Robert Moss

Linkdown: 5/6/15

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– Charlotte Agenda’s 12 things they learned from a short conversation with pitmaster Matt Barry and owner Frank Scibelli

(1) Midwood Smokehouse will open more restaurants. Frank is about to ton it with the sale of Bad Daddy’s. $21 million. He struck me as incredibly smart and he’ll use some of this cash to open more locations. Sounds like Columbia, SC is in the cards for 2016 and a Southpark location could happen soon(ish). I tried to grill him about the Bad Daddy’s sale and Southpark location, but as charming as I am, he didn’t give me anything juicy.

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Golden Rule Bar-B-Que, one of the oldest restaurants in the southeast, dating back to 1891

– The Smoking Ho reviews Aaron Franklin’s new book Franklin Barbecue: A Meat Smoking Manifesto

– Q 4 Fun reviews The Ultimate Book of BBQ by NC pitmaster Christopher Prieto

– Daniel Vaughn helped Sam Jones smoke a whole hog at BBQ on the Neuse this past weekend

– Robert Moss’s list of underrated SC barbecue for First We Feast

– Speaking of Robert Moss, his new book Barbecue Lover’s the Carolinas is out tomorrow

Linkdown: 4/1/15

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– It’s Saw’s BBQ in Birmingham, AL vs Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, NC for the championship in Garden and Gun’s Ultimate Barbecue Bracket Challenge; vote until 10pm ET Thursday

– RIP Old Hickory House – it is closing in large part due to the light rail blue line extension construction slowing down business but could reopen somewhere else; CBJ’s article on the closing

Old Hickory House BBQ will close its doors for good on April 4. The well-known, family-run barbecue joint has been in business since 1957, and has operated at its current spot at 6538 N. Tryon since 1972.

– Ed Mitchell’s whole hog barbecue is now available at Midwood Smokehouse as of 5pm on Monday:

– Speaking of Midwood, looks like things are starting to take shape at their forthcoming Ballantyne location

– A few barbecue terms you may not be aware of, including “dip” and “outside brown”

– More on the recently uncovered Lexington barbecue pits from Our State Magazine

Sure, the halls of City Hall are lined with Barbecue Festival posters going back to the first one, in 1984, and there’s a little pig statuette across from the municipal cashier’s desk, but the outside is just boring, a squat one-story yawn of an office with a pointed gray roof and white stucco that sounds hollow when you tap it. And even here there is barbecue, archaeologically speaking. “They found the pit,” Vinson says, really punching the last word.

– Marie, Let’s Eat! takes in Bama Boys BBQ in Henagar, AL and Sugar’s Ribs in Chattanooga, TN

– From the sports world, the latest in the “bbq”/”barbecue” vs “cookout” debate

Linkdown: 3/25/15

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– The “Elite Ate” of Garden and Gun’s Barbecue Bracket has been posted; in the Mid Atlantic region Skylight Inn has been eliminated by Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge and faces Lexington Barbecue. The rest of the bracket is located here and voting ends Thursday at 10pm

– Speaking of brackets and barbecue, Red Clay Soul’s Georgia BBQ Bracket Challenge is also down to its “Great Eight”

– Last week, Robert Moss took a deeper look at barbecue spaghetti in Memphis

– Marie, Let’s Eat! stops at Hodges Bar-B-Que in Decatur, GA and Blue Sky Barbecue in Woodstock, GA in two of his latest chapters

– The pitmasters for the 2015 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party have been announced, and Ed Mitchell is not attending this year

– Another reminder that the NCBBQA cooking and judging school is this Saturday, March 28

– Aaron Franklin is a James Beard finalist for Best Chef: South

– If, like me, you are less than familiar with Alabama and Georgia barbecue, here’s a primer

When it comes to regional barbecue, some people claim that neither Georgia nor Alabama has a distinctive style. We say, think again.

Sure, you can find everything from Texas brisket to Memphis ribs in Atlanta, but on the two-lane highways, a definite Georgia style emerges. Pork shoulders or hams are cooked over hickory and dressed in a thin tomato-and-vinegar sauce. They’re served with Brunswick stew, a hearty combination of chicken, beef, or pork (or all three) simmered with tomatoes and corn. Some of these elements carry over into Alabama—chopped pork dressed in tomato-and-vinegar sauce, plus a somewhat thinner Brunswick stew. But there’s too much variation to identify a single Alabama style. Sauces range from ruddy, tomato-based mixtures to thick mustard-spiked concoctions. Most distinctive is Alabama’s mayonnaise-based white sauce. Some are traditional, others more modern, but one element unites: They’re all delicious.

Linkdown: 2/11/15

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– Our State ruminates on the barbecue sandwich, deconstructed

– In this week’s blog for The Daily South, Robert Moss profiles a NASA scientist by day, and whole hog barbecue pitmaster by night

A career in engineering took Howard Conyers a long way from Paxville: to an undergraduate degree at North Carolina A&T followed by a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and materials science from Duke, and then to Louisiana. “I finished my Ph.D. and took my first job at Stennis,” Conyers says. “I lived in Slidell for a year and then moved to New Orleans.” Somewhere along the way, he started to miss his family’s style of whole hog barbecue. “I realized I had left something back home that is unique and special,” he says.

– Tyson Ho writes about the importance of mentors – barbecue and otherwise – in his latest blog for Serious Eats; he also spills the beans on the origins of the name Arrogant Swine

(If you’re wondering, the name came about when we were trying to find a pig-based url for my website. A whole hog joint needs a pig name, and url squatters had most of them. I tried every color pig.com, every variant spelling of hog, all to no luck. Then one day I walked past a poster for a beer called the “Arrogant Bastard Ale.” I wondered if Arrogant Swine was available, and it was, so that became my name.)

– Smoke Modern Barbeque is a new barbecue restaurant in Huntersville from Charlotte restaurateur Dennis Thompson, who is involved in Firebirds Wood Fire Grill and Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar; it opened on Monday

– …aaaand they already have a second location planned, slated to open in July in Ballantyne

– In more expansion news, Queen City Q is opening a second location in Matthews

– Sad news out of DC, as barbecue legend Mr. P (originally from NC) was taken off of life support earlier this week

– TMBBQ goes deep on best naner pudding in Texas, though I disagree with their assertion on NC naner pudding – its been served cold everywhere I’ve ever been

First, though, let’s talk about what unifies banana pudding in Texas. That’s temperature. If you venture over to North Carolina, it’ll come piping hot and covered in meringue, but in Texas it’s served straight from the fridge.

– JC Reid from the Houston Chronicle talks about the importance of wood and smoke (via TMBBQ)

– In other Texas barbecue news, The Dallas Observer is looking for a barbecue writer

– Smoky Oak Taproom, a Charleston barbecue restaurant with an impressive tap list, to open a location in Florence, SC

– Want to win a $100 gift card to The Pit Durham?