Real Q

The 6 best things I ate in 2025

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Monk: Closing the book on 2025 with a round up of the best things I ate last year. As it turns out, the list is equally weighted between barbecue from the first half of the year and the second. On to 2026!

6. Smoked brisket burger from Dampf Good BBQ (review)

While there was a lot to like at Dampf Good BBQ earlier this year, the smoked brisket burger took the cake over the brisket, ribs, and sausage. So much so that I forgot to take photos of it until I had taken a few bites of the delicious burger made from smoked brisket trimmings and topped with cheese, pickles, and mayo on a potato bun. It was a special on that day, but be on the look out if you are checking them out in Cary.

5. Chopped Lexington-style barbecue from Real Q (review)

It’s always good to strike a classic style Lexington barbecue off my longtime list. Real Q blends old school Piedmont dining with a decor that is unmistakably Winston-Salem through its depictions of Texas Pete and the tobacco industry that once drove the economic engine of the town. The chopped pork even turned the youngest Monkette into a believer.

4. Smoked Berkshire pork chop from Slow Bone (review)

The smoked Berkshire pork chop from Slow Bone in Dallas is a Sunday/Monday special that takes 3 weeks of prep work from initial seasoning to two separate stints of brining with a smoking between them before being finished on a flat top once they are ordered. While the complexity of that process may be lost on a lot of patrons who enter the door, I’m sure at the very least they can appreciate the juicy, flavorful pork chop placed before them.

3. Beef cheek from Owens & Hull (review)

I live by a simple rule: if I see beef cheeks on the menu, I’m going to buy it. Maybe I’ve been lucky but the two places I’ve tried – Palmira Barbecue in Charleston and Owens & Hull in Smyrna – have put out some seriously tasty renditions that are must orders at their respective restaurants.

2. Whole hog from Wilber’s Barbecue

A somewhat unexpected pop up brought some delicious eastern NC whole hog from Goldsboro to Charlotte just before Christmas. Wilber’s rented a Penske truck with coolers full of barbecue, brisket, ribs, turkey, slaw, hush puppies, Brunswick stew, naner pudding, and sides and set up a pick up spot behind the old Manor Theatre. For anyone who took advantage, they got a taste of whole hog barbecue that you just don’t get here in Charlotte.

1. Chopped pork with crispy skins from City Limits Barbeque (review)

Robbie Robinson mixes in pork belly with his whole pork shoulders and then chops in some crispy skin to finish it off. As I predicted back in June, it was going to take a lot to knock this sandwich from the West Columbia restaurant off its perch as my favorite bite of barbecue in 2025. And as it turns out, nothing did. Can’t wait to get back to City Limits soon.

Linkdown: 10/6/21

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Recently, friend of the blog John Tanner (of John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog) ate his way across the piedmont of North Carolina while making stops on the NC Historic Barbecue Trail in honor of the late Jim Early. Early was the founder of the North Carolina Barbecue Society and driving force behind the NC Historic Barbecue Trail.

Notably, he makes a stop at our friends at Bar-B-Q King in Lincolnton where he delights in the “hollerin’ orders” system and has a great meal. Follow John’s journey below.

Native News

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s BBQ Bowl Week

Non-Native News

Has Texas Brisket Peaked?

Speaking of brisket, Tales from the Pits unveils their top 5 barbecue spots in Texas

The 38th Annual Collard & BBQ Festival was held this past weekend in Gaston, SC

Husk Barbeque in Greenville, SC closed earlier this week

What you can expect at Virgil’s Real Barbecue in Las Vegas

The legend of Joe Burney

Black Smoke cookout and book signing next Sunday in Denver

Southern Soul’s Firebox BBQ Festival was held this past weekend; notice anything about the photo?

Linkdown: 2/21/18

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– Congrats to Sam Jones on his James Beard nomination!

– Two other barbecue chefs got nominations as well including Rodney Scott of Rodney Scott’s BBQ in Charleston and Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, TX; Ronnie Killen was also nominated but technically for his new steakhouse, Killen’s STQ

– Texas Monthly has more on Tootsie’s nomination

– A new barbecue restaurant recently opened in Darlington, SC named Fahrenheit 225

– Guy Fieri is curating a lineup of “barbecue badasses” for the country music festival Stagecoach in Indio, CA in late Apil – though the actual list itself doesn’t live up to that billing

– Harold Conyers, a NASA scientist who studied engineering at NC A&T for undergrad and Duke for grad, recently gave a keynote at Morris College in South Carolina

– How Frank Scibelli, restaurateur behind Midwood Smokehouse, Mama Ricotta’s, and Paco’s Tacos (and more), works each day

– The folks behind Seoul Food Meat Co are opening a korean barbecue restaurant next door, targeting later this month

– Owner Rob Berrier announced last month that the Little Richard’s BBQ stores on County Club Drive in Winston-Salem and in Wallburg have changed their names to Real Q; the remaining four Little Richard’s locations separately owned by Nick Karagiorgis and his son Stavros will keep the Little Richard’s name. Read more for the somewhat confusing history behind the ownership of the different locations at the link below.