Rock Hill

Charlotte-area Thanksgiving Specials

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Monk: This Thanksgiving, consider leaving the cooking to the professionals at these Charlotte-area barbecue joints. You also get the added benefit of supporting a local business while you take it easy because let’s face it, we should all take it easy when we can. See below for information.

Big Tiny’s BBQ – Mooresville, NC

The Dixie Pig – Rock Hill, SC

Farmhouse BBQ – Gastonia, NC

The Improper Pig – Charlotte, Fort Mill

Jon G’s Barbecue – Peachland, NC

Mac’s Speed Shop

Midwood Smokehouse

Noble Smoke

OooWee BBQ – Pineville

The Q Shack

RayNathan’s – Gastonia, NC

Rock Store BBQ – Stallings

The Smoke Pit – Concord, Gastonia, Monroe, Salisbury

Sweet Lew’s BBQ – deadline has already passed

Linkdown: 5/23/18

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– Congrats to our neighbors from Memphis in May, The Shed, on their Grand Championship win

– In case you hadn’t heard, Dave Grohl was all up in some Memphis in May this past weekend, particularly at our neighbor’s booth

– Pete’s BBQ in Rock Hill, which has served barbecue during four holidays of the year, is shutting down after 55 years of service after this Memorial Day Weekend; congrats to the 98-year-old Pete Wheele’s on his retirement!

– Raleigh is a favorite away game for this Pittsburgh Penguins blogger in part due to the barbecue

– Eat Raleigh has a short blurb on Sam Jones BBQ at the Thrive NC festival earlier in May

– Is Charleston barbecue slowly taking over the southeast? Both Home Team BBQ (Columbia) and Rodney Scott’s BBQ (Birmingham) announced expansions last week

– All Swig & Swine Charleston-area locations will have $4 sandwiches on May 30 to celebrate 4 years; proceeds will go to Hogs for the Cause

– This NC travel guide from a British paper mentions barbecue (particularly Sam Jones BBQ) as as reason why North Carolina should be your next adventure

– This looks very, very promising

– RIP Mama Dip

 

The Dixie Pig – Rock Hill, SC

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Name: The Dixie Pig
Location: 2007 Celanese Rd, Rock Hill, SC 29732
Date: 7/20/15
Order: Pork platter with hash and red slaw, half rack of ribs
Price: Monk: $27

We’ve long ago established that we don’t trust Yelp reviews when it comes to to barbecue. However, when I come across a new joint I do admit that I sometimes use the site as a reference. After my experience at The Dixie Pig in Rock Hill, SC (4.7 stars on the site), I think I have written off Yelp even more so in terms of barbecue credibility.

On a Monday shortly after 12 noon, I walked into a small restaurant with a full lunch crowd. If the locals are packing a place in, well that’s usually a good sign. I took a spot at the bar and before long all tables and spots at the bar were filled. It turned out to be downhill from there, but I will say that the service at the bar was good at least.

I asked for the pork with the sauce on the side in the event that it came out drenched in the stuff as other plates seemed to be. The meat appeared to have been held under a heat lamp for a while prior to serving. Plus there was no bark or smoke. I peeked into the kitchen from the bar and saw a Southern Pride gas smoker in the back. You can usually coax some smoke out of a Southern Pride with some wood chunks during the process, but it was as if they hadn’t even tried that. I simply couldn’t finish my serving.

I added a half rack of ribs to my order since there was no combo platters available. The meat fell off the bone when I picked up a rib which could be indicative of boiling of ribs before cooking them. Either way, they were way overcooked and were just about on par with the pork, which is to say not so good.

Sides were a mixed bag. The red slaw lacked tang and had a weird sweetness to them (likely due to excess ketchup but that alone may not have accounted for the taste). I’m no hash and rice expert, but at least this version seemed to be ok. That and the two hush puppies that came with the platter were by far the best part of the meal.

I can only imagine why this place was so packed and had a line of folks waiting to be seated by the time I left. Smokeless, dry pork and ribs with the consistency of boiled ribs: that’s what you are in for if you stop into The Dixie Pig in Rock Hill. What a disappointing meal.

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 1.5 hogs
Ribs – 1.5 hogs
Sides – 2 hogs
Overall – 2 hogs
Click to add a blog post for Dixie Pig on Zomato

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Linkdown: 4/15/15

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– San Francisco gets (presumably) its first Lexington-style barbecue joint, Rusty’s Southern

Prior to the restaurant’s opening, the Olsons and Rubio did restaurant recon by visiting various barbecue joints in the Carolinas, including Wayne Monk’s famous, Beard Award-winning Lexington Barbecue in Lexington, NC. They were so impressed with Monk’s barbecue that this is the style they decided to emulate.

– 150 years ago, Raleigh did not burn. Why? Barbecue.

Union Gen. William T. Sherman stormed back into Raleigh on Monday, 150 years from the day the city was captured at the Civil War’s end, but there were a few differences this time.

Unlike the situation on April 13, 1865, this Sherman had to wait for permission to enter the North Carolina Executive Mansion. But just as he did then, Sherman reassured Raleighites that he had no intention of burning the city, a fate some Confederate cities had suffered during his drive through Georgia and the Carolinas.

“Raleigh, I didn’t burn it,” said Sherman, played by actor Ira David Wood III. “You want to know why? Barbecue.”

– Speaking of Raleigh:

– The Come-See-Me Festival in Rock Hill features the 8th annual Barbecue Cook-Off

– Barbecue beef and brisket has started to invade the Cape Fear region in eastern NC

– In DC, three Republican congressmen filed with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday an “Americans for BBQ” fundraising committee.

– Things are continuing to shape up at the Ballantyne Midwood Smokehouse