Sam Jones

Linkdown: 2/24/16

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– Are black-owned barbecue joints dying?

– Tourism is booming in SC thanks in large part to barbecue

While multiple factors have boosted recent tourism growth in South Carolina, including a recovering economy and lower gas prices, Parrish said the influence of SCPRT’s DiSCover marketing campaign, which included promotion of the official South Carolina Barbecue Trail, also motivated travel.

– Over at Marie, Let’s Eat!, Grant visits two Georgia barbecue joints, Southern Soul in Saint Simons Island and Sandfly BBQ in Savannah

– Moore’s Old Tyme BBQ in New Bern is switching owners but thankfully still planning to cook with wood

– TMBBQ goes deep on the Mel-Man Sandwich, an East Texas specialty

– A couple more stories from Our State’s barbecue issue; B’s Barbecue

– …and Sam Jones’ new barbecue joint

Linkdown: 1/6/16

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– Daniel Vaughn’s best Texas barbecue bites in 2015

– Upcoming Durham restaurant openings include Picnic, a “modern take on barbecue joint” set to open in early February as well as a “biscuit and barbecue concept” at the American Tobacco Complex

– Franklin Barbecue is on this list of Austin restaurants that are opting out of open carry; on the other end of the spectrum, Brooks Place in Houston is giving open carry patrons 25% off

– Midwood Smokehouse is one of the restaurants who have expanded from the uptown area to the ‘burbs

– Duh:

– The year in Kansas City barbecue

– Rodney Scott gives thanks

Linkdown: 12/9/15

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– Robert Moss follows the mustard line from SC down through Georgia and into Florida

– If you are looking for a gift for the NC barbecue or beer lover in your life:

– Daniel Vaughn explores the greaseballs of Southwest Texas at Patillo’s Bar-B-Q

-Johnny Fugitt profiles Smokee Mo’s BBQ for St. Louis Magazine

– Marie, Let’s Eat! revisits the 50 year old Hickory Hut BBQ in Dallas, GA

– NPR’s The Salt food blog profiles Sam Jones’ new barbecue joint, Sam Jones BBQ

To understand the significance of Sam Jones BBQ, you have to understand the place in the barbecue firmament. And you have to start with barbecue’s place in the Tar Heel state. Aficionados regard North Carolina not only as a capital of barbecue, but a cradle of the cuisine. It is as central as basketball to the state’s identity.

But so many barbecue joints have replaced wood with gas that some folks feared the impending death of all-wood pit cooking. The North Carolina Barbecue Society estimated a few years ago that only 30 wood-pit barbecue restaurants were left in the state. To diehards, the demise of traditional wood-smoked barbecue in North Carolina would be tantamount to a death in the family. Maybe worse.

Linkdown: 9/23/15

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– Rodney Scott has influenced Sean Brock. Here’s how:

– The history of smoking with mesquite wood

– Marie, Let’s Eat! makes a quick sojourn to SC and visits Hite’s and Little Pigs in the Columbia area, as well as Dennis’ Bar-B-Q on the way back home

– Washington Post’s glossary of NC barbecue terms and where to eat in NC

– Washington Post’s Jim Shahin: Why North Carolina’s Barbecue Scene is Still Smoldering

North Carolina barbecue is certainly at a crossroads, one that gets to the heart of questions about identity and authenticity, and the survival of pit-smoked pork establishments that eschew the everything-for-everybody approach once seemed unlikely. But Skylight Inn and Lexington Barbecue are on track to maybe prove that prediction wrong. And new places such as Picnic and Buxton Hall are helping spark a resurgence in creativity and respect for heritage that may help revive the scene. North Carolina barbecue might someday be removed from the endangered-species list, after all. I’ll hold off on that autopsy for now.