Linkdown: 3/16/16

– John Shelton Reed of True Cue in the New York Times on North Carolina and the Politics of Barbecue

– Thrillist releases the 2016 Best BBQ in America and it includes 4 from NC:  Lexington Barbecue, Allen & Son in Chapel Hill, Red Bridges in Shelby, and Skylight Inn in Ayden; there’s also a bracket contest you can vote in

– Local coverage of Allen & Son making the list

– Thrillist Charlotte’s list of best barbecue restaurants in the city include a closed restaurant (Bobbee O’s), a national chain (Jim N Nick’s), and a few other questionable choices

– Grant visits Carl’s Drive-Inn near Knoxville, which despite some old signage doesn’t actually sell its own pit-cooked barbecue anymore

– Queen City Q’s Whiskey & BBQ event is tonight

– Meanwhile, Midwood Smokehouse’s Wine & Swine Dinner (also tonight) is sold out:

– Speaking of wine and barbecue, the future of barbecue in Charleston after this past weekend’s Charleston Wine + Food Festival

The Charleston Wine + Food events, I think, offered a sort of preview of the future of barbecue in one of the South’s great culinary cities. At least a half dozen new barbecue joints have opened in the city in the past year, and several more are still in the works. Their fare is as diverse and ambitious as the dishes served up at the festival, and in an upcoming installment we’ll take a survey of this evolving Charleston barbecue restaurant scene.

Linkdown: 3/9/16

– Friend of the blog Sarah Crosland has a couple of pork and cocktail pairings from Customshop and the Ballantyne Hotel’s Gallery Restaurant included in this list of Charlotte’s top cocktail and food pairings

– A London publication’s view on the 32 best barbecue restaurants in the American South

– Sam Jones gets profiled in the Raleigh News & Observer

It’s not as if more upscale barbecue restaurants don’t exist – look at the Pit in Raleigh and Durham or Ed Mitchell’s former ’Que in Durham or just about any barbecue restaurant in New York or other large cities. (Let’s be clear: it doesn’t take much to step up from the linoleum-floor, vinyl-seat charm of the old-school places.) It’s just that in this part of the world, east of I-95, Sam Jones Barbecue is the outlier. He’s changing the definition of what a whole-hog barbecue restaurant can be in the part of the world most identified by the tradition.

– According to John Lewis

– Home Team BBQ opened its new location in downtown Charleston yesterday and Eater has what you can expect

– Barbecue and whiskey event at Queen City Q’s Ballantyne location

Linkdown: 2/24/16

– 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: 2/17/16

An interview with John Lewis ahead of his move  to bring Texas barbecue to Charleston

– Grant writes about fantastic barbecue around SC for Tabelog

– Speaking of Tabelog, Monk also wrote an article for them on underrated barbecue restaurants in NC

– Over on Marie, Let’s Eat! he revisits Old Clinton Bar-B-Q in Gray, GA

– Picnic, Midwood Smokehouse, and The Improper Pig all mentioned:

– Seoul Food Meat Co, a new restaurant with a “traditional BBQ menu…with an asian twist”, is set to open for dinner sometime this week in Charlotte

– EDIA Maps, the folks behind the Great NC BBQ and Beer Maps, is creating a Charlotte Adventure Map

– It’s been too long; I need to get back to Red Bridges