Linkdown: 10/30/24 – Thank Goodness for a Firewall edition

Courtesy of WFAE

Featured: In case you missed it, Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby experienced a fire in their pit room late last week. It reportedly took 15 minutes to put out the fire but thankfully, the fire was contained by the firewall between the pitroom and the restaurant.

While in the immediate aftermath of the fire, the restaurant announced that it would be closed “indefinitely,” I’m happy to report that they are utilizing exterior pits and will reopen for their normal hours starting Wednesday (today!).

Eventually, Red Bridges will redo their pit room once they get through the insurance process. Thank goodness for that firewall, else we would’ve potentially lost an iconic barbecue restaurant that’s been around for nearly 80 years.

Native News

According to Edmar Simoes‘ Instagram, he has left Resident Culture and joined Flour Shop, a new American restaurant in the Montford neighborhood of Charlotte that utilizes a wood burning oven and emphasizes “a traditional style of cooking with fire while using the freshest, locally sourced ingredients.”

I reached out to Edmar and he confirmed the move and mentioned that he will be working on some sort of smoke special soon. So stay tuned.

Congrats to Longleaf Swine, who took home some awards in the recent News & Observer Raleigh’s Best List: Gold for Best Barbecue and Silver for Best Ribs & Best Chicken Wings

The Pik N Pig stall at the NC State Fair in Raleigh is always a popular stop

A recap of this past weekend’s Barbecue Festival in Lexington

In the afterglow of last weekend’s Concert for the Carolinas in Charlotte, here’s a great story on Eric Church’s early days playing at the old Woodlands Barbecue & Pickin’ Parlor in Blowing Rock from The State You’re In

Non-Native News

A couple of recent reviews from the ever-prolific friend of the blog, John Tanner, starting with smoked pastrami at ZZQ

…then he tried the Fletcher’s BBQ food truck that serves the Richmond area

…his most recent review is of Redemption BBQ in Short Pump, VA, which he proclaims may have the best pork in all of Virginia but don’t sleep on the Brunswick stew

Linkdown: 3/11/20

Mr. Barbecue is still on track to reopen in mid to late-May and the block mason started working on the pits as of early last week

Charlotte-based Mac’s Speed Shop names former Del Frisco’s vice president of operations George Shang Skipper as its president with the charge to expand their barbecue business

Duke’s Mayonnaise expands to barbecue sauce

Pik-N-Pig in Carthage is the rare combination of an airport-slash-barbecue joint

Franklin Barbecue Pits is targeting to begin shipping their first units by Memorial Day

Picnic is an essential restaurant in Durham, according to the News & Observer

The 10 best barbecue spots in Richmond according to travel site Trip Savvy

Micklewaith Barbecue’s Smithville location has closed after one year

Details on Carey Bringle’s new barbecue restaurant, called Bringle’s Smoking Oasis, which will focus on barbecue not-native to Tennessee and is eyeing a September opening

The stories behind six Charlotte-area barbecue joints; a re-up from last year from Charlotte Magazine

Linkdown: 4/24/19

Stephen Colbert donated $412,000 to NC hurricane aid relief for Hurricane Florence: “We all hope this will help the Carolinas recover from the disastrous weather of last fall”

The next TMBBQ Top 50 won’t be until 2021 but at the halfway point there’s this from Daniel Vaughn; Texas Monthly is now behind a paywall so don’t be surprised if you aren’t able to access

Pinehurst Brewing Co. hired away a former head brewer at Heist Brewery in Charlotte and is smoking pulled pork, brisket, and smoked chicken on site

Rodney Scott in a brief chat explains his philosophy

Ice Cube said, “Today was a good day.” You upped the ante and said, “Every day is a good day.” Can you please expound on that philosophy?
This is my personal belief to start off every day with a positive attitude. You made it through the day before, and now you have another chance to do great things. This applies to both my craft as a pitmaster and for my life as well. It helps me ignore any negativity and overcome the times when things get tough. I think to myself: “This isn’t a bad day. This is just a challenging part of a good day.” It also gives me the confidence to not take my time for granted and embrace learning new things.

Congrats to Midwood Smokehouse on their Charlotte Magazine BOB win

Sam Jones was mistaken for a car thief in Florida earlier this month

Jones Bar-B-Q and its sister pitmasters received the Queer Eye bump earlier this year and its brought business, fame, and love

Downtown Richmond is getting a new barbecue joint on Broad Street called Fatty Smokes

Mood:

Linkdown: 12/5/18

The “Milestone” Edition: In this week’s linkdown, we have links on a new barbecue restaurant opening,  a big expansion of an existing one, plus Chef Vivian Howard’s favorite eastern NC barbecue restaurants and a milestone birthday for the city of Charlotte.

Congrats to Sweet Lew’s BBQ on finally opening today!

Here’s more on what you can expect at Sweet Lew’s from Charlotte Five and Charlotte Agenda

Kathleen Purvis’ 10 food gifts locally made in Charlotte includes Ogre Sauce barbecue sauce

Ogre Sauce gets a shoutout on Mantry’s 6 best barbecue sauces list 

Tonight at 9pm ET on the Cooking Channel:

Chef Vivian Howard, a NC State grad who just finished her acclaimed PBS show “A Chef’s Life”, grew up in eastern NC and lives there now. You can bet she definitely knows her stuff when it comes to eastern NC barbecue.

Dave Grohl once again confirms that eastern NC style barbecue is his favorite

Sam Jones BBQ and The Redneck BBQ Lab get reviewed by the News and Observer

Speaking of Sam Jones BBQ, restaurant #2 is coming to Raleigh

Richmond’s best barbecue spots according to Richmond Magazine

Jamestown, NC is getting their own yuppie-cue barbecue restaurant in an old filling station next year in Black Powder Smokehouse

Congrats to Charlotte on turning 250 earlier this week!