s worth linking to: “The Great Gas Controversy and Pride in the Name of BBQ” 

– Pat Forde, sports columnist from Yahoo, gives Queen City Q and Birdsong Brewing a shoutout in his latest column

POINT AFTER

When hungry and thirsty in Charlotte – site of both the ACC championship game and a bowl game, so you may get there – The Dash recommends a stop at Queen City Q (39). It’s a quality barbecue joint that doubles as a de facto sports bar. Try the Carolina Classic nachos, with pulled pork and smoked chicken onboard, and then get after the brisket. There are plenty of sauces to choose from, including all the Carolina-centric choices. Combine your meal with a Higher Ground IPA (40) from Birdsong Brewery in Charlotte and thank The Dash later.

– Carolina Cue to Go, an “online barbecue shack”, is now open as of November 1

Linkdown: 6/25/14

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– While the newest incarnation of the Hornets opted not to use Alexander Julian as a free consultant to help design their new uniforms, he designed the original ones in exchange for barbecue

Julian was already a standout in the design world because of his “Colours” collection of men’s clothes when Shinn asked him in the 1980s to come up with the Hornets’ original uniforms. Julian said he would do it if Shinn would ship five pounds of barbecue to his house in Connecticut every month – “Carolina caviar,” as Julian called it.

“I had no idea that an expansion team uniform was going to sell as much as it did,” Julian said. “I was really dumb. I didn’t know what I was giving up. I normally get a five percent royalty. The reports I saw was that they sold over $200 million worth of stuff. So I traded $10 million for some barbecue. George got rich, and I got fat.”

– Stamey’s was featured on the Cooking Channel show “Man Fire Food” (via bbqboard) yesterday

– Well this sounds promising:

– Yet another list of best barbecue joints in America, this time from Smart Travel list (via Huffington Post). At least it’s pretty accurate for NC, both in the description of east vs. Lexington styles as well as the joints they choose

Where to Get It: Our resident North Carolinian editor says Allen & Son in Chapel Hill is quintessential, with large brick pits out back and telltale checkered oilcloth on the tables inside. Skylight Inn in Ayden earns Southern Living‘s high praises for its whole-hog approach. Locals laud Lexington Barbecue‘s wood-smoked, ketchup-laced pork shoulder; a roll to heap it on will cost you $0.17 extra, and some Cheerwine (a super-carbonated cherry soda native to the area) is the only proper accompaniment.

– From a few weeks back, Daniel Vaughn (aka bbqsnob) had the good fortune to explore whole hog barbecue through tasting it from Ed Mitchell, Samuel Jones, and Rodney Scott at The Big Apple BBQ event earlier this month

– Robert Moss explains smokers across the south in this article for Serious Eats (via)

– 8 Things to Eat at a Charlotte Knights game includes two barbecue items from Queen City Q – a pulled pork potato and a pulled pork sandwich

– Q4Fun figures out which beers from NoDa Brewing pairs best with various barbecue dishes

  • Pulled pork
  • Mustard sauce – Ramble on Red – counterbalances the acidity – competing flavors 
  • Vinegar sauce – Ramble on Red or Cavu 
  • KC style sauce – Hop Drop ‘n Roll 

– This Fourth of July, feel free to go with slaw as a side dish at your cookout

“Slaw is universal,” says John Shelton Reed, author of “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue .” “Slaw is part of the deal unless you ask not to have it.”

– Well this looks amazing: John Lewis of la Barbecue and Rodney Scott of Scott’s Bar-B-Que to smoke barbecue together in Charleston; too bad its on a Sunday and during the World Cup Final

Linkdown: 6/11/14

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All North Carolina errthang edition:

– Parker’s Barbecue of Greenville was selected to be the provider of barbecue for the U.S. Open this weekend in Pinehurst

– Interview with Tyson Ho, who is opening a Carolina-style, whole hog joint Arrogant Swine in Bushwick this summer (via)

What’s this I hear about you trying to get a Thai pitmaster? You’re not going to turn Northeastern Carolina ’cue into Southeast Asian ’cue are you?
I figured I’d put an ad out there in the Thai community. Southeast Asians have been cooking North Carolina barbecue for generations. In fact the single largest diaspora community of Degars, natives of the central Highlands of Vietnam, live in Greensboro N.C. The pits of Stamey’s Barbecue in Greensboro, which is historically the most significant and influential western Carolina barbecue spot in the region, are run by a pitmaster by the name of Pon, a Degar immigrant. Several decades of traditional North Carolina barbecue has been served [and cooked] by a Southeast Asian American.

I’m not sure I’ll find a Southeast Asian pitmaster but if I do, we would be continuing a long standing tradition.

– Here is also a travelogue of NC Barbecue from last summer by the author of the above post and the aforementioned Tyson Ho, presumably as research for his upcoming joint

– Rocky Mount’s Eastern Carolina BBQ Throw Down will be on Destination America’s competition/reality show “BBQ Pit Wars”

– The Blue Ridge BBQ and Music Festival in Tryon makes Thrillist’s Top 10 Barbecue Festivals in the Country; the 21st edition of the festival is this weekend

– A recap of last week’s Hog Happenin’ in Lincolnton, with a shot of Big Wayner on the header photo

– A video from USA Today on the True Cue guys

– PSA: As was the case last year, dads eat free at Queen City Q on Father’s Day. See you there!